Camden police chief hopes to keep South Arkansas in good spirits ... - El Dorado News-Times

Camden will soon have Ouachita County's first distillery when 316 Distiller, owned by Camden Police Chief Bo Woody, opens up.

The origins of 316 Distillery in Camden started with the gift of a small beer brewing kit from Woody's son.

He said, "My son, years and years ago, had bought me a little Mr. Beer Home Brewing Kit and that's what started me even doing it, and that was probably, I don't know, 20 years or 15 years ago. And then one day my son, once again said 'Hey Dad, Why don't you make some rum?'"

Much like Bobby Glaze, the owner of Native Dog Brewing, Woody, along with his wife Kaye, has taken his love and knowledge of brewing and distilling and parlayed those skills into a retirement plan.

"At my age, I wanted a career after my law enforcement career, " Woody said. "And you know, we just sat down, talked about what would be a great idea of something... My hobby was our number one pick... I thought well, we don't have a distillery in South Arkansas, why don't we try it.? So here we are getting close. We're -- you know, we started this whole process in 2022."

In order to open the business, Woody needed a name to file as an LLC, but was drawing a blank initially.

"We were really trying to think about it. So we knew we were getting ready to file for our LLC and we had to have a business name. When we thought about in one night Kaye said, 'Let's just go to bed. Think about it, you know, pray. It'll come to us,' and that's where I woke up in the middle of the night. I said, 'Kaye, 316,' and she was like 'That's exactly what it is.' So it's not biblical, because some people say 3:16, where I will say 3-1-6."

Woody said the number holds particular significance for him.

"It's just my number. I don't know, other than I've had that number for some reason, it just kind of follows you. I raced motorcycles. It was my number. Not now, but at one time it was was my police badge number."

The process of distilling alcohol starts with grains like corn, wheat or even potatoes.

Those grains are then left to ferment, then yeast is added, which consumes the sugars and excretes alcohol in the process.

With beer, this is pretty much where the process ends, says Woody, but extra steps have to be taken to distill liquor.

"It is just like beer but the only difference is I have such a higher proof that I've got to separate out this. This 125 gallons only has 10 gallons of alcohol in it. So it's just like Bobby's place. He has a mixing tank and he has fermenters, but that's where it stops with him. He'll open the valve and you have beer I have to take it one more step for alcohol and extract that 10 gallons of alcohol out of here using a still."

During the distillation process, the mash is boiled and alcohol is condensed. Far from the jury-rigged stills that ran during prohibition, Woody's still is a large metal device made of copper and heated by electricity.

"Water boils at 212. I don't want to boil water, but I do want to boil the alcohol and alcohol boils at 170, so I will try to get this to about 190, that way the water stays in here. And I've got to separate the alcohol from the water, so the alcohol vapors will come up through my through my column and this is where I make the decision how I'm gonna run my still. This is a multi-functional still, which means I can change out parts."

"People ask is it dangerous, because I'm producing the ethanol back here; it's not like your old stills. It's not going to explode and blow up into a million pieces out here. That's all stainless. It's got all the precautions built into it. I can control temperature -- you know, an old pot still, you would just chunk the wood underneath, just gets as hot as it's going to get. This is not like that at all. And this has all the relief valves on it and it's this is not going -- it's not going to happen. You have more of a chance in that gas station blowing up over there."

The final step is "finishing," which is where flavor is added and is the process that most differentiates the various types of liquor, be it vodka, gin or whiskey.

In order to make gin, various botanicals, such as juniper berries are added. Whiskey is made by aging the alcohol produced in the still in oak barrels, a somewhat lengthy process.

"Bourbon has to sit in one of those 55 gallon drums -- brand new American oak drum -- for two years before you can call it bourbon; one year, you can call it whiskey. There's really no criteria on rum or moon shine," he said.

Woody said he at first he hopes to offer gin, vodka, rum and moonshine available for tastings and will offer gallon barrels to purchase. The barrels are supplied by Gibbs Brothers in Hot Springs.

Woody said Kaye is experimenting with a variety of flavors to produce moonshine and that each recipe has to be government certified.

A minor hiccup came when his license was challenged on the grounds that his role as Chief of Police and owning a distillery presented a conflict of interest.

Woody said, "You know, prohibition ended. It's over. This is perfectly legal. So I don't know that this is a conflict of my job as a police chief because as a police chief.

"I know what the laws are and I abide by laws and it's the same thing with the distillery. I know what I'm not going to do -- I'm not going to allow people to come here and get drunk, but it's not against the law coming here and tasting and buying alcohol. It's just about the same thing as a cigar. There's nothing unethical about buying or smoking a cigar. So I don't think it's any difference between me and any other establishment in Ouachita County that sells alcohol. The owners of those establishments are bound by law not to over serve anyway."

He also says the establishment is not a bar or a night club.

"I just I want to stress, this is not a club. I don't want anybody here to think that this is a club. There's no pool tables. There's no dancing.This is not that environment. If you've ever been to Native Dog, I think he has created the perfect environment over there for people to go and enjoy theirselves and they bring their dogs there and their kids," he said. "I love that environment and I hope to try to mimic that here and people realize, 'oh I can go there and I won't have to worry about a bar fighter or people being drunk.' It's it's not a bar."

Rows of barrels contain spirits at the 316 Distillery. (Bradly Gill/Camden News)

The electric still is where spirits are distilled. (Bradly Gill/Camden News)