New Rules, New Distilleries When Florida unlocked restrictions around craft distilling a decade ago, some enterprising people in Jacksonville — Florida’s largest city — jumped in, creating a robust industry today. Written and photographed by Carrie Dow
DISTILLERY:
Grey Matter
W
hile it seems like craft distilleries have proliferated in every corner of the country, it’s easy to forget some states still make opening one extremely difficult. But as America’s appetite for unique local spirits increases, many states are rethinking the laws on their books that have governed spirits production since Prohibition. Florida is one such state. Today, Florida’s spirits business is booming, not only creating new businesses and revenue, but delicious new products for people to enjoy. One destination where that is most evident is in Florida’s largest, most populous city: Jacksonville, where there are seven craft distilleries. Here are three of their stories.
WEBSITE: www.g reymatterdistillery.com
OWNER: Paul Grey FOUNDED: 2014 NEIGHBORHOOD: Jacksonville Beach EMPLOYEES: 1 WHERE THE NAME CAME FROM:
A friend suggested it because his last name is Grey
FLAGSHIP PRODUCT: Carve Vodka WHAT ELSE: Live Oak Whiskey,
Mayport Moonshine, and Ribault Rum
AVAILABILITY: Carve Vodka in
stores around Northeast Florida, everything else at the distillery
When the State of Florida loosened the restrictions around craft distilling a decade ago, Paul Grey of Grey Matter Distillery was the first in Jacksonville to jump in. “We were the first craft distillery to start in Jacksonville,” he said. “Which is really cool because we didn’t have the money and budget of a lot of people that started in this industry.” W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M
An Atlanta transplant, Grey admits that surfing is what initially drew him to the area. He was in medical sales when the idea of a vodka distillery came to him since vodka is his tipple of choice. He bought a book called “How to Start a Micro-Distillery for Under $50,000” by Thomas Germann to learn more. “It’s like this thin,” he said with a laugh holding his index finger and thumb a centimeter apart. “I did open for a little over that, but we still did it on a very small budget.” Grey also took a weeklong distilling class
from Six and Twenty Distillery in Greenville, South Carolina, thinking he would only learn about the distilling process. Instead, they offered a program that covered not only all kinds of spirits, but every aspect of the business. “They had a day for whiskey production,” he began. “It was cool, but I was like, ‘I don’t care about this because I just wanted to make vodka.’ I wasn’t passionate about whiskey at the time. Then they had a whole day on rules 101