Susan Spagnuolo prepares a shake-up.
with 100 percent of the grains purchased from Indiana farmers.
“ We went out of our way to make sure that everything was local, from our products to our equipment,” Mike said.“ That wasn’ t easy to do, but it was very important to us.”
So far, they have sold about 3,000 bottles, and have introduced hundreds of new customers to their smooth corn whiskey in the distillery’ s tasting room. Surrounded by prohibition-era jugs and stills and a bar made of Brown County red oak milled just a few miles away, guests can watch the still in action through a wall of windows.
Visitors can taste the pure whiskey, but can also try it mixed with numerous flavors in what the Spagnuolos call Moonshine Shake-ups. Susan said the most popular shake-ups so far have been caramel apple pie, hot apple pie, and pumpkin.
“ The cocktails are wildly popular,” she said.“ We want to show people that you can use a good smooth whiskey in a cocktail instead of rum, tequila, or vodka.”
Along with three choices of whiskey, customers can purchase numerous flavored syrups and elixirs, used to make the shake-ups. The Spagnuolos even send customers home with the recipes.
After their first visit and tasting the Bloody Moonshine Mary Shake-up, Beth and Ron Sweet of Morgantown plan to become regular customers.
“ It’ s really delicious,” Beth said.“ You can taste the moonshine and it’ s really smooth.”
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Mike Spagnuolo checks out the bourbon.
Nov./ Dec. 2014 • Our Brown County 39