Meet Tina Williford, a distiller whose transition from the wine sector to distillation exemplifies her love for creating unique spirits. She manages Liberty & Plenty Distillery, which offers innovative and sustainable spirits. She has a Master's degree in brewing and distilling and takes a rigorous approach to blending. Learn more about her fascinating story below.

Tell us a little about your background and journey into distilling.

I came into distilling with a background in sourcing wine for brand development, so I had a great feel for the balance of sweet, acid, concentration, fruit, etc, and weeding through the good and the bad at all price points. I spent a lot of time obtaining the Diploma through the WSET by reading, tasting, traveling, experiencing geography, and studying wine-making techniques.

After 15+ years in the wine industry, working for myself as a wine importer or others sourcing and developing brands that others made, I wanted to create my brand. I was fascinated by spirits and the options you had for innovation but needed to learn even more and attended Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland for a Master of Science degree in Brewing & Distilling in 2017/2018. It was academically rigorous but taught me the engineering, fermentation science, microbiology, chemistry, and basic production skill set to proceed forward with confidence.

Along with way, I also attended additional classes and practicums, with Springbank Distillery, Stewart Brewing, BrewLab in the UK, Distillique in South Africa, and BDAS classes in Kentucky. I will always be a lifelong learner because I love learning and consider something new to be an opportunity to create a different expression or improve a product.

Image: Tina Williford

Your current role and what does your day look like?

My title is Owner and Master Distiller and I manage all aspects of running the business, innovation and development of products, techniques in production processes, tracking/supervising mashing/fermentation/blending/finishing, and making the final blends before bottling. In the front of our distilling space, we have a tasting bar and I work to set a program to highlight, collaborate with other businesses, and sell our bottled spirits and cocktails. I manage a relatively small team with 2 people in production, 2 people in the bar, and the rest outsourced support, but my day starts at 6 a.m. and I often work to 10 p.m. doing correspondence with part of the team in another time zone.

What inspired you to become a distiller?

The desire and passion to create my unique spirits that other people would enjoy drinking.

What are some of the most important skills for a distiller?

A thorough understanding of all parts of the distillation process, the equipment, maximizing efficiency, raw material specification alignment, proper yeast selection, speed/temperate of fermentations, still control, ability to properly taste and identify flaws, and understanding the impact of barrel maturation and blending. Record-keeping is key to innovation and also in the processing and replication of spirits. If a distiller is processing batch-by-batch, without trackable record keeping, then that amazing batch will never be replicated. Organization, cleaning, and production process planning flow are also basic to all companies.

How do you think a distiller can help in driving marketing and sales personally?

Distillers should be passionate about their work. That passion will resonate with their love of the craft and help to tell the story of the company and of each of the brands.

Image: Liberty & Plenty Distillery

Define a good distiller.

A detailed record-keeper, organized, innovative, passionate creator of spirits that delight the consumer.

What is the hardest part of a distiller's job?

Managing the changing cost platform of raw materials, processing materials, trucking, and labor costs are some of the biggest challenges recently. Equipment maintenance is an ongoing situation and sometimes it feels like, "if it's not broken, we're not distilling." A not-so-funny phrase that references that something is always breaking.

What's your elevator pitch to a bartender when pitching your brand.

Liberty & Plenty is a solely woman-owned distilling company producing creamy Slate Belt vodka made from whey and corn perfect for dry or espresso martinis. Our complex, congeneric-elevated Cap & Cane rums are made from fancy-grade molasses and cane juice through double copper pot distillation, excellent for sipping and for tiki cocktails. We also produce bourbon and whiskey using blends of various aged matured whiskies with different barrel finishes using slow slow-proofing methodology. Gin is on the way and should be in our portfolio by the end of the year with 3 different expressions.

What are the current challenges the spirits industry is facing according to you?

Well-seasoned barrel access is a big challenge right now for those of us in the craft industry. To make bourbon, we need new, charred barrels and since COVID, access has been strained and the age of the seasoned wood has shortened.

