“These are my 4 Spirits”
Words and Photos by Sarah Sullivan
There are some new spirits stirring in the old Camp Adair Air Force station buildings. 4 Spirits to be exact, in the form a distillery, the dream of Iraq War veteran, Dawson Officer. The building, the distillery, and Dawson himself speak to their purpose without the need of words: In remembrance and in honor of those who have died and those who are still fighting for our country. When you enter 4 Sprits Distillery through the fenced military compound gates, the architecture of the buildings and the barbed wire immediately remind you of discipline and the training that took place at Camp Adair during World War II and after when it became Adair Air Force Station until it was closed in 1969.
Coming around the back end of the lot though, you can start to faintly hear Louie, Louie playing on a radio and the door to the smaller of the two buildings thrown wide. Before even entering the building, I can picture soldiers playing cards and listening to the radio in their down time.
The building is marked with a single sign, a silhouette of four soldiers in current military gear, guns in hand, the words, “4 Spirits Distillery” across them like a banner. Inside the door is the tasting area, with tables made from reclaimed cedar planks collected by Dawson and his brother, topped with molded concrete that you would swear was marble upon first inspection. The walls are hung with a mixture of historic photographs from Camp Adair during World War II, photographs from Dawson’s own tour of duty, as well as his platoon and company.
The back half of the large room houses the equipment used to make 4 Spirits Distillery’s first alcoholic venture: Slaptail and Webfoot martini-grade vodka.
After finishing his work, Dawson joined me back at the tasting area and I asked him the question that anybody asks themselves about first hearing the name, “4 Spirits Distillery”.
“So what’s the story behind the name?”
“Well, I served in Iraq in the Oregon National Guard 2nd Battalion, 162 Infantry Brigade and in 2004, I fought with these four remarkable combat soldiers who lost their lives in service to their country. Those are my four spirits. I keep their faces and their names sacred because they are personal. Someone else might have four different spirits that they’ve lost and want to remember. The important thing is to honor and remember them.”
Coming from a cultural background where alcohol, death and remembrance go hand in hand, I understood the desire and the importance of drinking in someone’s memory. I asked him how he had come to the idea of a starting a distillery to honor them.
“Before I started this business, I approached my platoon members because I thought that some might look down on this, by saying, ‘gosh you’re profiting off your friends, dead soldiers’ and surprisingly that was just what I was thinking, because every one of my military friends, my platoon, and my company didn’t even think about that. They thought this was an awesome way to honor them. I took the image to them for approval and everyone knows what it is and they gave me their blessing. I knew that as long as the people I cared about, the people who knew the four spirits were ok with it, then I didn’t really care what the naysayers said about it.”
Making the leap from an excellent idea to a physical business was still quite a journey, especially with the wobbly economy and the fail rate of small businesses. I asked him what planning went into making this distillery his job.
“This business came from a combination of always wanting to be an entrepreneur and not wanting to have the run-of-the-mill 8 to 5 job. I was waiting for the perfect time to start and I had always thought, ‘what can I do that would be a good business and allow me not to struggle?’ I kept thinking and thinking…I was probably thinking while I was drinking whiskey, and the idea just formed. I always wanted to do a cider house, like Two Towns, and that morphed into, ‘Why would I do cider? I drink whiskey.’ So I started researching how to start a distillery. I read books, asked questions and then I talked it over with the family. I told my wife ‘if we’re going to do this, I’m going to go all the way and I’m not going to stop until I get there.’ She was so supportive and told me it sounded good if that’s what I wanted to do. So a year later, I made March 31st was my last day at a regular job and I started up 4 Spirits Distillery.”
Staring around at the open room and the machinery lining the back wall, I asked him what had made him want to make vodka. His answer was somewhat unexpected.
“I love whiskey. It’s what I drink. I have done whiskey tastings and figured out which whiskies are better than others. I decided that I wanted to make alcohols that I drink. The other part of my thinking was the business side. My forte was in the process of creating a business, that’s what my degree is in and with my experience in economics and finances, I felt I had everything I needed to have, in that regard, down. But everyone starts out with vodka. The reason for that is because you don’t have to age it. You can actually easily create it, create your own flavor profile and put your own spin on it. In my case, I created Webfoot and Slaptail. Next will be rum, and whiskey will be last. My goal is to create a whiskey as close as I can to Jameson.
Needless to say, that statement made this Irish girl’s ears perk up.
