One Eight Distilling has shut down its gin, vodka, and whiskey production through at least Labor Day to deal with structural repairs to its Ivy City warehouse.
“The concrete slab where some of the equipment was located was starting to slowly sink,” says owner Alexander “Sandy” Wood. “It sunk by a couple millimeters and it started to become noticeable to us, so we had to get a geotechnical engineer in and a structural engineer to assess what was going on.”
The culprit: damaged footers (the foundation of the walls) and water seeping under the concrete. Wood says they could have put off the repairs, but August was the best time to close. Now, they’re putting stronger, thicker concrete on the floors, which will also allow them to have bigger tanks in the future.
The good news is that there will be no immediate shortage of One Eight booze; the team has been working overtime to stock up on extra inventory. The bad news is that pausing production means they won’t be able to set aside as much alcohol for aged whiskey.
Tours of the distillery will not be available while construction is ongoing. However, the tasting room is open for now. It will close for a summer break the last two weekends of August and Labor Day weekend.
“It’s aggravating, and it’s not cheap to fix, but not really that big of a deal,” Wood says.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
