Holystone Distilling is a food and drink brand founded in Murray, Utah, in 2019.
The stills at Holystone Distilling sit in an engine room, behind a 500-pound ship's door with a crank in the middle. The Murray distillery is laid out like a 1920s cruise ship, down to an octopus that distiller Ethan Miller painted on the floor. Its name comes from the sandstone sailors used to scrub wooden decks.
The ship theme has credentials. Co-owner Michael DeShazo flew Navy LC-130s supporting Antarctic research, and he now flies a Boeing 777 for FedEx. He and Barbie Busch DeShazo opened Holystone in 2019 with Miller, a former optician who had blended whiskey at High West.
Bosun's Navy Strength Gin is 114 proof. Miller told SLUG the term dates to sailors pouring gin on gunpowder and lighting it. "It has to be at least 114 proof to work, otherwise, somebody's been watering down their gin." It also distills a barley and rice koji shochu for the Tsunami sushi restaurants.
Output is small, 3,500 bottles in 2020, and Perla Vodka starts from California grape spirit. Every bottle carries the naval signal Bravo Zulu, meaning well done. "Every time we put something into a bottle," Miller told CompanyWeek, "we want to feel like we've earned that Bravo Zulu."
Holystone bills its Apparition Absinthe Verte as the first legal absinthe verte made in Utah.
