BRYAN, Texas — There’s a secret in town, and it’s located in Downtown Bryan in the Varisco building. Hush and Whisper — the first distillery in the area.
“We’re a grain to glass distillery,” said Manager at Hush and Whisper, Caleb Clanton.
“Every single drop of whiskey, vodka and gin that we bottle or serve here, we made here on premise, and it started off as grains.”
The first distillery in Downtown Bryan is now residing in one of the most historic buildings in town, built in the 1940s.
“If you look up and around and in the fermentation room, there’s a ton of pipes that have to be here,” Canton said.
“Whether it’s steam, or chilled water or mash or distilled alcohol, we weren’t trying to hide any of what we were doing. We want to show people from the beginning, ‘Hey, this is what a distillery looks like',".
Making bourbon, whiskey, vodka, and gin right in front of guests will be the ultimate experience.
“With our white whiskey, we can bring it in as raw corn and then turn it into whiskey in a bottle in about a week. For our vodka, a week to 10 days is accurate. For our gin, it takes about three weeks. Gin, it has botanicals in there. The juniper, coriander, cardamom, licorice root, orange peel. Those all produce some oils that they have to settle afterwards and kind of rest and let all the flavors melt," Clanton said.
"It takes about three weeks from starting off as corn, wheat and malted barley, and then being something we can put in our bottle, a cocktail, or take it out with you at the end of the night.”
As for production, Hush and Whisper barreled their first whiskey barrel in June of this year. The first couple of bourbons will be released in the next five years.
“We’re making about six barrels worth a day,” Canton said.
“In 2024, we are going to make 3,000 barrels.”:
All of the corn is locally sourced from a farm within 15 miles of Bryan.
“We’re doing it this way because it matters to us,” Canton said.
“We want to make sure that we are true to who we are and making an authentic spirit, and that’s what we’re doing here just about every day.”
Taking a look at business in Downtown Bryan, Hush and Whisper is one of 13 new businesses that community members can visit, over a 60 percent increase from last year along with five businesses closing this year and two last year.
Hush and Whisper is located at 219 Main St. in Downtown Bryan. You visit their Facebook page here.