- Angela Fitzgerald: This river town
has the nickname "City of Wonderful Water."
Now, there is a new distiller in Stevens Point
turning that water into rum, whiskey, gin, and vodka.
- Brian Cummins: After touring, like, 30 craft distilleries
across the country, I jumped in with both feet.
- Angela: Brian Cummins hasn't always been a distiller,
but his chemistry background sure helps.
- I was a frustrated chemical engineer
here in the local paper industry,
not really seeing another 25 years in that business.
So to measure the strength of the alcohol, we use hydrometers.
I really believe distilling
is just chemical engineering with good taste.
This is now at 46.12% alcohol.
- Angela: The distillery's location
is just a short walk from central downtown
for Brian and his sidekick, Remy.
- We built our new facility on a historic manufacturing site,
the former Belke Lumber building.
- Angela: Constructing a new building
is only part of the plan.
Building commmunity is a key component in every bottle.
- A handmade craft cocktail
really starts with great ingredients.
Oh, that's really good.
- Angela: Those ingredients are harvested across Wisconsin.
- We source all of our ingredients
from within 150 miles of our distillery.
It's important to me to celebrate local growers
because they're my neighbors, they're my friends,
they support us.
We wanna support them.
Knock, knock.
Here to pick up the order for Great Northern.
First and foremost,
we started with a Polish-style potato vodka.
Hey, here in Stevens Point, central Wisconsin,
we are right in the middle of potato fields.
Our grains are coming from up in northern Wisconsin.
A small hobby farm
growing really great corn, wheat, and rye for us.
We make a Wisconsin brandy that we make from wine
that we distill from our neighbor,
Sunset Point Winery, here in downtown Stevens Point.
And then we make our ginseng whiskey
because the best ginseng in the world is grown right here
in central Wisconsin.
- Angela: Those Wisconsin ingredients
are crafted in small batches in a still designed in Germany.
- Brian: It really is working sculpture.
It is handcrafted for us.
Having something made by hand of 100% pure copper
is really important to our process.
We ferment very differently than a craft brewer does.
Very hot and very fast.
After just two days of fermentation,
we go to our still, where we concentrate that alcohol.
We do have a couple of batches that are ready to be bottled.
Good.
- Angela: The liquor is bottled, labeled, and packaged
all by hand.
- Brian: Small batch distilling
is really handcrafting those spirits.
That also means that each of our bottles has a label on it
that labels its batch and bottle number,
hand labeled, to make sure that people know,
"Hey, this is batch 34 of the whiskey."
We are making roughly 20,000 bottles a year of our spirits.
- Angela: Enter the tasting room and you will see
Brian has an eye on the past and a vision for the future,
with a vintage yet modern supper club vibe.
- The best part is when you step in
from our small town Stevens Point
and it really is a big city feel.
We can really put a lot of our energy and a lot of our goodwill
right into that glass.
- Bartender: All right!
- We do have a signature drink.
I'd have to say that's our Wisconsin Old Fashioned.
[ice clinking] [liquid splashing]
And then flame and orange peel over the top of it
to make sure we get some nice orange flavor there.
One of our missions is to elevate the cocktail culture
in central and northern Wisconsin.
- Angela: And in the process,
pointing patrons to Brian's hometown.
- It really is gratifying to know
that I'm helping to build the community of Stevens Point.
This place is my life.
I have dedicated everything to this.
Small business is not for the faint of heart.
I've put in basically every asset committed that I have
to make this place a success.
I think I am living a dream.
This whole thing is kind of like breakfast.
The chicken's involved with the eggs,
but the pig is committed.
I'm committed. [laughing]
[upbeat music]