Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
Grass-fed. Free range. Organic. Today’s culture is filled with buzzwords that aim at boiling products down to a feeling of authenticity; of a time long past where hometown farmers and grocers helped feed the United States.
For serial entrepreneur and long-time Hopewell resident Ray Disch, some of those keywords are being co-opted for his latest venture, Sourland Mountain Spirits.
“I think as a country, the timing is good because we’re trying to go back to where we came from,” he said. “When I grew up in the North Jersey … the vegetable guy came around every night with a truck of fresh vegetables. This is nothing new. People want to support local merchants and purchase local products.”
Touted as the state’s first “farm distillery since prohibition,” the company’s tractor-barn-turned-distillery on Double Brook Farm has been the staging ground for a more agrarian approach to gin, vodka and rum that uses ingredients from local sources, with some exceptions.
Having lived in Hopewell Township for the last 33 years, with deep ties to its community, the proud 62-year-old business owner practically beams when he explains how his small-batch, hometown operation differentiates itself from larger companies.
“When people ask the difference between our locally produced spirits and what the big guys put out, I tell them that the easiest analogy is the difference between homemade food and fast food,” he said. “[Homemade food has] better ingredients and a slower process. We’re just taking more time and care.”
Time and care are two words, he said, that went into the making of the distillery, which shares land with Jon and Robin McConaughy’s Brick Farm Tavern and the Troon Brewing Company on Hopewell-Rocky Hill Road.
Years prior to getting into the spirits distilling business, Disch was the co-founder of the Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton during the mid-90s with his wife and another business partner. Having been involved in a lobbying campaign to get the state legislature to allow craft breweries in the state, he eventually sold his share of the brewery before moving onto other ventures, like starting real estate and construction businesses.
Though his time with Triumph came to an end, Disch said he never stopped paying attention to potential legislation allowing for craft distilleries to make their way to New Jersey at some point.
“I knew it was going to be the next thing. Wine had sort of done its thing and now we have a large number of wineries in New Jersey actively supported by the Department of Agriculture…then beer came along and now we have 65 or 70 breweries throughout the state,” he said.
It wasn’t until December 2013, when Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law allowing just that. Having received multiple business offers and plans over the years leading up to then, Disch said he quickly began getting the wheels turning for what would eventually become Sourland Mountain Spirits.
“When the governor signed the legislation into law in December 2013, I spent all of 2014 talking to my wife, asking if we wanted to get back into the booze game because we never had more fun or more satisfaction than when we were producing a product that brought most people joy,” he said.
For him, that meant getting back into the realm of alcohol and surrounding himself with “more artsy, interesting people” in the process.
“I made a promise to myself when I was in my 50s, that I would spend less time with boring people and more time with artists and artisans,” he said. “They just seem to be happier and have a healthier perspective on life.”
Through 2015, Disch and his wife worked to obtain approvals first from the township’s zoning board and then state and federal approvals to operate a distillery. Eventually, they were given the green light by all concerned parties by 2016, prompting them to set up shop at their current location.
Starting with gin, Disch said 70 test, stove-top distillations over the course of a year and a half took place before he and a friend were in agreement with the recipe.
“I wanted to get back into the booze business, getting to make my own high-quality product that I could be proud of,” he said. “When I first got into the beer business, I didn’t want to have a brew pub – I just wanted a microbrewery because I wanted to make my own brand. Now I get to do that.”
Since opening back in March, Disch said his products can be found in 80 locations throughout the state and has won four awards throughout the country.
“We’re off and running, having a ball and completely focused on making the best product we can and then selling the bajeezus out of it,” he said.
Looking forward, Disch said he wants to see how far he can take the distillery over the next few years.
“I’d like to build a very, very successful brand and product that people enjoy because I want to be able to travel where I want, when I want. I’d like to have enough money for my wife and I to see the world. I don’t need more things or stuff,” he said. “As you get older, you realize how important it is to appreciate and to enjoy and to smell the flowers.”
