Starlight Distillery

Our distillery is part of a larger operation that has been owned and operated and farmed by the Huber family for 180 years. So we aren't just a distillery. It started as an agricultural business and to this day maintains a foothold in agritourism in Indiana, which first and foremost we are a farm. The distillery came out as a natural expansion of the winery when the very first Huber, Simon Huber, settled in on the actual property where we still stand today with his original eight acres. Ours is the oldest distillery in Indiana. Ted Huber, who is one of the current owners, had an idea that if we could make the wine. There's a law in Indiana that says if you're already operating as a farm winery, you can also very easily operate as a farm distillery. So for a very long time, from 2001 when the Starlight Distillery was first granted a license, we only made brandy products. Eight years ago that changed when the law became updated and now we can do all kinds of things, which means bourbon and rye whiskey and gin and vodka and lots of fun things. So it was a natural progression of what they were already doing there and also very good timing because bourbon and cocktails, it's never been a better time to be part of that industry. So in 2020, when we were already faced with the challenges of COVID, we also got another curveball from Mother Nature when we lost a huge number of our crops due to a late frost. But our farmers, who are historically resilient anyway, took the opportunity to plant some things we'd never planted before that they knew would survive and we've actually ended up embracing a number of those crops and still grow them today. And why we didn't think of it before, but it is one of those things that just kind of, it was an opportunity and there's one thing that we're very good at doing on the farm, we call it the farm, is pivoting. So when something happens and we have to change, or even if you don't have to change but someone has an idea, we have the ability by and large to say, we'll try it, we'll see what happens. And often good things happen. This is an incredible honor for us. We were thrilled to get this honor. It's one of those things where you work every day and you do things every day and to get this kind of recognition, it's like, oh yes, we're doing something right, you know. The community and outreach and the things that we do every day, they're so important to us. It is a business, obviously, and we're there to make money, clearly. And what I'll say is that the fact that we continue to be connected to the community, the family stays connected to the community, it's so very important to them to support and be, for lack of a better word, a pillar in the community and in Indiana as a whole. And something like this tells me that we're on the right track.