It’s getting easier to find top-notch, handcrafted whiskey, bourbon, vodka, and other spirits made in the U.S. With more than 1,500 craft distillers across the country, the American spirits movement is on the rise, and in Vermont, the industry is booming.
Over the past 15 years, the number of licensed distilleries in the Green Mountain State has increased nearly tenfold: from just three to more than 24, according to Vermont’s Distilled Spirits Council.
But a new distillery in northern Vermont isn’t just manufacturing spirits. It’s raising the spirits of the community, especially when it comes to veterans.
In an industrial garage in St. Albans, Steve Gagner uses an electric pump to transfer clear, strong-smelling liquid from a tank to a white oak barrel.
“Alright, so we’re opening the valve from the spirit tank to the pump, positioning the nozzle over the barrel, and now we fill for 33 gallons,” he explains.
Open this barrel in a year or two, and you’ll taste one of the first batches of bourbon from Danger Close Craft Distilling.
Steve Gagner fills one of the first barrels of bourbon from Danger Close Craft Distilling in St. Albans, Vt.
(photo Zachariah Fike)
“Danger Close” is a military term for when you need to call in the artillery and they need to know that the enemy is close to your position, Gagner says.
Gagner knows the meaning of danger close firsthand. He’s a major in the Vermont Army National Guard, and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. After returning, he and fellow Army buddy Matt Kehaya started 14th Star Brewing Company in downtown St. Albans in 2011.
Six years later, they barreled their first Danger Close bourbon. Gagner says a distillery was a logical next step.
“We already have a facility where we can brew world-class beer, and so we didn’t have to replicate that to create this place,” Gagner says.
Read the whole article at NPR
Source: Rebecca Sheir/NPR
Main Image Photo Credit: Steve Gagner (Zac Fike (L) and Matt Kehaya (R) work on a batch of beer at 14th Star Brewing Company. 14th Star donates some of its proceeds to local nonprofits.)
