John Emerald Distilling is a true Southern spirit as well as an Alabama Maker
John and Jimmy Sharp are co-owners and distillers of John Emerald Distilling Co. in Opelika. (Brittany Faush-Johnson / Alabama NewsCenter)
John Emerald Distilling Company, Opelika
The Makers: John Sharp and Jimmy Sharp
It took a hundred years for Alabama to see a revival in quality, homegrown whiskey. In 2015, John Emerald Distilling Company released the first legally distilled whiskey in the state since Prohibition (which came to Alabama five years ahead of most everywhere else).
John Sharp and his son, Jimmy, own and operate the small-batch distillery in a former cotton warehouse in downtown Opelika. They make and distribute single malt whiskey, gin, vodka and two kinds of rum, and they rely on many Alabama-grown ingredients to make these spirits unique to our state.
John Emerald Distilling is an Alabama Maker that is stirring spirits from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
John and Jimmy left a lucrative specialty plaster business (creating interior decorative plaster for Louis Vuitton stores all over the world) to open the 8,000-square-foot distillery. They wanted an occupation that kept them closer to home after the birth of Jimmy’s daughter, Lily, now 4. Neither father nor grandfather wanted to miss a moment of her growing up.
The Sharps were homebrewers who briefly considered opening a brewery before turning their attention to spirits. John said they learned the art of distilling by going to school: whiskey school in Breckinridge, Colorado, rum school in Loveland, Colorado, a technical distilling course at the Seibel Institute in Chicago, and Jimmy had an internship at Springbank Distillers in Campbeltown, Scotland.
Muscadine brandy was the first thing they made, and it’s available only in the facility’s tasting room (recently named one of the top 60 bars in the South). Spirits here are served in craft cocktails or neat in a $10 tasting flight.
The company is named after John Emerald Sharp (John’s father and Jimmy’s grandfather). The products are named after other Sharp relatives, each spirit honoring people, places and traditions.
The most recent offering, the award-winning John’s Alabama Single Malt Whiskey, is made with malted Irish barley smoked with peach and pecan wood. This new-style whiskey is made like a Scotch and aged like a bourbon in barrels fashioned from charred American white oak from the Ozarks so it reflects the Sharp family’s Scottish and American roots.
The Sharps are working with Auburn University and growers around the state to produce barley. “We want to bring more local base products into the production,” John said. Jimmy added: “We’re either currently or evolving towards having it be ground-to-glass from Alabama.”
The Sharps were the first to make rum in Alabama in modern years, and they use sugarcane syrup from Joe Todd in Headland to do so. Gene’s Spiced Rum is flavored with local pecans. Spurgeon’s Barrel Aged Rum spends time in used single malt whiskey barrels.
Hugh Wesley’s Gin features juniper berries from the Eastern red cedar trees that grow locally along pasture fences. (Jimmy said they checked with Auburn’s agriculture department to make sure these berries were viable.) There are picking parties in the late fall; the Sharps make a bunch of gin and tonics and invite family and friends to the harvest.
The triple-filtered, corn-based Elizabeth Vodka is named after Clara Elizabeth, who happened to be a teetotaler.
The Sharps are looking to expand the Elizabeth line with liqueurs made from local fruits, and they feel confident about the future.
“Craft distilling is growing,” Jimmy said. “It’s similar to craft beer but about 10 years behind as an industry. We’re in a great position for that. There’s plenty of room to grow.”
The Products: John’s Alabama Single Malt Whiskey, Hugh Wesley’s Gin, Elizabeth Vodka, Spurgeon’s Barrel Aged Rum and Gene’s Spiced Rum
Take Home: Available at ABC stores throughout Alabama and at the distillery. Prices (750 ml bottles) range from $19.99 for the Elizabeth Vodka to $42.99 for John’s Alabama Single Malt Whiskey.
John Emerald Distilling Company
706 North Railroad Avenue
Opelika, Alabama 36801
334-737-5353
The tasting room is open Wednesday through Friday 4 p.m. until midnight and Saturday 2 p.m. to midnight. Free tours are available Thursdays and Fridays 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. There are occasional bottling parties, too.
