Why Virginia isn't our whiskey capital

From the Fredericksburg, VA, Free Lance-Star:

"We're just little guys with big dreams," (Rick) Wasmund says as he takes a pen and painstakingly inscribes the batch number on each of the bottles now ready for market.

"Every so often I even draw a smiley face on a bottle just to prove that (the labeling) was not done with a machine," he adds.

To be sure, Wasmund's operation is low-tech. His mother, Helen, hand rakes the barley as it undergoes the malting process on the brewery's concrete floor, and a simple wood stove heats a second-story kiln that dries the grain before grinding.

Fruitwood burned in a pan on that stove sends smoke up to the kiln to help flavor the barley. Wood chips in cloth sacks are suspended in the wooden barrels to add more flavor to the whiskey as it ages.

[Go here for the full story.]

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