Micro-Distillery Prepares to Make Vodka in Boardman
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- For the first time since the end of Prohibition, a distillery -- not to be confused with a brewery or winery -- is about to open for business (legally) in the Mahoning Valley. It’s taken only 80 years.
The Candella Micro-Distillery LLC, 388 McClurg Road, continues to test its apparatus as it awaits its license to manufacture and sell vodka, apple pie, applejack, limoncello, bourbon and rye whiskeys, and some brandies.
Michael Alberini’s and the Belleria Pizza in Boardman, Bruno’s in Poland, The Boulevard Tavern on the south side of Youngstown, and the L’uva Bella Winery & Bistro in Lowellville are among the restaurants waiting for owner Sal Candella and his three brothers to get the green light from the Ohio Department of Liquor Control.
The genesis of the microdistillery was in early 2012 after Candella had researched the subject – he shows the books he read – and explored the legal requirements to enter the business. “The [Ohio] laws were so new,” he says, “that the Liquor Board wasn’t sure how they applied.” Regardless, he credits the Department of Liquor Control for working with him to set up his business. “They’ve been a great help,” he says.
Same story with the Boardman zoning office. “They didn’t know what to do with me,” Candella recalls. His business wasn’t a winery or a brewery and the zoning staff deferred to the state so he could set up shop.
The new zoning inspector, Sarah Gartland, clarifies Candella’s account. A temporary worker was manning the office when Candella first visited and took his application, she says. Upon coming on board, Gartland asked for details of what Candella had planned, which included liquor sales and bus tours of the distillery. “He was a little nervous,” she remembers – but the zoning inspector determined, “It fits our code just fine.”
Between the state and the Boardman Zoning Department, Candella says, “There was a lot of paperwork” plus the background checks conducted.
Candella’s first choice to set up shop was downtown Youngstown because of the comeback it’s made and the proximity of the bars there, he said, but couldn’t find a building that met his needs. Because he had helped Frank Sergi open the L’uva Bella Winery, Candella looked at Lowellville, again without success.
Says Sergi, recalling Candella’s support in establishing L’uva Bella. “Sal has real talent. He would fix things for us until he was satisfied it was right.”
The building where Candella set up has 4,000 square feet, more than ample to meet his initial needs. It also has loading docks and high walls that allow the still to function properly. All parts of the still were made in China because Candella, hard as he looked, couldn’t find them in the United States.
Each still is unique, Candella points out.
Sergi took Candella with him on a trip to Drums, Pa., last fall where they visited Simply Home Brew that sells stills. “I going to buy it [a still],” Sergi told Candella. “You can play around with it.”
After that, Candella went to a school in Chicago where he learned more about distilling and read everything he could get his hands on.
The Candellas and Dougie Boslough, who describes himself as “the chief cook and bottle washer and professional taster” but is really in charge of quality control, assembled the stainless steel parts and what look like brass portholes – there are eight – through which the condensation of the alcohol is monitored.
The day The Business Journal visited Candella, his brothers -- Keith, Don, Terry -- and Boslough waiting for the test batch of 192-proof (96%) alcohol to come out of a small pipe into a pail.
On a table opposite the still were eight mason jars that would be filled. Boslough points to them and says they’ll hold “the leads, hearts and tails.” Were the batch brewing allowed to be consumed, Boslough would determine the hearts the Candella would sell.
The vodka would be diluted to 80 proof. Candella will use water distilled by “reverse osmosis” to reduce the proof. The water will come from Pine Hollow Springs in Lowellville.
Bourbon, Candella explains, must be made of at least 51% corn alcohol, regardless of whether it’s yellow or white corn -- and rye whiskey at least 51% rye wheat. Vodka can be made of potatoes, sugar or corn. He learned how to make bourbon from his grandparents, he says.
Corn gives bourbon part of its flavor, Candella says, as he and Boslough continue to work on the formulas for the whiskeys they’ll produce. Candella has ordered the No. 4 charred oak barrels in which he’ll age his beverages. “You want smooth, not something that burns,” he explains.
The barrel also imparts some of the flavor “but every barrel doesn’t come out the same,” he says.
The small barrels he’s ordered are yet to arrive and he expects August will be the earliest he can begin to make bourbon and rye. He plans to make one barrel a month of each.
The products will be “young” bourbons and whiskeys, aged about two years. “The smaller the barrel, the quicker it ages,” Candella explains.
After the state liquor board issues Candella his license, he hopes to produce “up to 10,000 gallons a year,” or “1,500 bottles a month.” One gallon fills five bottles.
He shows prototypes of the bottles the micro-distillery will fill: the clear squarish bottle for vodka, rounder bottle for bourbons and a distinctive bottle for limoncello.
By law, Candella must sell his output to the Ohio Department of Liquor Control that in turn sell it back to him before he can sell it to his customers. When bus tours visit on Saturday afternoons -- starting this fall, he hopes -- tourists must pay for the samples they drink. State law forbids free samples, he says.
In many ways, Candella is the stereotypical entrepreneur. Today 64, Candella found himself “real bored” in 2012 after a 30-year career as a troubleshooter for Ohio Bell, then AT&T until he retired. “He was real itchy and bored out of his mind,” Sergi says. “He’s not the kind of guy who can stay still.”
Candella became a photographer/videographer and air charter pilot 10 years after leaving AT&T.
Along the way, Candella has worked at the skilled trades, he says, and gained a reputation as a “Mr. Fixit.”
Not sure what to do with himself toward the end of 2011, he thought about opening a brewery or winery in the Valley, but that had been done. So at the beginning of 2012, he gave serious thought to a distillery. “The laws were so new,” he recalls, “that the Liquor Board saw it was in new territory.” The only other distilleries in the state, which number four or five, were in or around Columbus.
He used what he saved for retirement, about $150,000, to start his venture. That’s been his sole source of financing. With no license, and with no sales, he has yet to met a payroll.
The quality of his products will allow him to charge $35 to $40 for a bottle of Y-town vodka -- he thinks the quality of the vodka will command that price. “We are artisans in the micro-distillery craft of small-batch spirits,” Candella proclaims. He’s confident those who taste his vodka will agree.
Not only is Candella confident about his future, so is Sergi. “I think he’ll do real well. Sal’s probably one of the world’s great men. Be sure you put that in the paper.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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