Highly anticipated River Raisin Distillery opens
It’s a family affair at River Raisin Distillery. Joe and Krista Jarvis, their daughters, and Krista’s parents, are creating hand-crafted spirits to share with the Manchester community.
It’s been 61 months since Joe and Krista Jarvis purchased the old Koebbe Welding building on West Main Street. But who’s counting?
They have spent most of the past five years doing most of the work of cleaning, creating, and crafting that old, drafty, dusty building into their vision, then cleaning some more, and simultaneously working to develop a distilled product of which they are extremely proud.
Last Wednesday, the couple celebrated Day One of their new business venture, River Raisin Distillery … and sold out of their one-of-a-kind product, “Cane & Grain,” in less than four days.
“Thank you, Manchester!” says Krista.
They decided on Monday that their opening day would be Wednesday. “Sometimes you just have to take the leap,” said Joe. And they did.
Their signature spirit is created 100% from scratch, and is unlike any other liquor available on the market. It’s been described as a mix of rum and vodka–sweeter than vodka, but less so than rum. It tastes great with a variety of mixers and while it’s a “clear” spirit, its depth of flavor makes it popular with whisky drinkers as well. Eventually, River Raisin Distillery will expand its repertoire to rum, vodka, and other unique alcoholic beverages. Currently using less than half of their available space, there’s plenty of room for the business to grow.
“We plan to do some seasonal and flavored liquors,” Joe explains. “We’ll follow the harvest, so it will be a year or so before we get those on the market, but we have this in mind for the future. We hand-make everything from scratch. We get our grains from Dexter Mill. We cook the mash, let it ferment a week or two, then run it though the still; we proof it to 80 proof … and then we hand label the products, we bottle and cork and seal them ourselves.”
This product is a labor of love for the entire family. Krista’s parents, Rick and Annette Pringle, are also partners in the business, and Joe and Krista have also enlisted the help of their daughters, Adalia and Piper, with sealing and labeling the bottles once the product is closed.
“Joe is an entrepreneur through and through,” Krista explains. “It has always been his dream to own his own business … we just had to decide what it would be.”
They found their dream in a rather unlikely spot, as the Koebbe Welding building had only been used for one purpose–as a welding shop–since it was built “from scratch” by Earl Koebbe in the 1940s. Staying true to Koebbe’s creative spirit, the Jarvis’ also have been doing things from scratch, and by hand, as they worked to build their dream. They made their own kettle to cook the mash, Joe built the doors and the bar, they replaced the glass in the front windows (which were all hand crafted by Koebbe), Krista designed the interior, they power washed (over and over again) and painted themselves, and everything in the building is pretty much “home grown.”
“We don’t have any debt on this,” Joe explains. “We have done things ourselves or, in the case of our Column still, we’ve bought it outright without borrowing … that’s allowed us to keep our overhead competitive while maintaining a high quality product.”
Indeed, at $23.99 per fifth, the Cane & Grain is a very reasonably priced liquor for something that is totally hand-crafted. Krista says most distilleries charge a much higher price for their product, but they wanted to keep their price accessible to everyone … and Joe adds that a “dirty secret” of many distilleries is that they often put their money into equipment, labels and bottling, which of course increases their overhead and makes the product less unique. “If we don’t have a product we’re proud of, it’s not going out the door,” he says. “We want to keep our products original, and we are thinking outside the box.”
After selling 123 bottles on Wednesday–60 of them in the first hour they were open–the distillery ran completely out of product early Saturday afternoon. They will reopen in a couple of weeks when a new batch is ready for sale. Once they hit their groove and have a steady supply of product, the River Raisin Distillery will be open for its regular hours on Thursdays and Fridays, 3-7 pm, and 12-7 on Saturdays.
The distillery also sells t-shirts, made by Steelegrafix, that are selling like hotcakes. In addition to purchasing their products locally, the Jarvis’ are also keeping it local when it comes to disposing of their mash. They have local farmers who come and pick it up, so it’s not only starting out local–it’s staying local!
The “local” aspect of their business extends to what they hope to bring to the Manchester community. Obviously Joe and Krista are deeply grateful to their Manchester neighbors for the initial (and ongoing) support, but they also hope that the distillery will be another draw to bring people to town and help bolster the local economy. Having a truly unique product in a very distinctive location should make their endeavor successful.
Watch the River Raisin Distillery LLC Facebook page for information about the business’ next opening date!
The Column Still that’s the secret to the entire operation at River Raisin Distillery. The signature product, “Cane & Grain,” sold out its first batch and will be available again in about two weeks.
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