Up Close and Personal With Shane Thatcher

I ran into Shane at an Organic Beer Festival a couple of weeks ago and decided to sit down with him and get the scoop on his distillery and of course ask him some really important questions, so that you could all get to know him better. For those of you who do not know Shane, he is a Centerstance FTE and is a .NET Developer.

So what is the deal with your distillery? How did you get started?
My wife comes from an ethnic people along the Volga basin in Russia and has generations of beekeepers in her family that make vodka from honey. When I got back to the states I couldn't find anything like it, so I decided to make my own. It was a two year process to get through the legal gyrations to become a fully operational distillery. We are now one of only 80 or so craft distilleries in the US. Just last week we got our labels approved for 2 handcrafted vodkas. One is called Martin Ryan and it is made from wine. The other is Apia and it is made from honey.

Do you have a website?
Our website is <http://www.artisan-spirits.com>  and we are in the process of creating it. There are alot of cool distillery events going on this summer, so I will keep you posted. The first event that is set in stone is an open house, October 25th, at the distillery on 12th and Stark. The open house is being sponsored by the Oregon Distillery Guild and Oregon Bounty.

I think it is really random that we have two employees that own distilleries. I bet you and Cris Decker have a lot to talk about.
Yes....and I would just like to say that my vodka has been declared the official spirit of Centerstance. :)

Besides working and distilling, what do you do for fun?
Those two things take up most of my time, but I am also really into Kung Fu. I have been doing Kajukenbo for several years now.

What was the last movie that you saw?
I went to the Mission two weeks ago and I cannot remember the name of the movie.

Did you have too many beers at the Mission and that is why you can't remember?
No.....I am just really bad with remembering names.

What do you usually eat for breakfast?
I just have a plain Latte. I get it from a drive-through place in my neighborhood and when they see my truck, they start making my drink. I just pull up, hand them my money and I am done. The entire transaction takes just 60 seconds

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Stockbroker

What is your favorite restaurant?
Wildwood

Who is your favorite band?
I have known the guys in Broken Soviet for sometime and usually go to their concerts. I will be seeing them this Sunday at the Gorge Games. Check out their myspace page.

Chocolate or Vanilla?
Dark chocolate with lots of cocoa

What is your favorite website?
Pandora

Who do you want to interview at Centerstance? Choose wisely because I am going to make you do it.
I would like to interview Irena. I think she would be very interesting to talk to her because of her Russian background.

Thanks Shane!  Please stay tuned for Shane's upcoming interview with Irena.

Comments

[Adron]

So yeah, I pinged you via the entry "http://adronbhall.com/blogs/technology__software_development/archive/2008/07/16/7444.aspx". Not sure if the track back will work or not. Gratz on the interview, now your all famous on the internetz via the tubez.