YOUNG HEARTS & FREE SPIRITS
A
WRITTEN BY CARRIE DOW /// PHOTOGRAPHY BY LONG YAU
Mena Killough parlayed her extensive herbalist background into a blossoming distilling career.
s a horticulturist, Mena Killough enjoyed working with plants. As an herbalist and vice president of the North Carolina Herb Association, she would take plants and create special hydrosols “I had all these different while working for organizations as varied as the Carolina Panthers and the Duke Mansion. As a bartender, she used both skills to comtypes of education that bine herbs and alcohol into unique cocktails. didn’t seem to connect, “I had all these different types of education that didn’t seem to connect, but somehow within me I made them connect,” stated but somehow within me Killough, a graduate of the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville, North Carolina. It was while bartending at Kiki/Tattoo I made them connect.” bistro and bar in Charlotte that she had a desire to take her skills to the next level through spirits distillation. As she began exploring that — Mena Killough option, she ran into the steamroller that was COVID-19 shutting down the restaurant. However, as they say, when one door closes ... “I was given the opportunity with Unknown Brewing to launch their hand sanitizer program,” she said. Brad Shell, the brewery’s owner, had an 80-gallon still he used to make small-batch, experimental spirits under the name Wood & Grain. That program, like at many other distilleries, quickly switched to desperately needed hand sanitizer. Needing additional help, Shell contacted an out-of-work Killough. “I’d always wanted to learn spirits distillation, but was kind of afraid of making somebody go blind,” she admitted with a laugh. “I got used to working on the column still, which was new for me. With the plant water, I was working on a small alembic. That helped build my proficiency and getting comfortable on a larger system.” While at Unknown, Killough was encouraged by her new boss and some friends to try another opportunity, competing on Discovery Channel’s Moonshiner: Master Distiller TV show. “I had only been distilling a month before I went through the vetting process,” she acknowledged. “I thought, ‘You know what, if I make it, surely I won’t win, but it’ll be a great learning opportunity.’” Not only was she selected, the episode’s absinthe focus was right up her herbalist alley.
