Buffalo City Distillery in Point Harbor, just a few miles past the Wright Memorial Bridge, might be new, but it’s tapping into an old-fashioned way of bringing a farmer’s crop to market.
Back before there was refrigeration and a modern transportation network, farmers would grow their corn, harvest it, turn it into sour mash, distill it and transform their crop into whiskey — which had a much longer shelf life than fresh corn.
Buddy Byrum has brought that idea back, mashing the corn he grows on his Hyde County farm and turning it into his Buffalo City bourbon and vodka.
“You know, farm to bottle,” he said.
After he left the corporate world, Byrum wasn’t sure just what he wanted to do other than he had no desire to become a corporate vice president again. He started thinking over his options, which included 135 acres in Hyde County where he was growing corn and soybeans, a house on the Outer Banks where he and his wife, Sharon, wanted to live, and a desire to be in business for himself.
He started thinking about the Hyde County farm and his first thought, meant as a joke, went nowhere.
“I was joking and it just popped in my head that I could just go grow vegetables, and Sharon could have a fruit stand at the beach. She showed absolutely no enthusiasm with that,” he recalled.
The seed, though, was planted.
“I just kind of thought, ‘What else can I do?’ We grow corn. I could grind cornmeal. But then I was like, ‘You know, they make whiskey out of corn,’” Byrum said.
He and Sharon were living in Charlotte at the time, and he noticed that people would go to local breweries, look around and have a few drinks with friends. That’s what really sparked the idea.
“The idea of somebody doing a tour of a distillery in a tourist location … people are looking for stuff to do when they’re on vacation and a tour in a distillery might be something of interest. So that looked more attractive to me,” he said.
He mentions he doesn’t drink much, but over the years his taste has gone increasingly to bourbon, and since bourbon by federal law must have a minimum of 51% corn whiskey, he was already more than halfway to making a signature product.
His first thought was to place the distillery on the Outer Banks, but looking at it practically, that didn’t make sense.
“The real estate’s too expensive and the septic requirements are prohibitive,” he said. “I needed at least two and a half to three acres, because we have to offload quite a bit of water.”
But in Point Harbor just over the bridge in Currituck County, the land was not as expensive and a water hookup had just been installed that would work ideally for him on the land he wanted. Buffalo City Distillery began to take shape.
By October of last year, after a year’s delay due to the pandemic, the distillery opened.
The name Buffalo City Distillery is a nod to the history of the area. During the days of Prohibition in the 1920s, Buffalo City – located deep in the forest of what is now Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge – was struggling to survive. Logging was no longer a viable way to earn a living and there was no land for crops. But hidden deep in the swamp as they were, the residents turned out some of the best moonshine made during Prohibition—and the cry went out for “East Lake Whiskey” as it was called.
Which is why Byrum’s current signature whiskey is called East Lake Whiskey. It’s a combination of corn whiskey and rye, and rye whiskeys were what the East Lake moonshiners were known for.
“The (rye) whiskey that was made in Buffalo City was known as East Lake whiskey during Prohibition. People asked for East Lake whiskey,” Byrum said, explaining that the primary market for their whiskey was northeastern cities like Philadelphia and New York where they preferred rye whiskey.
Before he was even open, Byrum took some of his corn to a distiller in Salisbury and had some bourbon ready to be blended.
“What I decided to do was blend my bourbon to come up with a great product. We settled on some straight rye whiskey that was North Carolina produced that blended really well with the bourbon. And so we named it East Lake whiskey,” he said.
The East Lake imbibe may not be a permanent part of the Buffalo City lineup.
Bourbon is probably the most regulated American whiskey. By law it must have at least 51% corn whiskey in it. After that, there’s no regulation on what other grain alcohols can be blended with it — rye, wheat, barley — it’s up to the distiller. It also has to be aged in new American charred oak barrels, and there’s some American oak barrels behind the retail store waiting to be bottled when the time is right. That time, Byrum says, is when he feels that a sip of his bourbon will be memorable.
“Every barrel of bourbon I have back there is good,” he said. “Not every barrel is great yet and I want my brand associated with great.”
So the East Lake Whiskey, “is a product that will not last forever but it’ll hopefully last until I’m ready to go” with the bourbon now aging.
The distillery also makes a vodka from the farm corn, and Byrum makes the point that if bourbon is a product of patience, vodka is much more time consuming to make. There’s no aging, just extra steps to create a crystal clear spirit.
“The rule on vodka is basically it has to be distilled to 95% ethanol and that’s not easy to do. It takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, multiple steps to refine it up to that level,” he said. After reaching the 95% threshold, vodka is diluted to, in this case, 80 proof.
Right now Buffalo City Distillery offers their vodka and East Lake Whiskey and a variety of flavored spirits using their vodka and whiskey at their retail store. Various flights of spirits and mixed drinks are offered as well. There is also a very pleasant outdoor area with picnic tables with occasional live music.
The distillery is at 8821 Caratoke Highway in Point Harbor. See buffalocitydistillery.com for more information.
