ELLICOTTVILLE — Out in the countryside not far from Ellicottville is a new distillery offering a unique line of corn whiskey, corn vodka and apple vodka all under its label, “The Agronomist.”

The Ellicottville Distillery officially opened its doors for business Oct. 1. It has been a two-and-a-half year project in the making for partners Bryan Scharf, the distiller; Charlie and Liz Bares, dairy farmers; and attorney Kathleen Moriarty — all of Ellicottville.

As distillery manager, Scharf is in charge of most day-to-day operations. The Bares couple own the farm where most of the grains will be grown, and Moriarty is a “silent partner.”

The partners started out as acquaintances when Charlie Bares and Moriarty were interested in opening a distillery and sought out Scharf who had distilling experience, as well as a building available to house a distillery.

“My father and I wanted to do a distillery about the same time Charlie and Kathleen were also thinking about it separately,” Scharf said. “They wanted to buy this building from my father and I kind of made the sales pitch that I also wanted to start a distillery, so we teamed up from there.”

According to Scharf, his father, Don Scharf, has owned the industrial-type building for the past 10-12 years. Located at 5462 Robbins Road, it’s an ideal place for a distillery with high ceilings and ample space. It was originally owned by Billy Northrup and over the years has been used for many manufacturing purposes, including a place to rebuild train cars and a machine shop.

The interior of the building has been newly renovated to accommodate the distillery and retail area that has a tasting room with a beautiful copper-topped bar.

The renovations to the 40-by-60 foot open floor plan included new electric and water, new lighting and a repainted floor, as well as making it handicapped accessible. Upstairs is a mezzanine for bottles and storage. The fermentors and still are downstairs, along with a bottling and labeling area, and a retail space.

THE HEART OF the entire operation is a 500-gallon copper pot still custom-made in Germany. Scharf said it’s all copper and sits in a stainless steel jacket where the water is heated to create the steam.

“Finding the still and getting it over here was a process in itself. It took us nine months to get it here from the day it was ordered to the day it was shipped and arrived,” he said.

Scharf said they were getting corn mashes from Southern Tier Distilling, but they just received their new mash tank on Friday, so now they’ll be able to make their own grain mashes on site. They purchase cider used for the apple vodka from Mayer Brothers in Buffalo.

The distillery currently offers three products: a corn whiskey and two vodkas. Scharf noted that the spirits do not taste like corn or apples. He hopes to add other products in the future and is currently working on gin and honey spirits.

“The corn whiskey is white lightning for the most part — smooth moonshine I would call it,” he said.

Liz Bares said their whiskey is distilled once, but their vodka is distilled seven times. She said it makes it sweeter because all the neutral flavors and smells come through.

“If you smell vodka, compared to whiskey it doesn’t have a smell,” she said. “True vodka has no smell, no color and no taste. It’s basically pure alcohol.”

To make the apple vodka, Scharf ferments cider then takes it a step further to separate the alcohol from the mash, which raises the proof. He said alcohol has a lower boiling point at 173 degrees Fahrenheit than water at 212 degrees, so the alcohol steams-off the mash before anything else.

“Our basic mashes are coming from 100-percent corn and apple cider,” he said. “Since we just got the mash tank in, we will heat up the thick, viscous mash to breakdown all the starches into fermentable sugars. When you heat it up and cool it down, that’s what converts the starches into sugars that are easily fermentable by yeast.”

Scharf said before becoming a distiller at the new facility, he did a whole host of different things including contracting as a carpenter and bartending. He also has a four-year degree, but he says his heart is in the distilling business.

According to Liz, by November 2016 the distillery will be vertically integrated, making its whiskey and vodka from its own home-grown corn and barley crops. The ability to grow their own products will set them apart, unlike most distilleries that buy commodity grain.

The idea for the distillery’s label, “The Agronomist,” represents the role of the owners in the connection between the land and the finished spirit, as well as their unique position to offer a product that is entirely made by them.

“The Agronomist is our brand representing our transformation from grain to spirit,” Scharf said.

A free tasting flight of the spirits is available and, for a fee, cocktails are also available in the retail area where customers can also purchase a bottle of vodka or whisky.

The partners are working to get their product into liquor stores and restaurants in the Buffalo area, and a number of Ellicottville establishments are already serving The Agronomist vodkas and whiskey.

Ellicottville Distillery is located at 5462 Robbins Road near Ashford Junction where Routes 240 and 242 meet. The distillery will be open year-round and is currently open to the public for tasting hours on Friday, 4 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 3 p.m.

For more information, visit the distillery online at ellicottvilledistillery.com, Facebook or Instagram.

(This story appears in the Nov. 3, 2016 edition of The Salamanca Press.)