CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland's first legal distillery since prohibition is now in business.

Portside Distillery sold its first bottle of silver rum Thursday night in the company's unfinished Warehouse District restaurant, ushering in a new era of craft spirits in Cleveland.

"It feels awesome that all of our hard work is finally paying off," said Portside's brewmaster and co-owner Dan Malz. "It feels good to be a trailblazer in Cleveland."

For Malz, 35, and partners Keith Sutton, 46, John Marek, 41, and Matt Zappernick, 47, the path to getting their first batch of micro-distilled spirits into the hands of customers was painstaking.

Just getting a license to produce and sell distilled spirits in Ohio was "like chewing on glass," Malz said.

It took Portside nine months of back and forth with the state to become a legal operation. Other arcane requirements, from the type of padlock on the distillery door to recipe pre-approval by the state, were tedious and puzzling at times, Malz said.

Portside's first batch of spirits, a smooth white rum, was legally distilled and bottled two weeks ago. But the state didn't give the OK to sell it until about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

An hour later, their first customer arrived, David Hovis, a 37-year-old Cleveland resident who stumbled upon the company's Facebook site and decided to pick up a bottle. The sale was captured on a cellphone camera.

That transaction was nearly two years in the making.

"John and I were having a drink one night and we were talking about how were weren't happy in our trade jobs," Sutton recalled. "I said 'I've always wanted to make a still,' and John said 'So have I,' and that was it."

Portside is in the process of transforming its distillery into a restaurant to open in the spring, similar to Market Garden Brewery about a mile away in Ohio City, which is working to distill its own spirits in the near future.

Market Garden founder Sam McNulty was excited for Portside's momentous night, even though it beat his restaurant to becoming the first legal distilling operation in Cleveland.

"From the outside, it may look like we are in competition, but in actuality we are working together to get Americans to stop drinking fast food equivalents and start drinking locally," McNulty said.

Market Garden has a fully functional distillery, but is still in the process of obtaining necessary licenses. McNulty said he plans to distil his first white whiskey sometime in 2013.

Portside's first 840-bottle batch of silver rum took about three weeks to produce.

When the rum is distilled, it is a high-powered 150 proof. The batch is then brought down to a more drinkable 80 proof before the four owners hand-bottle it.

There are plans to distill spiced and vanilla rums, rye whiskeys and bourbons.

"Because everything is hand-made, it gives us the freedom to create some new recipes," Malz said. "There's things we can bring to Cleveland that no one else is doing he said."

The company sold 35 bottles in three hours its first night.

Portside Distillery is located at 1100 W. 9th St. and will be open noon to 7 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.

They are offering numbered bottles of their first silver rum for $29.25.

For more information, visit portsidedistillery.com or call 440-829-8550.



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