When the people behind Chattanooga Whiskey started asking questions, good things happened
The Answer is Yes Written by CARRIE DOW Photos provided by CHATTANOOGA WHISKEY
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t started with a Facebook post: “Would you drink Chattanooga whiskey?” That was the question Tim Piersant and Joe Ledbetter asked their fellow citizens when the two young entrepreneurs thought about creating a whiskey distillery back in 2009. There was one roadblock in their path, however. Hamilton County, home to Chattanooga, was one of many Tennessee counties where distilling was illegal and had been since Prohibition. They had work to do.
They launched an online campaign called “Vote Whiskey” so they could update Tennessee’s distilling laws. Their motto: “Rules are good. Let’s change them.” The campaign roused community support, especially when they posted that simple question. It was genius because the only answer is “yes.” As a distilling bill moved through the state legislature, Piersant and Ledbetter went ahead and incorporated Chattanooga Whiskey in 2011. That’s because even though distilling whiskey was illegal, selling it was not. To get the ball rolling, they brought in a pre-Prohibition-style whiskey from out of state to exemplify the type of whiskey that would have been made in Tennessee back then. Called 1816, Chattanooga residents eagerly snapped it up. In 2013, after two years of lobbying, committee meetings, and the general slow nature of the legislative process, HB 102 — aka the Whiskey Bill — passed, allowing the possibility of distilling throughout Tennessee. Piersant and Ledbetter didn’t just chart a path for their own business; They opened distilling to the entire state. Shortly after this victory, chief product officer Grant McCracken came on board. McCracken was at Boston Beer Company when he saw the job notice. “I had a certification in distilling, but my career prior was in craft brewing,” he explained, resetting the brown and white trucker hat on top of his head. “I essentially got recruited to the company through their marketing campaign as well. I see ‘Rules are good. Change them.’ I liked the sound of that.”
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