(upbeat music)
- Will I pass a drug test?
- Will I get high from drinking it?
- There's no THC whatsoever.
That's the biggest misconception about the hemp plant
is the THC aspect of it.
So there is none of that.
No drug test cool, everything, you'll be just fine.
Being able to take a little idea
that you just had in your head and a hobby really
and all of a sudden now see it on your local store shelves
and bars and restaurants
and then potentially going all over the world
is just as an amazing gift.
- I'm Wendell Robbins.
- I'm Ben Williams.
- And Highway Vodka is our business.
- We started distilling just as a hobby
about nine years ago.
We started just by first of all just watching YouTube videos
and reading books, every book that was out there.
It started with just sugar and water at first
and we just would experiment
with any kind of grain that would make sugar
that we could then convert to alcohol.
And then we just stumbled upon hemp.
A buddy had a dispensary out in California.
We went out there and saw some stuff
that people were doing.
Came back to Texas and obviously we couldn't play
with marijuana but we liked what we saw
so we started experimenting with the hemp plant.
Literally a pot on the stove is where it started.
He would be running a mash at his house,
I'd be running one at my house.
We'd meet at the barn, run them
and talk noise about who's was better
and I won every time, no? (laughs)
- That's the thought
- From the time that we made that first mash
with hemp seed, corn and water,
it was the best thing we had ever made to that point.
So we just stuck with it and owning a couple of bars
and restaurants here in Houston,
we used to take stuff to our regulars
and let them sample what we were making
and have blind taste test, that gave us more confidence
to say, "Hey, maybe we have something here.
Let's go for it."
- What we do with Highway is the hemp seed
is part of our mash bill.
So we put hemp, corn, and water into the mash tun
and when we cook it, the hemp seed it's an ingredient.
It's not an afterthought like an infusion would be.
So that's why we get all of the properties extracted
from the hemp, because we use it as an ingredient,
not as an afterthought.
We're trying to extract the body and the beauty and the soul
of what hemp does for the process.
Where we're sitting right now was actually
where we would be inside of a horse stall.
Yeah, the stalls ran along this wall
and all of that was hay storage.
- What happened on that was (laughs)
this was still a barn during that time
and he broke his ankle messing with one of his horses
and he's like, "I'm done with it."
And it was perfect time because shortly thereafter
the permit came.
It took us three years to get our permit
from the federal government because of the hemp
and all that kind of stuff trying to figure out
what they were gonna do with that
and he was cool with turning the barn into a distillery,
basically, 'cause he was over horses,
walking around in a boot.
They have tons of spirits competitions
all around the country, throughout the year
but I'll put it up against anything.
And these were all competitions where
they would taste it neat and room temperature
which is not really how people enjoy vodka.
And then when they would taste their quote favorite
and their face would curl up like ugh,
and then they would taste ours and they'd be like, "Hmm."
You know what I'm saying?
You knew right there that you had something.
The plant, it does so many things
during the whole production aspect of it,
from the very beginning when you start in that pot
with the hemp seed, corn and water and stuff.
And when you get it out the still,
we only capture the hearts of the run
which are the purest parts of any distillation run,
take that, those oils still live on
and coat your pallet and give you some of the sugar
and stuff from the sweetness from the corn
but also knock off that burn.
Our collection method of only collecting
the hearts of the run also lessen the effects of hangovers
in the morning and stuff like that.
So we get really efficient with what we do.
- My role includes making the product, bottling the product,
talking with distributors
and making sure that orders are fulfilled
as well as managing the team.
And I have a lot of responsibilities,
but my main job is making sure the product
is made to perfection.
- Back in those days that I was making Highway on a pot
on the stove, Cody was my assistant.
She's always been my right hand person
to help me with whatever.
- I love social media.
So I want to make sure that I can help keep Highway hip
and trendy 'cause, I mean,
having two old guys run the business,
they fall off with the TikToks and the Instagram.
They don't really care about that.
So I hope that my knowledge of that
can help push the business forward
and continue to keep us growing.
- Ben and I talk about that all the time
that we're trying to set up businesses
that can be legacies left to the children
and so that's the whole point.
We've never taken home a check but Cody has,
we make sure that the kids are good.
- Right now we're all throughout Texas.
We're in Georgia, we're also in Southern California
and Southern Florida and available online for shipping
to just about every state.
But this year we're planning to...
We're scaling up crazy and we're about to be released
throughout the whole nation this year.
So we're really excited about that.
When I go somewhere and I see it on a bar or in a menu
or in a liquor store in some corner of wherever,
it's just like, "Dang."
Drag your kids in there.
My kids are younger than his.
Drag them in there and be like, "Look,
you know what I'm saying?
See, when I had you stirring that pot it was worth it."
Hopefully my girls, when they get of age
they take interest and they wanna be a part of this as well.