Today we’d like to introduce you to Chad Ralston.
Hi Chad, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We at ASW Distillery got our start in 2009 when our co-founders Jim Chasteen and Charlie Thompson, former roommates at UGA, developed a recipe for a clear (lightly aged) whiskey here in Atlanta. With that recipe in hand, we partnered with a distillery in Charleston to produce it and launched it in Georgia in 2011.
By early 2015, that brand had developed a bit of a cult following here in our home state of Georgia, but we realized the growth opportunities for clear whiskey were relatively limited, so decided we either needed to go big or go home. We chose to go big and welcomed 2 integral new members to the team: (1) Justin Manglitz, our Master Distiller, who had over 15 years craft booze-making experience at the time due to his near-decade-long ownership of Athens, Georgia’s homebrew supply store and his love of single malts and pure pot still Irish whiskies, and (2) Chad Ralston, our Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer. With those 2 additional team members, we spent the summer of 2015 raising just shy of $2 million from our 75 best friends to build out Georgia’s largest production distillery. We opened our tasting room and whiskey distillery to the public in mid-2016 across the street from SweetWater Brewery.
In short order, we launched Fiddler Bourbon, Resurgens Rye (the first rye distilled in Atlanta since Prohibition), and Duality Double Malt, the world‘s first double malt. In 2018, Duality brought home Georgia’s first-ever Double Gold Medal for a whiskey and developed a following for its unique, smoky character.
In 2019, we opened our second location in the West End, ASW Whiskey Exchange, with both a tasting room and a 10,000 square-foot barrelhouse for aging our whiskey inventory.
In 2020, we signed a lease with the Atlanta Braves to build our third location at The Battery Atlanta. Just a few weeks later, our Maris Otter Single Malt Whiskey won Craft Whiskey of the Year at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition – the same week we went shelter-in-place in Georgia due to Covid. We spent much of the rest of 2020 producing hand sanitizer for the local community.
In 2021, we finally opened our tasting room and vodka/gin distillery at The Battery Atlanta, releasing Bustletown Vodka and Winterville Gin to widespread acclaim. Later that year, the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. Naturally, we released a collaborative bourbon with them, Fiddler Chin Music, designed in collaboration with the Atlanta Braves CEO, Derek Schiller, Braves Development Company CEO, Mike Plant, and other members of the Braves front office.
The Fiddler Chin Music partnership has continued as a product available all across Braves country, and a Fiddler branded bar inside Truist Park. (We also have a Fiddler sign behind homeplate one half-inning of every home game.)
In 2022, we became the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (the most prestigious competition in the U.S.) and have since expanded into other markets across the country, including our recent launch in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In 2023, we launched Hunker Vodka in collaboration with Athens, Georgia’s Classic City Collective, with a portion of proceeds from each bottle sold benefitting Classic City’s mission of supporting UGA student-athletes through their comprehensive Name Image Likeness (NIL) program.
Later this year, we will open a restaurant and bar, ASW Flights and Bites, in Concourse B of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and will launch a collaborative whiskey line with another iconic Atlanta business, Big Green Egg.
All told, we produce the best-selling Georgia-made spirits, including Fiddler Wheated Bourbon (a 6 year old wheated bourbon that routinely beats Weller and Eagle Rare in blind taste tests), Fiddler Soloist Bourbon (the first Straight Bourbon distilled in Atlanta since Prohibition), Fiddler Heartwood Bourbon (our wheated bourbon that we finish on white oak staves that we harvest in North Georgia and season for years before hand-charring them and slotting them into the barrel for the final few months of aging), Fiddler Encore Bourbon (our high-wheat bourbon mash bill finished in secondary casks, including Maple, Port, and Tequila), Winterville Gin (including a forthcoming collaboration with Atlanta Botanical Garden), and Hunker Vodka. It’s been quite the decade for us at ASW!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
A whiskey distillery making its own products has to be one of the most difficult businesses to start, due to the capital requirements involved in production equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and cash flow challenges that arise from a product that requires significant quantities of cash upfront to make, but which has to age for many years before any revenue can be realized from the product.
We mitigated some of these challenges early on by designing our tasting rooms to accommodate public tastings of our lightly aged products in the early days, and by hosting a number of private events.
We’ve been impressed with ASW Distillery, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are extremely proud to be the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery in the U.S. since 2018 when we first started submitting our products to the most prestigious spirits competition in the US, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Additionally, Covid shut down 3 of our 4 revenue streams for months (tasting room traffic, private events, and restaurant business; the only bottle shops remained open). We weathered it by producing thousands of gallons of hand sanitizer for the community, of which we were able to donate a significant portion to nonprofit organizations in need.
We also make annual contributions (including the donation of at least 50 auction items each year) to a number of nonprofits doing fantastic work in the Atlanta area, including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Giving Kitchen, and Georgia Conservancy. It is extremely rewarding to be able to support so many great organizations by bringing people together around the highest-quality spirits.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Finding a high-quality mentor is extremely valuable for gaining perspective in how to grow both personally and professionally. In looking for a mentor, I have always found it helpful to find someone a few years older, who has personal and professional experiences orthogonal to your own, while still sharing some common interests. Never underestimate personality fit, and someone who is willing to invest their time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aswdistillery.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/aswdistillery
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/aswdistillery
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/aswdistillery
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/asw-distillery-atlanta
