CHARLEMONT — Three craft brewing experts have banded together to distill single-malt whiskey in Massachusetts – and they intend to age and bottle barrels of the spirits on a Charlemont property.
The three, who formed a company called Backroads, are fermentation expert Patricia Aron, craft brewery owner Ben Roesch, and malt producer Andrea Stanley.
The trio became acquainted through their involvement in the brewing industry. Roesch was Stanley’s first customer at Valley Malt, a Hadley malt producer, while Aron and Stanley bonded over being women in a male-dominated beer industry. Malt, made from barley grain, is the basis of both beer and whiskey.
“I think we just share a lot of similar values,” Stanley said. “We share a mutual love for the western Mass. area.”
Raised in Charlemont, Aron said she looks forward to contributing to her hometown economy.
“There’s very little industry,” Aron said. “We want to bring something back to Charlemont.”
Backroads plans to store 10 to 12 oak barrels of whiskey per year in a warehouse on the property while it ages for 18 to 24 months, Aron said. The group eventually intends to produce gin too, using juniper and other botanicals grown in the Pioneer Valley.
The liquor will be manufactured offsite at multiple facilities. The process will begin at Stanley’s malt-production business in Hadley, brewed at Roesch’s Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, and then sent to a Plymouth distillery to be made into hard liquor.
The group has no immediate plans to sell the liquor on the Charlemont property, but may open a bar or tasting room in the town or region at some point, Aron said.
The Planning Board is scheduled to hear Backroads’ application for a special exception March 14 at 7:15 p.m. in the Town Hall, member Carlene Hayden said. If the board grants Backroads a permit, it will seek a federal distillery license, Aron said. The group hopes to begin producing and aging the spirit by the end of summer.
Backroads’s project may signal the reemergence of local distilling –a once-significant industry in Massachusetts. The state had 25 distilleries in the 1700s, though that number has waned, according to Mass. Craft Distillers. Today, the industry is “on the rebound,” with nearly 20 distilleries located in the state. In Franklin County, Element Brewing Co. began distilling alcohol alongside beer in its Miller Falls facility a couple years ago.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.