Kingsport Times News. March 8, 2024.
Editorial: Take a walk along the Tennessee Whiskey Trail
Driven by growing consumer demand for unique, boutique craft spirits, distilleries are growing like weeds in a vegetable garden in Tennessee, gaining attention via the Tennessee Whiskey Trail at tnwhiskeytrail.com.
It’s a website put together by more than 30 distillers as a collaborative effort to promote whiskey tourism in Tennessee.
“We hope you’ll use this website to help craft your own adventure, all the while enjoying everything the great State of Tennessee has to offer,” the site says.
It includes information on the history of Tennessee whiskey and recipes, along with a map showing the locations of distilleries. If you visit one you get a stamp; visit them all and you earn the Tennessee Whiskey Trail passport, which may, or may not, get you a free cup of coffee, which you may well need after that much hooch.
New to the trail is Tennessee Hills Distillery in Jonesborough, located in the town’s historic Salt House since 2016 and operated by Jessica and Stephen Callahan. Also listed in East Tennessee is Lost State Distilling at Bristol, voted by USA Today as among America’s best new craft distilleries.
Other East Tennessee distilleries on the Trail are Bootleggers Distillery, Hartford; Old Forge Distillery, Pigeon Force; Ole Smoky Distillery and Sugarlands Distilling Co., Gatlinburg; Brushy Mountain Distillery, Petros; Company Distilling, Townsend; Tennessee Legend Distillery and Junction 35 Spirits, Sevierville; Gate 11 Distillery, Chattanooga; and Post Modern Spirits and Knox Whiskey Works, Knoxville.
But wait. Those aren’t the only distilleries in these parts.
Kingsport claims two, Hook and Ladder Distillery and King City Distillery. They just aren’t on the list.
Hook and Ladder began as a dream by Drew Draper at age 17. After he earned a degree in business, recorded music in Nashville and started a family with wife Amber, at age 21 he approached his father, a decorated senior captain with the Kingsport Fire Department, about opening a distillery downtown. You’ll find their outlet decorated with fire gear and can taste some free samples.
King City Distillery opened last June, the brainchild of owners Joe McMurray, Andy Armstrong and John Reed. They call the distillery an ode to the culture of this region.
“I think that there is almost a lost history that is slowly just fading away with memories and some of our older generation,” said McMurray. “Everybody in the past in moonshining really was integral to this culture. I think we want this place to be an opportunity for those people to really share their stories, and to share drinks as well.”
Visitors can watch part of the distilling process throughout the week when they come by, since the still is visible as soon as you walk in. It is a several-day process, according to McMurray. They hope to host events in the future showcasing the operations.
Their moonshine fare includes clear, salted caramel, watermelon, cloudy lemon and blackberry. They also offer five creams, including key lime, butter pecan, red velvet cake and orange dreamsicle.
The Tennessee Whiskey Trail says it welcomed more than 8 million non-local visitors in 2022, which represented $3.45 billion in economic impact for the state, appropriate since we’re next door to the birthplace of bourbon in Kentucky, and still produce a lot of it, as well as Tennessee whiskey — most of which is bourbon but most current producers of Tennessee whiskey disclaim references to their products as such.
Tennessee whiskey is one of the top 10 exports of Tennessee, and our local distillers are part of that proud heritage.
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Johnson City Press. March 8, 2024.
Editorial: Solar investments make Washington County a shining example
The future is looking even brighter for Washington County.
Last week, county commissioners approved a rezoning request by Nashville-based Silicon Ranch that will allow the company to build its third solar farm in Gray, the county’s largest so far.
When it goes live, the 12-megawatt farm will feed enough electricity into local utility BrightRidge’s system to power 2,000 homes.
Silicon Ranch has been a good partner for BrightRidge and Washington County for years, first investing in the 5-megawatt Telford Solar Farm in 2019, then the 9-megawatt Martin Solar Farm near Piney Flats in 2022.
Last year, BrightRidge also partnered with Silicon Ranch and LightWave Solar to open a solar learning lab at BrightRidge’s headquarters in Boones Creek. The learning lab will teach area students about solar power and related career fields and generates power to offset BrightRidge’s usage at its headquarters.
These investments have helped propel our county toward a more technologically advanced and more sustainable future as interest in developing renewable, cleaner sources of power grows.
It’s difficult for us to grasp the argument that solar energy is “unproven.”
The sun has been a reliable source of energy for billions of years and it will continue providing energy for billions more.
Seemingly every day, advances in generation and storage technology make harnessing its rays more practical and affordable.
Believing that solar can’t or shouldn’t be included among the country’s diversified sources of energy is thinking that is mired in the past.
Especially as other countries, like China, which produces three times the wattage of electricity from solar power than the U.S., ramp up capacity, we must take advantage of these resources to stay competitive on the world stage economically.
We’re glad BrightRidge, Washington County leaders, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the companies they’re partnering with have the foresight to bring us out of the Dark Ages by investing in a solar-powered future.
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