Liquor & Legacy

CY DISTILLERY: The craft of making liquor the way your grandpa did

Story & Photo by Lizz Daniels

Liquor is so mainstream in our society that its true impact is often overlooked. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States lasted from 1920 to 1933 and brought about colorful historical stories from Rum Runners to gangsters like Al Capone.

People use liquor to celebrate, to grieve, and of course, to have fun. They drink it in wine glasses, in bottles, and as shots, but the alcohol itself is produced a single drop at a time.

CY Distillery owner Brent Covey understands the intricacies of liquor, from the nuanced differences in flavor to the social implications of its use. Covey’s background is in the oil and gas industry, but a by-product of his world-travels for work was learning a lot about global alcohol culture. His first interest in distilling, however, began at home.

“My dad and I made beer and wine growing up, so I got a pretty good understanding of that process,” said Covey. “Then when I lived in Saudi Arabia, well, it’s a dry country, so you make do and you make what you can. So we made bath tub gin and vodka.”

Much like Americans found ways to get their liquor during the prohibition, influential Saudi Arabian locals could access what otherwise might be impossible via the black market. Covey and the friends he met while there were sometimes lucky enough to gain access to the illegally imported products.

“We’d have big tastings where everybody would bring their tastings and its all the ex-pats all hanging out together,” said Covey. “That’s where I really cut my teeth on it. It gives me shivers thinking about it.”

A lot has changed in the world since Covey’s adventures in the Middle East. Life led him away from his position as a Global Manager for one of the world’s largest oil service companies and down a very different path.

“I always told my teams if you don’t enjoy it, if you don’t love it, get out,” said Covey. “So, I got out, and here I am. We’re a totally unconventional distillery. Our business isn’t - have a bar - our business is: make good whiskey. Make good vodka. Have some fun –– that’s what it’s about. We over 20 times distill it, but also, while we’re distilling it, we have an intense filtration process that we use afterwards to clean any particular batter out of the vodka. We like it and everybody says it’s smooth, it’s clean. That’s what we are.”

The graphic which forms the CY Distillery logo is Covey’s family brand and came from his grandfather and his family, an immigrant from Northern Ireland. The same simple cattle brand they brought with them all those years ago now adorns CY Distillery bottles, which are designed to reflect Covey’s past in the oil industry.

“The still is named George after my grandfather,” said Covey. “When he was a child, he came over from Northern Ireland and brought the brand to North America and that’s why we named it George. My kids will be the fourth generation to hold the brand. That is near and dear to my heart because my dad has eleven brothers and sisters, and this is their legacy as well as my own and my kids’ legacy, so anything I put it on, I get really protective of.”

To that end, Covey takes tremendous care in the crafting process, tasting the product multiple times during the distillation to make sure that the flavor profile is correct to provide a smooth final product.

Heads, hearts, and tails might sound like a simple thing to understand, but in liquor production, they have specific meanings and roles in the process. Heads are the first part of the alcohol collected and often have a fruity taste. Hearts are the primary distillate collected during distillation. They are crucial because they contain the most desirable flavor profile. Finally, tails come at the end and are much heavier than the rest of the alcohols with higher water content.

The wrong combination of heads, hearts and tails can yield unwanted results.

“We cut out the heads and the tails and only keep the hearts,” said Covey. “When you’re buying some ten buck Chuck at the liquor store, you taste that burn, get that headache, that’s from the bad liquors being left in the mash because that’s a volume game. Twenty-five percent of what we make turns into liquor. Seventy-five percent turns into cow feed, and we feed our cows on the property. We sell halves of beef from the farm side. Now, I take out, two to three times a week, three hundred gallons of grains. I feed them out and they lap it up and my cattle are the fattest cows in Texas.”

And it’s not just that the grains feed the cattle; they are purchased from a farmer in Seguin –– the coffee beans for their coffee liquor are from Seguin Coffee Co., and now, CY Distillery products are available in liquor stores across the area.

It’s a farm-fresh production from start to finish, and the public is invited to check it out. It truly isn’t a “bar” as you know it - it’s an experience. The still is open-air, so visitors can see, hear and smell the liquor as it is made.

“If people want to come out here and they’re good people, then by all means, come on out,” said Covey. “Enjoy it. Bring a horse if you want to. Bring your family, bring your kids. I got kids. We have a waiver we have people sign so that if they want to go climb hay bales –– that was one of best things growing up on a farm like I did –– and so that’s what we want. You know Seguin’s logo is ‘It’s Real,’ I think we’re as real as you get here.”

While cows graze and cowgirls work their horses in the arena, George (the still) runs dutifully in the background producing CY Distillery’s latest batch of vodka, a single drop at a time. •