Every stop on this road is a place where somebody took a leap. A steady job left behind, a family recipe brought out of hiding, an old building given a second life. We sat down with each of them and listened. Hear their story first, then go meet the people who lived it. Stillhouse Road starts on the Atlantic in Holly Hill, wanders west across Central Florida to the Gulf, swings back to the east coast, and ends in Miami. It grows as new episodes come out.
1. Copper Bottom Craft Distillery, Holly Hill, FL
Jeremy Craig peered through the window of a small Vermont distillery on a family vacation, and came home to build Volusia County's first licensed craft distillery.
Guest: Jeremy Craig · Hear their story first
998 N. Beach Street, Holly Hill, FL 32117 · Website
2. Loggerhead Distillery, Sanford, FL
Two engineers, Chris Schmitt and Colby Theisen, turned years of lunchtime talk and a ten-foot backyard still into a downtown Sanford distillery named for Florida's loggerhead sea turtles.
Guest: Colby Theisen, Chris Schmitt · Hear their story first
124 W. 2nd Street, Sanford, FL 32771 · Website
3. Yalaha Bootlegging Company, Yalaha, FL
Third-generation farmer Doug McCormack turned a field of fallen organic blueberries, and a family secret his grandfather never admitted to, into moonshine made the legal way.
Guest: Doug McCormack · Hear their story first
8222A County Road 48, Yalaha, FL 34797 · Website
4. Homosassa Distillery, Homosassa, FL
Thirty-two years in cardiology, a cop's garage hobby his wife called hummingbird juice, and a lot of nails driven by hand became Homosassa Distillery on Florida's Nature Coast.
Guest: Marc Dossey, Karl Lounge · Hear their story first
8759 W. Tradeways Court, Homosassa, FL 34448 · Website
5. Tarpon Springs Distillery, Tarpon Springs, FL
Barry Butler turned an old Greek sponge warehouse into a grain-to-glass distillery, with a 130-year-old church for a rickhouse and stills named Amazing Grace and RD2D.
Guest: Barry Butler · Hear their story first
605 N. Pinellas Ave, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 · Website
6. Caribbean Moonshine, Orlando, FL
Steve Nichols and Mike Weber tip their hats to the first shiners of 1650s Barbados, with a spirit that's 100% Florida, from Okeechobee cane to Zephyrhills spring water.
Guest: Steve Nichols, Mike Weber · Hear their story first
8200 Vineland Ave, #240, Orlando, FL 32821 · Website
7. Indian River Distillery, Vero Beach, FL
Ray Hooker put a piece of 1715 treasure-fleet silver in the still and named his whiskey for the last American pirates.
Guest: Ray Hooker · Hear their story first
3308 Aviation Blvd, Vero Beach, FL 32960 · Website
8. Big Cypress Distillery, Miami, FL
Fernando Plata turned a Christmas-dinner idea and three decades of self-taught brewing into Big Cypress, home of Magic City gin, Hell's Bay rum, and Florida's first bottled-in-bond whiskey.
Guest: Fernando Plata · Hear their story first
8771 SW 133rd Street, Miami, FL 33176 · Website