Distilling bourbon is a right reserved for American producers, so where better to get your next bottle than from the nation’s capital? Enter Republic Restoratives, the newest, and first women-owned, distillery in Washington, D.C.
Distillery and craft cocktail bar founders Pia Carusone and Rachel Gardner have been planning and renovating their warehouse space in Ivy City for over two years to achieve an almost-ready-to-open distillery focusing on bourbon. The large distillery space will feature a bar, retail store and tasting room.
“You can’t make a true bourbon unless you’re an American producer,” Carusone said. “Americans have been perfecting it for generations, and it’s protected from international competition. It goes back to international trade law that protects specialties of certain nations.”
The two-story, 24,000 square foot warehouse located at 1369 New York Ave. NE is in an area that is quickly-emerging as the food and liquor manufacturing hub of DC. The Ivy City neighborhood is growing with promising local businesses and some larger corporate storefronts.
“I want people to feel excited, interested and connected in the same way we feel connected to the neighborhood,” Carusone said. “This whole area is developing very fast.”
While there is no set date to open, Carusone is prepared to start distilling. She said Republic Restoratives is at the end of the construction phase and has completed inspections. While working with the federal and local governments to get permits to manufacture, Carusone said the city has been responsive and fairly easy to work with.
“It’s certainly more paperwork than most small business owners would be willing to go through, and that’s why you don’t see so many craft distilleries,” Carusone said. “It stops people in their tracks. If you’re comfortable dealing with paperwork and being subject to a decent amount of scrutiny, I get it.”
The distilling system in the warehouse was designed with longevity, efficiency and presentation in mind.
The RR Indiegogo fund has 680 backers, raising a total of $119,643. The campaign closed in June 2015, but the support continued. They surpassed their goals of $75,000 and then $100,000.
“We’ve invested in a facility that is going to be able to make a lot of whiskey for generations to come, in terms of the size of the facility,” Carusone said. “It’s a lot of moving of liquid, and I think we’ve designed a system that has saved us a lot of time and provided a lot of efficiency.”
Distilling Process
The distilling at Republic Restoratives happens downstairs. After distillation, the new spirit then gets piped upstairs, where it will age in barrels to complete its transformation to bourbon. The process of aging and maturation is how the spirit becomes a full-fledged bourbon whiskey, as it interacts with the wooden barrels made from new white American oak.
“That exchange of the liquid into and out of the wood is really where all the magic happens with all the flavor and color and creating a balance,” Carusone said. “You don’t want a whiskey that is too “hot” or over oaked— more of the bad qualities of the wood than the good.”
Republic Restoratives is focusing on only selling whiskey that has aged properly and well.
“You don’t just put the whiskey in the barrel and walk away for a couple of years,” Carusone said. “You can make adjustments in the aging process to move it along.”
The RR warehouse simulates bourbon distillery techniques from our more southern counterparts. Hot summers and chilly winters have an important affect on the process of making bourbon.
“ mimicking the conditions that you might find in Kentucky or Tennessee where whiskey is often made to achieve a really deliciously balanced final product,” Carsuone said.
The interaction of the barrels in a non-insulated building allows for the climate to interact with the wood and spirits, creating flavors that attribute to great bourbon.
“We’re really lucky to be in this warehouse in Ivy City, because there’s an element of the Deep South to the exposure of the temperature,” Carusone said. “Our facility is designed in an interesting way where we didn’t put an HVAC system in our barrel system. The D.C. climate is very similar to the southern climate so there will be a nice rise and fall to really allow the wood to contract and expand.”
There is not a lot of bourbon made in this region, Carusone said, so RR found a master distiller with a background both in wine making and spirits making. Industry expert Berle “Rusty” Figgins Jr. designed their one-of-a-kind still, naming it the Friggin' Figgins Reciprocator. Wine-making has been a source of inspiration for RR, with techniques “pulled straight from the wine-making playbook."
Carusone and Gardner looked many years into the future when planning the distillery. The equipment is top of the line and the space will be able to pump out more than 50 initial barrels of bourbon. For now though, since it takes 18 months to make and age a batch of bourbon up to the founder’s standards, the initial product they will feature is a charcoal-polished vodka.
Community
The RR logo features a hand making a sign language symbol for the letter R. Highlighting their connectedness to the Ivy City neighborhood, Carusone said the logo gives a nod to Gallaudet University, a private institution for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, which is a big part of the local community.
“We’re neighbors to Gallaudet University and it is a big presence here in a positive way, Carusone said. “We all live around this neighborhood. is not part of our life but it’s certainly a big part of this neighborhood, and were happy to be neighbors.”
As women and small business owners selling unique products, Carusone hopes for her future customers to feel as connected to RR as they are to the community.
“I want people to feel warm and invited into our space,” Carusone said. “I want them to feel comfortable asking questions and being able to understand what we do here, both in terms of the cocktail bar and the manufacturing distiller.”
Republic Restoratives is opening soon.
Check out their progress on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
↧