“That’s down the road though. I started with vodka, and rum will be next. Probably in the next couple of months. We have to work out the trends and really solidify our current status, but in the meantime I’d like to get the molasses and fermentation process going, find the right yeast, and start the process. I’m still not fully decided on just what kind of rum I want to make.”
With alcohol being such a huge part of the Northwest and the prevalence of local breweries, wineries, and cider houses, I had to ask Dawson what made 4 Spirits so special.
“The way we’ve been marketing ourselves so far is ‘not your classical type of alcohol.’ Image wise, we don’t have a beautiful star on our labels. They are hand drawn by an artist and that’s what makes them cool. They’re kind of raw in form and comedic, colorful. It’s supposed to be funny. One of my first decisions was to come up with the names and the image I wanted. Most other alcohols are just generic or have the same classic-feel with the clean lines of their labels and I didn’t want that. I wanted something that was fun and a little artsy, and humorous. That was the big thing.”
The label alone is enough to make me, a Kansas-transplant Beaver fan want to pick up a bottle of Slaptail, but how’s the taste?
“It’s a premium, martini-grade vodka. It’s very good. I’m starting to feel very confident in saying that because of all the comments we’ve been getting from the people who have tasted it. We did blind taste-testing and 11 out of 13 chose my vodka over others. Even over some of the more expensive vodkas. Some people describe it as smooth, not a lot of nose, and no rubbing alcohol taste. Some people call it complex and layered.”
I was sold. I asked him where a thirsty vodka-seeker could find a bottle of Slaptail or Webfoot (if you happen to be a Duck fan). He told me about OregonLiquorSearch.com where you can enter the site and type in either Webfoot or Slaptail to be taken to a list of liquor stores in the area that stock 4 Spirits’ products. Also in the Corvallis area, you can ask for Slaptail in your drinks at many of the bars including; Block 15, Aqua, Crowbar, 101, or Cloud 9 where you can try a Slap Happy, a drink formulated by Mr. Cloud Davidson which uses a healthy amount of Slaptail and will leave anyone happy.
Though 4 Spirits is still in its early stages of business, this had to be too much of an undertaking for just one person. Dawson was quick to correct my assumption of this being a one-man operation, telling me about his marketing guru, Sarah Wayt, who jumped into this venture with him on June 1st.
“I would say the reason we are doing so well and shipping out fifty cases a week is because of her. We are now up to 30 liquor stores carrying our product, within a month. That’s pretty out of the ordinary. Especially with vodkas because it’s such a saturated market, it’s pretty difficult to break into the market. If you don’t have something really good and really special, they’re probably not going to pick it up. But we’ve managed to get in one month to the range of marketing that other businesses like ours would strive for in eight months.”
Marketing is definitely something that 4 Spirits has mastered. Between the high quality taste and the ingenious marketing of Slaptail versus Webfoot, they have found a way to stand out in the cloud of clear bottles of vodka lining the shelves in liquor stores all over Oregon.
“Sarah has just amplified our success. I would have to say that a major part of our success, especially in this first month, is due to Sarah. She’s a very highly motivated person, almost beyond belief. We’re in central Oregon and we’ve just continued to grow. We’re at the stage of monitoring growth to insure we have a healthy, stable growth rather than a spike where we can’t keep up with supply and demand.”
Though vodka takes less time than rum and whiskey, it’s still a fairly slow process.
“It takes a little over a week to make a batch, but that’s a seven day week, working every day. I knew it was going to be like this though when I started. People will talk about how the freedom of being a business owner must be great, but the truth is, you actually work more than you would be if you were working for someone else.”
I felt that a good way to end my chat with Dawson was to go back to talking about the whiskey, both because it’s a fascinating topic and it’s a forecast of things to come down the road for 4 Spirits. I asked Dawson if he’d picked a name for the final product.
“I’ve already decided the whiskey will be 4 Spirits whiskey. I’m working on the name and the visual for the rum. The 4 Spirits whiskey will be a complete change over from the leisure side. I already know what it’s going to look like. It will have four soldiers’ crosses on it; boots, gun, dog tags, and helmet. It’s a very clear and strong image of remembrance for a soldier dying. Rather than trying to just bring this to light as something shocking, I’m trying to remind people that soldiers are still fighting and dying and that we need to be mindful of what they’re doing and support our troops. The bottles will be the military green color with four offset soldiers’ crosses. It will be more subdued because it is more serious. Never forget your veterans.”
