What contrarian opinion you've held has benefitted you the most in your life?
The contrarian opinion that has benefited me the most in my life is that I prefer working on smaller, more innovative projects than large industrialized ones. This has allowed me to focus on craft distilling and pot still distillation, and to be part of rebuilding the history of distilling in the Midwest region.
Transcript: "What contrarian opinion you've held has benefited you the most in your life? By far, the idea that I would rather be on the chase than have already caught something, right? So, I like the underdog. I like being the underdog. I like playing in the minor leagues. That's why I work in craft distilling and not large industrialized distilling. I pass on large industrialized distilling jobs just about every single week because, to me, it wouldn't be that much fun. The goal is already attained. It's already there. It's already at hand. You're doing somebody else's work. You're not doing anything that new, that innovative, that different. For me, it's a lot more fun to have to work on the fly, to be able to turn on a dime, to be able to do things in a very different way, all the way down to focusing specifically on pot still distillation. I think that pot still distillation makes a better spirit, a more rounded spirit, a fattier spirit, a spirit more representative of the person who's working the stills and the fermenters, as well as the agrarian side of distillation in general, than what a column still will ever possibly make. So, I'm the exact opposite of most distillers in the Midwest and the Kentuckiana region in general, in that I would much rather be on the Hoosier side of the river, rebuilding our history over here. I'd much rather be working on pot still distillery. I don't need the big, shiny, squirrely copper stuff, and I don't need the limelight that comes with working for one of those huge distilleries. It does not interest me at all, and I'm doing just fine."
