“I found out different proteins in hemp act as a superfuel for my yeast,” Williams says.Whisky lovers are a varied bunch-just take a glance at the different whisky clubs that have sprung up around the country. While yeast nutrients, which are used to produce more alcohol, can produce an unwanted flavor, Williams says, hemp did not. The two also found that the hemp actually produces higher yields of alcohol. It also holds the sweetness from the corn on your palate.” It makes it easy to drink neat and straight up. “What we’ve found is that oil and those fats coat your palate and smooth out, so there’s no burn. I don’t think it’s thick or creamy-it just has a little more body than your typical vodka,” Williams says.
“At distilling six times, after it goes through the process of going through the still, you’ll notice it has a viscosity difference. And while the vodka doesn’t necessarily have the taste of hemp, Williams says the additional seed does give it a different mouthfeel. This can include corn, sorghum, rye, rice or wheat.īut hemp grain is unique in that it has a high fat content. Vodka is typically made with fermented grains that are then put through a distilling process. “I was like, ‘Let’s just try to make a go at it.’” “It was just consistently winning,” Williams says. Williams, who owned a small bar and also opened a restaurant called Lucille’s 1913 with his brother, Chris, began taking the vodka to his establishments to let people sample it. From that day, Williams and Robbins continued honing that formulation, trying out distilling it a wide number of times and settling on six for the “purest, sweetest” taste, Williams says. That formulation consisted of corn, water and hulled hempseed. … It was literally just the best stuff we had ever made.” “We immediately started proofing it down, making cuts and filtering it. It had a better smell, feel,” Williams says. Right off the rip at a super high proof, it was just better. “One day I was just being lazy and dumped everything into the still. “The thing that’s right under your nose and most readily available turned out to be what I needed: hulled hempseed.” “I’ve played with every part of the plant I could get my hands on,” Williams says.
BLACK OWNED DISTILLERIES FULL
He tried different parts of the plant as well as different forms of the grain, from full raw hempseed to roasted grains. Eventually, federal farm bills in 20 opened the legal landscape for hemp, allowing Williams to expand his experimentation with hemp grown in the U.S. When Williams began experimenting with different hemp vodka formulations, the crop was not yet legal in the U.S., so Williams began sourcing from Canada. © Emily Jaschke Ben Williams of Highway Vodka. “It was really about what the plant does for my particular process.” “It’s not about hemp flavor, and it’s not about CBD, to be honest,” Williams says. Now, the Houston-based company has become the first Black-owned distillery in the city, according to Highway Vodka, and is expanding its distribution beyond Texas to include Georgia, California and Florida. It inspired him to try the same with hemp. But when he visited a friend in California who owned a cannabis dispensary (and is a fellow vodka-distilling enthusiast), he met others who were distilling their vodka with cannabis. Williams began distilling vodka as a hobby. Highway Vodka, a company founded by lifelong friends Ben Williams and Wendell Robbins III, had been seven years in the making when it launched in 2019.
BLACK OWNED DISTILLERIES HOW TO
Cannabidiol (CBD), the star compound of hemp, may be known for its relaxing properties, but one company has uncovered how to make a relaxing-and even intoxicating-product using an entirely different portion of the plant: hempseed.
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