Hoosier roots key to Mellencamp Whiskey, Hard Truth partnership
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe co-founders of Mellencamp Whiskey say the recently announced partnership with Hard Truth Distilling Co. in Brown County is all about keeping with their Indiana roots.
In August, the two companies announced a collaboration resulting in four collectors edition whiskeys that will be released over the next year and a half with the goal of highlighting and supporting Hoosier farmers.
“Whenever we came together and were having the conversations about starting up a whiskey business, we wanted to look towards keeping it very local, working with local farmers and a local distillery,” Mellencamp Whiskey co-founder Levi Collison said. “And we approached multiple companies to work with, and we found Hard Truth here locally.”
Collison and his partner, Hud Mellencamp, spoke about the partnership in a recent interview with Around INdiana Reporter Mary-Rachel Redman.
Mellencamp said he and Collison have always had a passion for whiskey and were looking for the right opportunity and the right partner to get their operation off the ground.
They reached out to Hard Truth master distiller Bryan Smith, who was also looking to do something with a special batch of whiskey he already had.
“I had laid down some whiskey about three and a half years ago in celebration of our farming partners to someday release and hopefully give back to the Indiana family farmers and sustainable farming here in the state of Indiana,” Smiths aid. “So, when Hud and Levi reached out to us and said that they loved our whiskey, told me about what they were doing in their initiatives, and that they really wanted to stick to their Hoosier roots…I knew I had this whiskey, and I thought we can maybe do something here.”
Mellencamp said their original idea was to buy some of Hard Truth’s existing whiskey and slap their own label on it.
“They’re like, ‘Well, we can do a little bit more than that. We’ve got something coming to market. We’ve got a bunch of guys working on it,'” he said. “And it really came together in a great way, I think.”
The partnership will see four collectors edition whiskeys being released in conjunction with the spring and fall planting and harvest seasons. The first, Harvest Sweet Mash Rye, is currently available.
The grains used in the whiskey are grown by Hard Truth’s partners in Rush and Brown counties, as well as near Mount Vernon and Evansville.
“Those guys are the real deal. They’re as passionate about growing grains as I am about making whiskey,” Smith said. “So to be able to do a project to give back, to promote local Indiana farmers that are growing some of the best grains and products in the state, to be able to put out a whiskey that not only features, 100% of their grains, and then to connect that with the legacy of the Mellencamp name, and what Hud and Levi are building and what Farm Aid has done over the years, it’s just it all made sense.”
While Hud’s father, John Mellencamp, is not involved in the business, his artwork is being featured on the labels of the whiskeys. But what does John have to say about the whiskey itself?
“John doesn’t drink. He hasn’t drank since he was 21,” Hud Mellencamp said. “But I will say he’s tried a couple drops of this, and he likes it. It’s the one thing he can drink, he said.”
The next releases will be in spring 2024, fall 2024 and spring 2025, respectively.