Mark Montieth: Spirited storytellers

An athlete associating with an alcoholic beverage is practically a cliché these days, as predictable as a pulled hamstring. Don’t ask for a list. It would be nearly as easy to take inventory of those who are not involved with a wine, whiskey, gin, vodka or other adults-only product.

Two prominent and local ex-athletes are among the expanding roster of participants in the ever-growing industry of spirits, but they’re doing more than lending a name to a label or cutting a commercial. Their involvement, both physically and fiscally, equates to a head-first dive into a barrel.

Alan Henderson, sole owner of Henderson Spirits Group, is selling whiskey and gin. Drew Storen, co-owner of Field of Dreams Whiskey, offers bourbon and a canned cocktail. Neither are sitting back and relying on name or reputation to build their business. They’re doing the heavy lifting, putting in long hours and tending to every detail along the way.

Henderson, 50, works with independent contractors, is negotiating with an outside investor and is looking into hiring a full-time employee. For now, however, he remains a one-man operation, working out of his home. He sometimes refers to “we” when discussing his business, but then corrects himself. “When I say we, we is me,” he said in an interview. “Eventually, it will be a real ‘we.’”

Storen, 36, has two partners, Tyler Clippard and Andy Keller, but founded the company and remains the driving force. “This entire thing is all my fault,” he said. “I can tell you every little thing about it. I’m not just a mascot. I’m putting my money where my mouth is.”

Storen and Henderson have never met but have plenty in common. Both grew up in the Indianapolis suburbs and attended high school in the area—Henderson at Brebeuf Preparatory, Storen at Brownsburg High. Both were first-round draft picks—Henderson 16th overall by the NBA Atlanta Hawks, Storen 10th by the MLB Washington Nationals. Both enjoyed successful professional careers—Henderson played 12 seasons with four teams, Storen played eight seasons with four teams. Both are married with children—Henderson four, Storen three. Both live in Carmel, although Storen is building a house in Zionsville.

Both appreciate a good story as well, and that’s where their whiskey comes in.

Diversifying the bar

Henderson gradually became interested in the spirits industry after watching TV shows such as the “Moonshiners” series. As a customer, however, he wasn’t finding products that had personal appeal for him.

“I would see a lack of products that were telling stories I felt connected to or see people on the label who looked like me,” he said. “I thought there should be more options on the shelf.”

Hence his motto: “Diversify the bar.”

He found two compelling spirits-related stories involving African Americans in Birdie Brown and Tom Bullocks.

Brown, whose birth name was Bertie, moved from Missouri to Lewiston, Montana, in 1898. She filed a claim in 1907 for land under the Homestead Act, which allowed the purchase of 160 acres for a minimal filing fee after a prospector resided on it for five years continuously. She made her living in part as a moonshiner, using grains she grew, until Prohibition forced her to shift her focus to dry cleaning. But according to Henderson’s research, she was killed in a mysterious chemical explosion shortly after a visit from a revenue officer in 1933.

Henderson has named two products after her: a plain “hooch,” an unaged whiskey, and an aged whiskey. They are produced in Bozeman, Montana, using the same grains Brown used—wheat, oats and barley. The aged whiskey was among the gold medal winners announced by USA Spirits Ratings last week.

“Her fearlessness to go out and try to homestead was incredible to me,” Henderson said. “She was growing her own grains, distilling her own product, all the way out in Montana. It’s just an amazing story.”

Bullock was the son of a former slave and a pre-Prohibition bartender at the St. Louis Country Club. He was most notable for writing a successful cocktail manual, The Ideal Bartender, in 1917. George Herbert Walker, a club member and uncle of President George H.W. Bush, wrote the introduction.

Henderson has two products bearing Bullock’s name, a burnt orange bourbon and a gin with sweet lime. The bourbon is distilled in Lawrenceburg and the gin in London, England. He also plans to publish a special edition of the book. His wife, Maxine, is in the beverage business as well, selling Bollygood, Indian-inspired sparkling drinks.

Henderson’s beverages are available at retail outlets in 10 states, with Indiana and Florida his biggest markets, and are shipped to 30-plus states via e-commerce at www.reservebar.com. “I don’t have the bandwidth to put salespeople in all the different markets,” he said. “I want to keep growing, but I don’t want to enter a market until I can support it.”

That’s the business side of it. The greater pleasure for him is in words rather than numbers.

“I’m happy to see people enjoying the stories,” Henderson, whose business was recently featured in a “CBS Saturday Morning” segment, said. “We’ve had a lot of support from all different types of people. I do tastings and meet a lot of people who are enjoying it.

“Our mission is to diversify the bar, but we’re not about exclusion in any form. In my home bar, I have all kinds of brands in there, all kinds of pictures. I support them; I don’t see why there’s not room on the shelf for everyone. I want to hire all kinds of people who we can train, and they can grow with us. I just want to be in position to provide opportunities to expose people underrepresented in the industry.”

‘Field of Dreams’-inspired

Storen’s interest in the industry was sparked in 2018 by a conversation with a bartender at a bachelor party in San Francisco. The bartender recommended a book, “The Best Bourbon You’ll Never Taste,” which planted more seeds. Once bitten by the bourbon bug, Storen was drawn to the legendary cornfield featured in the 1989 baseball movie “Field of Dreams.”

It turned out the corn from that field in Dyersville, Iowa—143 acres until earlier this year when part of it was cut down to build youth-league diamonds—was sold like the corn in any other field. He bought some of it in 2021 but now purchases all of it from there. Bourbon is a whiskey made primarily from corn, and Storen’s consists of 73% corn, 22% wheat and 5% rye.

He considers it “approachable,” catering to people attracted by the unique story as well as the taste. “If somebody is drawn to it because they’re a big baseball fan, you don’t want to blow their doors off,” he said.

His company also produces the Southpaw Canned Cocktail (Storen was a left-handed relief pitcher) that includes lemon and ginger. His beverages are distilled in Osakis, Minnesota, and Three Oaks, Michigan.

He started as a home-based business but now has an office in the Villages of West Clay. His products are available in Indiana and Iowa, with about 200 points of distribution in each state, and will soon be available again on the company’s website, drinkfieldofdreams.com.

Maintaining the early momentum is a challenge, not to mention the most interesting part of the business.

“To go on the other side of it has been fascinating,” Storen said. “There’s a browse factor here. How are you able to change someone’s buying habits? I’ve had to get a crash course in it and make sure I’m asking the right questions.”

Storen maintains a baseball theme beyond the name of his products with some details. The bourbon bottle, for example, is shaped like the Cy Young Award, the annual honor given to the top pitcher in each of the major leagues. His bottles and cans also declare what’s inside to be “From the Most Famous Cornfield in the World.”

But, like Henderson, he wants the juice to stand on its own, without the benefit of gimmicks or name recognition. The players’ popularity might boost sales a bit in Indiana or cities where they played professionally, but not enough to sustain them if the product isn’t accepted by consumers. Their names are not on the bottles for a reason.

“I didn’t build the brand around me,” Henderson said. “A lot of people don’t even know I’m behind it.”

“This is like going out to face the heart of the order in the ninth [inning],” Storen said. “I don’t want to rely on anything other than [the products]. I want somebody to like the taste of it without knowing I’m part of it.”•

__________

Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.