Sean Venus and the 600-liter copper alembic still at the Swift Street location of his new Venus Spirits operation. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
Whiskey. From the Gaelic, meaning “water of life.” And even though technically whiskey is simply an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain, connoisseurs and tipplers the world over know it as a magical liquor with a life of its own. They also know that whiskey has now overtaken vodka as the most popular spirit liquor in the U.S.
Sean Venus has definitely been paying attention. His distillery in progress, Venus Spirits, is poised to surf the point of that trend. Once complete in late spring 2014, the distillery will ferment, distill and bottle handcrafted West Coast versions of blue agave (tequila), botanically inflected gins and ultimately aged whiskey itself—all created from organic grains, from mash to cork, at his spacious facilities on Swift Street.
It all began during his college days at University of Oregon, where Venus started tinkering seriously with micro-brew beers. Then came a technical brewers course at UC Davis, followed by a key stint in operations at Gordon Biersch. From fermenting to shipping, packaging and management, Venus has mastered every step of the way in the complex process of making a handcrafted brew. More background with SunOpta, a private label group developing items for Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, plus three years developing chia-seed beverage Mamma Chia, completed his robust entrepreneurial training.
“A year ago, I started looking for a new project,” says Venus, who still looks about college age. Craft brews beckoned, until Venus says he realized that the current boom had another side—“the market was very saturated and very competitive.”
Venus says he sat down with his wife, product developer Grace Venus, and hatched the plan that would be Venus Spirits. He also spent a lot of time in Lou's Cajun Kitchen and Bourbon Bar, tasting internationally (“the Japanese are now making a lot of fine whiskey,” he says) and at events with names like Whiskeyfest.
“I knew it was a huge opportunity, especially since as of this year the state allows tasting rooms for craft spirits. And a taste of whiskey,” he notes with a grin, “is much less expensive than buying a bottle.”
For Venus the location seemed obvious. The Westside is a booming community of adventure handcrafters and adventure consumers. The Swift St. space already had the infrastructure he needed, having been host to both Sartorius Gin and Copious Winery in the recent past.
“It had already gone through the codes—all the mechanical stuff was in place,” he says.
The spacious facility already has a dazzling 600-liter copper alembic still ready and waiting for the remaining storage and fermenting plant to be completed.
“The still is from Spain, and has a very Moorish design. It's the shape that gives the liquor its character,” he explains. “You're basically condensing alcohol, and as it condenses and drops back into the still, the exact way and place in which the drops fall determines the flavor and personality of the liquor.”
Venus will make his own fermented grain mash, the soupy brew that begins the journey. “Most craft distilleries use mash made off-site. I wanted the flexibility to do it the way I wanted. So we essentially have a brew house right here. We'll crush the grain, hydrate it, cool it and then add yeast. That will go into the still. After the first distillation, it will end up about 30 percent alcohol. After the second distillation is will come out from 62 to 67 percent alcohol.”
And then it ages. “We'll use small, 10 gallon barrels of charred new American oak for the whiskey. In small barrels it will age quicker with more wood contact, so we can bottle the product after 6-8 months,” he says. Some of the distillate will age for years in larger barrels. “We want to highlight the spirits in wood to bring out the caramel flavors. Different styles—younger, more edgy, or longer-aged, mellower liquors—will appeal to different people.”
Venus’ blue agave, bearing the El Ladrón (“The Thief”) label, will be made in a full range of styles, from the blancos aged in stainless for about three weeks, to an añejo style.
“We'll let them all stand on their own,” he says.
In addition to El Ladrón, and whiskeys, bourbons and rye-labeled Wayward, a line of micro-batched gins will bear the Venus Spirits name. “We'll certainly be allowing the juniper to show in our gin, as well as a bit of orange and lemon, a hint of lavender, maybe cardomom. Eventually we'll do more aggressively flavored gins.”
Not only will Santa Cruz soon sport its own distillery, but Venus Spirits will be a tasting destination with its own intimate tasting room, currently being designed by the Stripe Design Group as a separate lounge space that will look out onto the distilling operation.
Venus wants the tasting area to offer a sophisticated rather than rustic atmosphere. After all, who wants to rush a serious gin tasting?
And so, Venus looks ready to go, after a few more permits, non-stop construction and some last-minute tweaks from a handcraft pioneer whose grandfather was named…Jameson.
