On foggy nights, the story goes, you might just catch a glimpse of antlers breaking the surface of the waters of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and the vague outline of a skeletal fish below the murky depths.
They haven’t bottled their first drop yet, so it might be a little early to start talking about legacy, but Austin and Ashley Hallford hope theirs will include lots of chatter about the mythical swamp creature that gave their Deerfish Distilling Co. its name. The inspiration for the legend, which is creatively embellished on Deerfish’s website, was a graphic image that a friend of Austin’s designed many years ago. “When we were trying to come up with a name for the distillery, we kept thinking about how ‘Deerfish’ really fits the area and how that logo is so striking,” says Ashley. “You can do a lot of fun things with it — it’s kind of like our version of the Jackalope or a Bigfoot or a Yeti.”
The focus of Mobile’s first-ever legal distillery will be whiskey, but that’s something you can’t rush. In the meantime, they are happily serving up their Fish Hook line of canned vodka seltzers. Along with another couple who are co-founders of the company (Austin’s brother, Lee, and his wife, Emilie) they are putting all the pieces in place to start crafting the kind of high-quality whiskey they’re remembered for in the Pacific Northwest. Having grown up in Mobile and later the Weeks Bay area, Austin is back home now, in business with his wife whom he met in Montana partly because he traveled with a homemade still in the back of his truck.
Austin is 32 years old and already seems legendary, and so do the many stories he loves to tell. The others clearly ring true, but one of them is a tall tale that explains their business’ eye-catching logo which depicts a fanciful beast that’s part fish and part deer.
Maybe you’ve seen it on the black labels of the line of seltzers they introduced last summer, which for the time being rely on vodka from an outside source. In bold, natural flavors like Watermelon Lime and Satsuma Peach, the beverages are available at dozens of stores, bars and restaurants in Mobile and on the Eastern Shore. You can also pick up a four-pack at their business on Government Street (fittingly at the intersection of South Bayou Street). The building contains a comfortable area with fish-camp vibes and next to that is where they concoct the carbonated cocktails and will start distilling once they’ve met all of the regulatory requirements.
Getting the state and federal licenses to open a distillery went smoothly, they say, but obtaining certain permits from the city and the state health department has been a longer bureaucratic battle. A surprising (and costly) snag, for instance, was an unexpected requirement that they would need to install a sprinkler system for fire protection. Once they’ve cleared all these hurdles, Austin can get back into making liquor, which is something he’s done for half his life in one form or another. They expect to start production in a year or so, and then comes the patience-straining wait of three or four years as the whiskey leisurely ages in charred-oak barrels to fully develop its character.
“Starting out with vodka seltzers was strategic and intentional,” says Ashley. “RTDs (ready-to-drink cocktails) are what’s selling in this market right now, and they’re fast for us to turn around.” Marketing wise, they believed the black cans would appeal to a broader audience. “I felt like a guy might go out on his johnboat and take a few Fish Hooks with him and not feel like it’s a girly drink,” Ashley says.
Down the road, Deerfish’s whiskey won’t be entirely traditional, either. Austin’s grain of choice is triticale, a hybrid of rye and wheat, which he says yields a distinctive fruity sweetness. He grew to fully appreciate its qualities at The Distillarium in Yakima, Washington, where he was the master distiller and Ashley handled business and marketing. “It has its own flavor that’s different from the other whiskeys I’ve tried,” he says. “I started making it as a novelty, and it ended up selling itself. I could have three whiskeys on the table and the conversation always ended up on the triticale.”
How Austin started making liquor is quite a story, too. As a teenager, he figured out how to make moonshine from reading about stills in his science class textbook. Later, he absorbed the contents of a more detailed instructional manual that was published in New Zealand. “It was more of a hobby that I did to make me the cool guy,” he explains.
While shiny, state-of-the-art stainless-steel equipment stands ready in another room, visitors to Deerfish Distilling Co. can see a crude example of Austin’s earlier ingenuity just inside the main entrance. A makeshift apparatus the height of a floor lamp is something he constructed from an old swimming pool filter, a sink trap and some copper pipes. It’s a similar but more sophisticated version of the one he used to make small batches of home-brewed hootch when he was 17.
His family of co-workers smile, chuckle and nod their heads as Austin details some of the other functions he’s found for his homemade still over the years. He has used it as a heating element for a hillbilly hot tub in the back of his pickup, and another time he used part of it to cover a leak in his camper to keep out the rain. “I’ve boiled crawfish in this, I’ve boiled peanuts in this, I’ve fried turkeys in it…” he continues, and Ashley finishes some of his stories; it’s obvious that she’s heard them before but still enjoys them. He thinks of his cherished contraption as a lifesaver, or at least a life changer. “There have been several times in my life that, if I didn’t have that, I would have been screwed but it got me through. It even got me a wife,” he adds, and everyone, including Ashley, busts out in laughter.
Visiting their distillery, it’s easy to see these Deerfish folks like to have a good time, and want others to, as well. They might even roll up a sleeve and show you their Deerfish tattoos as they talk about all the plans they have, which include distilling several kinds of liquor and having a full-blown tasting room and hopefully a cocktail bar and restaurant. For the time being, the inviting shop on the Downtown corner is a place where you can pick up some cans of seltzer or select from a big assortment of other items with their memorable logo, many of which they make themselves.
“It’s not a bar,” Ashley clarifies. “You can drink here but you can only drink the products we make. That’s kind of the caveat. You can come in and sit down and buy a can and we’ll tell you some stories.” Sometimes the visitors bring up the legend of the Deerfish on their own, and the staff won’t correct them. They love that the harmless myth they’ve created has some legs, so to speak. “It’s like the cherry on top,” says Austin. “I want people to think there is a Deerfish legend.” Ashley adds: “And we want them looking for it in the Delta, and warning people about it.”
Deerfish Distillling Co. • 757 Government St. 285-1190 deerfishdistilling.com
From moonshine to smooth and complex whiskeys, the folks behind Deerfish have a long love affair with spirits. Here, Austin shares his perfect spring cocktail recipe — a julep/mojito mashup made with fresh lime and maple syrup.
Buckshot Smash
MAKES 1
This cocktail is refreshing, spring-forward and easy to recreate at home.
Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce pure maple syrup
3-4 fresh mint leaves
Club soda
Directions
Lightly muddle the mint with the maple syrup. Add bourbon and lime juice, shake with ice until well chilled, then strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Top with a splash of club soda and garnish with a mint sprig.
