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Craft Distillery

industry, they did not want to be known as distill-
ers who purchased other producers’ wares and sold
them as their own. “Making a spirit from the plant
or the grain all the way to the bottle is important
to us. If we can use ingredients from our region, all
the better,” Anderson said.

Anderson connected with Reynolds because he
sees him leading the charge in growing agave
plants in the United States. “We have an opportu-
nity to grow new and interesting varieties that are
new to the U.S. market and are different and high-
er quality than all those gold tequilas on the shelf,”
Reynolds said.

Senior and Anderson started experimenting with
their fermentation techniques to see if they could
make something work. “The agave sugars are such
that most yeasts can’t easily consume the sugars
to produce alcohol. We have to make sure we
and soil conditions. Also, as this plant requires very have the correct yeast and that the yeast is healthy
little water, it can be an ideal crop for drought- before pitching it into the agave fermentation,”
prone areas. Depending on the species, agave said Senior.
plants take between five to eight years to mature.
Hence, growers need to allow time before seeing a After purchasing the raw agave plants, brought
return on their investment. over the Sierra Nevada in a boat, Senior steams
the agave hearts in a mash tun for a few days until
Because the agave spirits industry is still in its the plants are soft and sweet. Next, they send the
infancy, Reynolds sells his agave to distillers via plants through a wood chipper to shred the hearts
word of mouth. Also, he custom cooks his agave in and allow the yeast easy access to all the agave
a traditional stone pit for clients upon request. sugars. They add these agave fibers to a fermenta-
tion tank with pure alpine water, pitch yeast, add
Reynolds’ clients include Karl Anderson and nutrients and allow the fermentation to proceed.
Jason Senior, co-founders of Shelter Distilling in Once fermentation is completed, and sugar has
Mammoth Lakes, California. Anderson became been converted into alcohol, they pump the liquid
interested in agave spirits after one of his investors, and fibers into the still.
coming from a long line of landscape artists, had a
friend pull a 700-pound Agave Americana from his Then, they distill the agave wash twice in a hybrid
yard and donate it to Shelter Distilling for experi- pot still. The first distillation is a quick run to sep-
mentation. Typically, this variety of agave is used in arate the solids and water from the alcohol and
landscaping, but is now harvested for distilling pur- flavor components. The second run is the slow fin-
poses in the U.S. ishing distillation, where they separate the heads
and tails from the hearts of the spirit. “The nice
Agave Americano produces flavors more in line flavors of an agave spirit really only come out when
with mezcal’s earthiness and vegetal notes than the agave fibers are in the fermentation and distil-
Blue Weber Agave Tequila. However, due to the lation,” said Senior.
scarcity of this particular species being used for dis-
tilling, Anderson and Senior began buying Organic Shelter Distilling primarily set up its distillery
Blue Agave Nectar from Mexico in 50-gallon drums. for using malted barley as a raw ingredient. As it
“Unlike grain, fermenting agave nectar is really dif- doesn’t have room to install a dedicated facility for
ficult due to the lack of nutrients,” Senior said. processing agave, Senior finds making agave spirits
time-consuming and labor-intensive. “It’s not just
As Anderson and Senior came from the craft beer dumping bags of barley into a mill. It’s chopping,

40 April - May 2022 BEVERAGE MASTER

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