- Michael Gebert
- Tremaine Atkinson with a still at CH Distillery
It takes a certain temperament to find happiness in a field where things often age for years. Tremaine Atkinson apparently has the temperament for distilling—his first try at a brewing business was in his twenties, and another quarter century (or two batches of 12-year scotch) passed before he cofounded (with his friend Mark Lucas) CH Distillery, just a couple blocks west of the Loop on Randolph.
Like a lot of 20-year-olds I was like, well, maybe I can make a business out of this! My buddies and I raised five thousand bucks between the three of us, and the idea was that we were going to make five-gallon kegs and deliver them. That was our business model. We had no idea what we doing, so within about six months we blew through the five thousand, mostly on “research,” and decided, OK, we’d better focus on our day jobs.
- Michael Gebert
- Distillery with a street-level view
Michael Gebert: It’s kind of surprising to see something that consists of big tanks and industrial equipment in an office building so close to the Loop. How did you wind up here?
Well, a big part of it, since we’re making our products from scratch, all the way from grain, is that the first part of the process is brewing. Because you’ve got to ferment something to get some alcohol to distill.
I’m not a big fan of vodkas that don’t have a lot of character, that are just ethanol and water. I don’t think that’s very interesting. But when there’s a little bit of essence, I just love it. That’s why I chose vodka, probably not the greatest business decision, but you know, it’s gotta be fun too.
The vodka and the gin are both made from Illinois wheat and rye. And it’s grown in Kane County, you can’t get much closer than that. We found a farmer who sources grains locally, we just went to him and said, give us a sample. We started messing around with it and it was absolutely beautiful grain.
