6 minute read
Hard Truth Distilling Co.
~story and photos by Chrissy
Jeff McCabe, co-founder.
A small dream that turned into a bold vision is becoming reality for Hard Truth Distilling Co.
Once a humble craft brew pub in downtown Nashville, the company is now more than halfway toward its ultimate goal: distribution in all 50 states.
Becoming a powerhouse in the spirits industry in 15 short years wasn’t luck or accident. It was three founders whose minds were fixed from the beginning on creating a national brand.
“You always have to have one foot on the ground and one foot in the clouds,” said Jeff McCabe, co-founder.
When Big Woods Brewing Company opened in 2009, their firm footing was Tim O’Bryan’s homebrew beer recipe that sold out daily, said McCabe, Tim’s father-in-law. The pair partnered with Ed Ryan to launch the brewpub.
A rhythm began for the next several years— expanding brewing operations, still struggling to keep pace with demand, and repeat. Big Woods Pizza opened a block away from the original pub in 2011. In 2012, the company opened a facility dedicated to brewing in the former Brown County Historical Society building (originally a bowling alley) where their beers are still brewed today. The brewery was branded Quaff ON! after the team discovered they couldn’t secure a federal trademark for beer with the Big Woods name, McCabe said.
The company brought in Jim Dunbar, who used to fly helicopters with McCabe, as a fourth partner to get the new beer brand off the ground.
McCabe recalls plenty of industry “No’s” in the beginning and countless barriers trying to keep the hometown brewers from evolving into a distributed brand.
“Thankfully,” he said, grinning, “we like a good fight.” The team would load up Dunbar’s pick-up truck bed with kegs of beer, and the newest partner would drive from bar to bar until the kegs were all sold.
You always have to have one foot on the ground and one foot in the clouds.
—Jeff McCabe
Breaking into the ultra-competitive beer industry meant Quaff ON! had to do everything perfectly. “You have to have a great beer that people want, but you also have to have a great story and packaging that looks great and is eyecatching,” McCabe said.
The team also had to convince distributors that they were “going to be worth the effort” to be granted shelf space and bar taps, he said.
Through those early years in the “beer wars,” McCabe said the founders reaffirmed with each other, “We can do this.” Any budding business has to cultivate what he calls lighthouses: “For us, it was a bar or restaurant that really liked one of our beers and would put us on tap or put us on their menu. They become the light that keeps you moving forward.” Kroger was one of those beacons that granted the fledgling company shelf space and remains a “great partner” today.
As Quaff ON! solidified to its customers and distributors that they’d never be let down and the product would “always be right,” he said the barriers to entry started to disappear.
While Big Woods entered the craft brewing industry mid-game, the company would become a forerunner in craft distilling. This time, there would be no more playing catch-up with facility capacity. Big Woods purchased a really big woods: 325 acres east of downtown Nashville that they had annexed into the city limits.
Around that same time, a man named Bryan Smith, who had been hired to wash kegs, asked the founders to let him show them what he could do with a test distillery at the pizza shop. Smith’s wizardry yielded a cinnamon vodka that is a top-selling vodka in the world and a toasted coconut rum available on Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Smith, Hard Truth’s master distiller and fifth partner, also created the company’s sensation, Sweet Mash Rye whiskey.
Hard Truth now boasts a robust portfolio of spirits, including whiskey, gin, rum, and vodka. The distillery’s expertly crafted bourbon and rye whiskeys also have gained acclaim from industry professionals and connoisseurs alike. McCabe said Quaff ON!’s Six Foot Strawberry Blonde is the number one blonde in the state, the company won best porter in the country last year, and the Sweet Mash Rye whiskey has solidly secured its spot on critics’ top 100 American whiskeys lists annually.
Eight Big Woods restaurants currently serve customers in Speedway, Indianapolis, Franklin, Noblesville, and Bloomington. Partnership with Simon Malls allowed the company to operate at Edinburgh Premium Outlets and Keystone Fashion Mall.
But the company’s flagship location remains where the magic began: Nashville. The Hard Truth Distilling Co. destination campus was created to be like “Disneyland for adults,” McCabe said. The property houses the largest artisan distillery in the state but also provides guests with a full-service restaurant, tours-and-tastings center, and outdoor amphitheater. Guests ages 21 and older can tour the distillery, experience a guided tasting, or hop on guided ATV or tiki boat tours to learn the history of distilling.
The Nashville complex employs a crew of more than 200 and draws about 400,000 visitors each year. McCabe said the company is expecting the visitor count to rise in 2025.
“I think if we’ve done anything, it’s showing that tourism doesn’t have to be seasonal and that service jobs don’t have to be low-paying,” he said. “We feel good that we’ve been part of that.”
McCabe also feels good that the company uses as much Indiana grown grains as possible and has built a sustainable enterprise that’s supporting Hoosier families and farms.
Despite the overwhelming success, the company’s sights remain fixed on the future: distribution in all 50 states. As the company prepares to scale itself to that level, the coming year will bring new tour offerings and the construction of another building at the Nashville campus to house resting spirits. A brand new barbecue-and-whiskey experience featuring nationally acclaimed barbecue expert Steven Raichlen also is in the works.
“At the end of the day, we are very proud of what we’ve been able to do together, and we like the idea that this can last longer than we do,” McCabe said. “We’re trying to build something that can have a life of its own and continue to be an economic engine long into the future.”
Hard Truth Distilling Co. is located at 418 Old State Rd 46, Nashville. For more, hardtruth.com .
