OUR STORY
Our founder, Shaun Siems, was raised in Pflugerville, Texas. An engineer by trade, you would often find Shaun home-brewing beer in his off hours—not atypical for a Texan.
In 2006, at 29, Shaun and two friends were well into a night of testing some homebrew when they devised an idea for starting a distillery. They were just three guys who wanted to follow their passion. Their goal: Create quality top shelf spirits. The spirits had to be representative of Texas and affordable. And of course, they had to be something the guys would love to drink themselves.
“Let’s do it our way!”
Three years later, in 2009, their independent commercial distillery was born in a small industrial district in Pflugerville, TX. Their centerpiece:
A Homemade 3-Gallon Still
Minutes from Austin, Shaun’s hometown of Pflugerville, Texas has repeatedly been named among “America’s Best Places to Live” by Money Magazine. So, it was only natural that quality distilled spirits should be born and bred in Pflugerville as well. After all, it is the city “Where Quality Meets Life.”
Obviously, Spirit of Texas started as a labor of love. It wasn’t born out of deep pockets with the millions of dollars everyone said was necessary to go up against the stiff competition in Kentucky, Tennessee, Scotland and Ireland.
When faced with the high cost of ramping up with commercial grade distillery equipment—and being engineers by trade—they designed and built a pair of custom hybrid stills themselves, Bertha and Betsy.
It takes years to develop a new whiskey with lots of up-front research and development followed by years of aging before that first real taste of the finished product.
That is why Spirit of Texas was founded in 2009, but PFLUGER Single Malt Whiskey wasn’t released until 2016.
Not surprisingly, the passion Shaun and his friends put into their products was quickly recognized. Their premium spirits have won many prestigious awards. That’s because they stayed true to their goal. Their spirits have taken on the very essence of what being a Texan is all about: They’re unique, have character, can stand on their own, and they deliver on what they promise. They truly embody the Spirit of Texas.
Shaun’s friends have since found other interests and now Shaun is the sole owner. But his passion hasn’t waned. For Shaun, the Spirit of Texas is not just about making superior products. It’s about sharing his spirits with family and friends, and giving back to the community. Visit the distillery and you will more than likely meet Shaun. He loves nothing more than sharing a great cocktail with new friends.
You can share in Shaun’s passion.
Have a Bottling Experience! Sign up to help us bottle some of the best spirits produced in the country.
Join Shaun’s exclusive FOUNDER’S CLUB. Visit the distillery or call 512-989-9292 to learn more.