Watershed Distillery
Watershed Distillery is a microdistillery in Columbus, Ohio founded in 2010 by business partners Greg Lehman and Dave Rigo. The distillery was the second distillery opened in Central Ohio after prohibition, and Watershed brought to market the first legally distilled bourbon whiskey in Central Ohio post-prohibition in 2012. The distillery offers tours to the public and was the first distillery in Ohio to open a restaurant on-site in February 2017, following the passage of Ohio House Bill 351 in 2016. The distillery offers six spirits: vodka, two types of American style gin, bourbon, nocino and a bottled Old Fashioned cocktail. History Business partners, Greg Lehman and Dave Rigo, began working on plans for Watershed Distillery in 2008. Seeing parallels between the microdistilling industry and the booming craft beer industry, Lehman and Rigo set out to start the first distillery in Central Ohio post-prohibition. On September 1, 2010, Watershed received its official Distilled Spirits Plant license (DSP) from the TTB and picked up the keys to the space on the same morning. The duo began work on the first two spirits they were bringing to market, Watershed Vodka and Watershed Gin, and sold their first bottles to the state of Ohio in December 2010. Due to Ohio being an alcoholic beverage control state, Watershed Distillery was now permitted through an A3 permit to sell bottles through the three tier state system, but they were not permitted to sell bottles on site at their distillery. In Ohio, from 2008 through the end of 2011, only one distillery in each of the three most populous counties (Hamilton, Franklin and Cuyahoga) could hold an A3-a permit. This permit allows microdistilleries to sell their products in an A3-a permitted shop on-site. Middle West Spirits, another microdistillery in Columbus, had applied for and obtained the permit for Franklin County a few months prior to Watershed. In an effort to create change for the industry in Ohio as a whole, Greg Lehman of Watershed Distillery, Ryan Lang of Middle West Spirits and Tom Herbruck of Tom's Foolery Distillery (Cleveland, Ohio), founded the Ohio Distiller's Guild to provide a legislative voice for the state's craft distillers as well as a professional organization that would allow for easier access and sharing of resources and information. Through the guild, legislation was passed in December 2011 that freed up all micro distillers in the state of Ohio producing less than 10,000 proof gallons of high proof spirits annually to qualify for an A3-a permit which allowed them to not only sell bottles on site but also to offer samplings. In October 2015, Watershed announced its plan to quadruple production capacity by adding a new American built still from Headframe Spirits in Butte, Montana. The new still was installed in June 2016. This announcement came in the midst of efforts by the Ohio Distillers' Guild to once again influence liquor legislation in the state. At the time, both Watershed Distillery and Middle West Spirits, were at risk of losing their A3-a license