Spirited about spirits

The Brush Creek Distillery (BCD) has brought on an individual who knows and loves the world of spirits. Not the ghostie type, but the type which are produced in a copper still. Shawn Hogenmiller has recently been made the Hospitality and Barrel Director for BCD.

Shawn knows a thing or two about the world of spirits having spent over 30 years working in various food and beverage positions, with the emphasis being on beverage.

He is originally from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

"I went from the beach to the mountains. From three feet above sea level to about 9,000 feet above sea level," Hogenmiller said. "I came out to the Rocky Mountains in Summit County back in 1991 and for 10 years worked as a bartender in Keystone and Breckinridge."

In the winter time, as one would imagine, he served a lot of hot specialty drinks and, in the summer, he ran a Tiki bar and made a lot of tropical drinks.

"In the 1990s, some of the largest regatta races were in Dillon, so a lot of Mai Tais and Rum Runners," Hogenmiller said. "Coming from Ft. Lauderdale, I could do a lot of those drinks almost blindfolded."

He said during those years he saw different trends take hold. Hogenmiller remembers when the flavored vodkas were the craze, followed by tequila and then bourbon. Around the time of the bourbon resurgence, craft spirits started to make their entry into the drinking culture.

Hogenmiller started to pay attention to bourbon at the turn of the century when he moved to Denver and dated a woman who was essentially in charge of Jim Beam for Colorado.

While living in Denver, Hogenmiller started working in fine dining. The first venues he worked for were the Elway Steakhouses. 

"It was really high end," Hogenmiller said. "It was corporate and business leaders and because we could seat 200 at a time, it was tremendous volume."

Hogenmiller found himself in management after two years and a requirement for manager positions was to be a certified sommelier

"I went through the International Sommelier Guild where I got my formal training in 2006 and got my certification," Hogenmiller said. "Then I became the Wine/Beverage Director for the Ritz-Carlton for four years in downtown Denver and that is where I started getting into the higher end products like bourbon and scotches. It was right at the time when the whiskey explosion was starting."

Hogenmiller said he saw the small craft take off at first with beer and then with spirits in Colorado.

"The consumer really wanted to know more about the products they were drinking versus what it was the years before," Hogenmiller said. "It was a fun time because I loved the classic drinks and they were becoming the trend."

The Brown Palace Hotel was another place Hogenmiller was in charge of wine and beverages. His work at many top notch establishments made him a natural for The Lodge and Spa at Brush Creek Ranch to hire him to set up the wine program for The Farm three years ago.

"I spent the first 17 months living in the tunnel downstairs where The Vault is located," Hogenmiller said. "That bar is a special place as all the liquor is here. They have one of the largest wine collections west of the Mississippi with 30,000 bottles."

Hogenmiller left that position and ran French Creek Outfitters, the sportsman club of Brush Creek Ranch resort. 

"I put in a lot of hours at French Creek on a weekly basis," Hogenmiller said. "It certainly had its rewarding moments, but I found myself not having much of a life outside of working and I wanted a change."

Hogenmiller left and he said about a month later Andrew Wason, Managing Director of Brush Creek Distillery asked him to come on board to the position he has now.

"I have been talking about spirits for 30 years and it is my passion, and I know way too much about it," Hogenmiller said. "I realized this was a great job for me. I work with guests from the ranch along with relations with the communities around Wyoming."

Brush Creek Distillery, is a small-batch distiller which has four high quality spirits.

Brush Creek Gin uses juniper berries found on the grounds of Brush Creek Ranch and surrounding areas. Other botanicals are harvested from the nearby certified organic Brush Creek greenhouses. This small batch New American-style gin is not like a London Dry style that many gin drinkers expect.  It has light juniper notes with noticeable citrus and soft botanicals.

The vodka, which is sourced from snow melt water, has a smooth, clean and slightly mineral taste. Hogenmiller said this Brush Creek white spirit is excellent as a sipping spirit or a base for cocktails.

There is also bourbon and rye which has been distilled at Brush Creek Distillery and is aging in barrels to be bottled some years from now. 

Because the whiskies will not be ready for some time, Brush Creek has blended three bourbons into barrels from quality producers to create Brush Creek Straight Bourbon and blended ryes for Brush Creek Straight Rye.

Brush Creek spirits created on premise are redistilled on-site using a combination of boil and vapor infusion in the 250-gallon Vendome copper pot still, which is a special still in the world of distillers.

For over 100 years, Vendome Copper and Brass Works (Vendome) has been fabricating and supplying equipment to distilleries. Vendome has been located throughout its history in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, and is a family owned business overseen by the fourth generation of its original founders.To understand how special a pot still is, a little knowledge of distillation is useful. 

Distillation creates a high alcohol by volume (ABV) spirit by evaporating ethanol from a fermented alcoholic base liquid. Ethanol boils at a lower temperature than water, so it can be drawn off as vapor while water remains in liquid state. The process never makes pure ethanol, and the distillate always contains a proportion of water, as well as flavor giving compounds called congeners.

During pot distillation, the base liquid heats in the main chamber until boiling ethanol vapor rises to the head of the still and exits the lyne arm. The lyne arm connects the still head to the product condenser. There are many different ways to configure this connection, and each option has a different effect on the final flavor of the spirit produced. From the lyne arm, vapor passes into the cooling coil, where it condenses and flows as a liquid into a collection vessel. When pot stills were first used, distillers used fire to heat the pot, but in modern times, temperature controlled steam is a common alternative.

The modern technique is desirable because it reduces the risk of burning the base spirit. The Vendome pot still is named Esther at the BCD. The name comes from the fact esthers are found in the distillation process and because the first female justice of the peace in the United States was Wyoming resident Esther Hobart Morris.At this time, the distillery is not open to the public, but the product can be obtained by consumers lucky enough to live in the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Texas and Kentucky.

There are seven workers at the distillery. Hogenmiller finds it rewarding to work with a small staff.

"We are a tight knit team here," Hogenmiller said. "We are the same crew that are here five days a week and we all live in Saratoga. It is just a great team to work with."

The Hospitality and Barrel Director said his job almost doesn't feel like work.

"If you love something its not really work," Hogenmiller said. "I can stand around and talk bourbon, gin, rye and vodka all day long." 

Hogenmiller said Brush Creek products can be found at Valley Liquor from a retail side and the a couple venues carry it in Carbon County.

"We have great product and after tasting so many different brands and spirits from all over the world, I feel proud to be helping introduce it to the consumers who will appreciate it," Hogenmiller concluded. "And it is very cool to say, it is made in Carbon County."