Cover Story: Lucky You

Photo by Mike Howard

Zac Triemert and the rest of the crew behind Lucky Bucket Lager are brewing up something very few, if any, of us have seen in our lifetimes: A liquor distilled, packaged and sold in Nebraska.

That’s because nobody has actually distilled, packaged and sold a Nebraska-born liquor (legally, anyway) since before Prohibition ruled America from 1920 to 1933.

But thanks to a little patience and a lot of innovation, Nebraskans will soon be able to taste a little bit of history as Triemert and Co. are about ready to start producing Joss Vodka from what they’re calling the Solas Distillery, located alongside their Lucky Bucket operation in a warehouse near 120th Street and Giles Road in La Vista. The group, which has produced its Lucky Bucket beer since December of last year, also has plans to do a rum and a single-malt whiskey in the future. 

You’ll be able to find Joss Vodka on the shelves of major grocery stores by the end of 2009 (Triemert says he’s shooting for the first week of December; be sure to keep checking the City Weekly for an official date).

Triemert’s recipe for success has come in the form of everything from studying abroad in Scotland to forming his business plan to getting financial backers and finally, soliciting help from the Legislature to get the fine print of some Nebraska state laws rearranged.

But the first thing Triemert did was convince a couple of friends he worked with at the Upstream for six years – Brian McGee and Jason Payne – to take the leap of faith with him. They obliged, and McGee is now co-president (along with Triemert, who is also the Director of Operations) and Payne tales on the role of Vice President.

“I said, ‘Brian, I think there’s a need out there in Nebraska if you want to do this with me, and I told Jason the same thing,” Triemert said. “The idea that I have, as it exists now, started four years ago. It’s amazing how long it takes to get things going.”

The fact that state laws were in place that, while they didn’t necessarily prohibit the manufacturing of liquor in Nebraska, didn’t make it easy for the group, either.

“There was a law that would allow for distilling but it was made for a large manufacturing company to come in (to Nebraska) and put in a $20 million distillery or something. The license fees were high. There wasn’t anything designed for the little guy.” In essence, what they needed was for Nebraska to allow for microdistilleries to hold licenses to manufacture liquor, something microbreweries have been able to do here with beer for some time.

So the group called upon state senator John Synowiecki of Omaha, who in 2007 introduced Legislative Bill 549. Triemert and his group then gave a presentation of the bill in Lincoln to the general affairs committee.

“After everybody spoke on our behalf, everybody kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Why wouldn’t we vote for this?’ It went through general affairs unanimously and then it went to the main floor and it was pushed through quicker than I ever could have imagined.

“It was a neat experience to see how that process works and just about everybody I ran into was super-supportive and helpful. I think it was pretty clear to them that we weren’t trying to do some hillbilly thing out in the shed.”

Solas Distillery soon became the first licensed microdistillery in Nebraska, although Cooper’s Chase vodka has started brewing its liquor near West Point, Neb.

Joss Vodka will come on the heels of what is already a successful brewing company for the group, Lucky Bucket, which is already doing about 500 cases a week though its only been in business for about 10 months. That happening first was purely a coincidence, according to Triemert.

“If you’d go back and read our business plan from a couple years ago, this was intended to be a distillery that was going to have a little brewing company alongside it. We always intended that there would be two different companies, as there are now, but we never imagined that the brewing side would become as big as it’s become. The distillery was always the driving force, but in the meantime we had to feed the brewing animal.”

It’s obvious from talking to Triemert that his passion lies with the liquor. Originally from Minneapolis, he moved to Omaha and soon caught on with the Upstream, where he eventually became head brewmaster. While there, he took a one-year sabbatical in the fall of 2005 to go abroad and earn his master’s degree in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. He said it’s the only place in the world that offers a degree in such things and only 10 to 20 people are accepted into the program each year. The method of distilling that will be used at Solas was actually his master’s thesis.

“We had chemical engineering courses, pretty high-level stuff. It was a great year. I wanted to go learn from the pros, and they don’t do it better anywhere in the world than they do in Scotland.”    

Triemert says his method of distilling allows for Joss Vodka to be made with the most well-suited alcohols. Solas will also cut their vodka with water shipped in from the Sandhills via 275-gallon totes and they will also use organic grains from here in Nebraska.

Lucky Bucket’s immediate success combined with what appears to be Solas’ dedication to attention to detail and quality should add up to a solid business plan for the Lucky Bucket/Solas group.

“We’ve been very fortunate so far and we have a lot of people to thank for that – from our distributor to all of the patrons out there who have supported Lucky Bucket and us from the beginning,” Triemert said. “We could not have done this without them.”

And he doesn’t discount the excitement that’s being generated when people say, “Hey, did you know that someone’s making vodka in Nebraska for the first time since Prohibition?”

“Prohibition was kind of a neat time. People were being quite innovative back then so in a way you’ve got to appreciate that, even though it was against the law. But it was a silly law. But it created a need and people found interesting ways to fill that demand.”

ith silly Nebraska laws now corrected and Solas Distillery about to fill a demand 89 years in the making, you will soon be able to say the same thing about Triemert, McGee and Payne.