Riding on the coattails of craft beer, is Reno's new distillery boom. It's been just a matter of months since a change in state law allowed distilleries to export and sell more to local customers. Before that, there were only 5 craft distilleries in all of Nevada. Today there are 8 in northern Nevada alone…soon to be 10. As Yelp Reno Community Manager Michael Tragash told us, the boom is “An opportunity for distillers, and an opportunity for all of us to have a whole lot more great products in our state and a lot more to be proud of."
There's even one being built in Minden, the Bently Distillery. There’s the Frey Distillery in Fallon...and there's a new one in Verdi. In what 2 years ago was somebody's house on Highway 40, Jeremy Baumann is now living his dream. One of his creations: “Pumpkin cinnamon whiskey. We call it the headless horseman." And now Jeremy can afford to sell it. Before the new law, you could only buy 2 bottles per month at a craft distillery. Today, Jeremy can sell "Six cases a year." Did the change make it more viable for him to open? "Oh yeah definitely, especially around the holidays."
But first there has to be a demand. Michael from Yelp says it's long been there: "Oh yeah. The rise in whiskey consumption in the last years has been epic." Jeremy agreed: "We can't keep up with it. I mean, we had 260 cases of Headless Horseman go out and we're just on top of it all the time just bottling, bottling, bottling."
On east Fourth Street, The Depot’s Justin Stafford got the first craft distillery license, right after the law changed. As he told us, "It just happened to work out that the craft distilling license had become available."
And why not export more of these hometown products, like The Depot’s Silver Corn Whiskey and their Biggest Little Bourbon? Why limit how much a Reno distillery can sell to, say a Sacramento bar? And changing that law has also boosted our tourism. Stafford told us, “We get a lot of folks trying it out from Sacramento, the San Francisco area. They’re coming here, absolutely. I mean, we get quite a few visitors."
These distillers think there's even more the state could do. Back in Verdi, Jeremy Baumann already wants to expand: "I think if we had another location where we could sell. We can’t do that now.”
In the meantime, it’s an industry of craftsman looking for more support...something else that is putting Reno on the map. As Yelp’s Tragash told us, "Give your local spirits some love, learn to appreciate them, and talk to the people producing them. Get to know them on a one-to-one level and get connected with them."
And you can get to know the experts in this burgeoning new industry on a one-to-one level yourself, with Yelp's Great Whiskey Hunt from now to next Friday the 13th. For opportunities to sample and enjoy, just click below:
http://www.yelp.com/events/reno-yelps-great-reno-whiskey-hunt-2015