What skill or topic you are learning currently and why?

One of our bourbon references is finished in honey and I doing a deep dive into the use of honey in distilling and finishing. America loves the sweet influence of honey and the style of honey types offers the opportunity for final flavor variance.

What is your idea of a good life?

Either with friends or family, enjoying relaxed chatter over a light meal with a Spritz, bundled up fireside with a hot, spiced toddy, floating on the ocean or lake with a Bahia or Cuba Libre, or stomping through vineyards, visiting distilleries, taking cooking classes or learning something new.

Which is your go-to drink and what is the perfect setting you enjoy it in?

Since I'm always trying to watch calories, my quick go-to is Blanco tequila, club soda with a slice of lime, and fresh jalapeño on ice.

Your favorite 2-3 distilling or spirits books?

Books by Matt Strickland (Cask Management), Ian Smiley (The Distiller's Guide to Rum), Graham Stewart (Handbook of Brewing), The Drunken Botanist, Amaro

What do you look for in a supplier when sourcing bulk spirits / NGS if you do?

Communication is key and they understand that we are a craft distillery purchasing 4-8 barrels at a time to add to our range for blending and processing. I look forward to the day when a supplier picks up the phone as soon as they see my number on their phone.

Take us through your process of blending.

Blending for me depends on the product. You always need to have a vision and know what you want from the end product. In the blending of bourbon and whiskey, selected barrels are tasted, bench-top blended, and balanced by the percentage of the blend, scaled up for blending in the tank, and then slow-proofed. Slow proofing is the key to the full integration of flavor in any spirit. I love blending and working to elevate the components of the spirit blend.

How do you take care of production waste?

Most of our spent production waste is in totes for farmers to pick up free of charge, relieving the wastewater of high BOD and COD.

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If you had to give a quick elevator pitch on why an account should bring in your product for its consumers, what would it be?

Liberty & Plenty Distillery creates a range of bourbon, whiskey, rum, vodka, and botanically oriented spirits that offer flavor experiences using traditional distillation methodology on double copper pot distillation and innovative methods on the rotary evaporator.

Our Slate Belt Vodka is uniquely made with a blend of Whey & Corn spirits that are filtered through slate from a nearby quarry. Our Cap & Cane Rum is made with a blend of evaporated cane juice, molasses from Guatemalan and the USA, and three types of yeast.

Coming to the market in late 2024, L&P Bourbons and whisky mash bills are designed with heritage corn grown in NC and PA. We also create a barrel-sourced/blended/finished line of bourbons and whiskies that I select, blend, and specialty barrel finish. Liberty & Plenty is 100% owned by one woman without any equity partners.

How do you create complexity in the fermentation stage?

We work with various yeasts either as a single reference or in combination during the fermentation process, using longer fermentation times and a range of temperatures to change the complexity of the mash bill. Going forward we will experiment with sour mashing in bourbon, dunder in rum, and various barrel finishes for flavor development.

What steps do you take to become more sustainable?

Accessing as much grain as possible closer to our distillery, working to cut our carbon footprint with transportation. Giving our spent grain and molasses to local farmers for their livestock or fields. We also recover hot water used in the distillation process.

How do you explore new markets for your spirits and focus on business development?

Surveying government agencies for opportunities, talking to everyone I can in other parts of the US and world who might be looking for a specific type of spirit, price point, style, finishing, etc, and looking for new innovative ideas that might differentiate us from other brands. I'm always looking for an opportunity to tell our story and introduce more people to our brand through collaborations, co-branding stories, cultural experiences, and any other way that helps to elevate others and ourselves.

What trends do you anticipate in the beverage industry in the coming months? Or Where do you see the domestic craft distilling scene going? What's next for the industry?

While bourbon is king, we see rum as an excellent versatile category. Working with rum allows for the creation of white, aged, flavored, finished, and blended expressions. We are about to release a rum aged in bourbon and rye whiskey barrels, a spiced rum, and coffee rum allowing us to use these spirits in a range of cocktails.