When the
Hatfield & Sons Distillery sign went up in Quimby Village in May, it may have seemed like it sprung up overnight, but it’s a business that’s been years in the making.
Jacob and Annie Hatfield bought the building at 1818 Bluffton Road in 2020. Before they owned it the space had been a Salvation Army and a furniture store. They spent more than three years transforming the building, installing equipment, and fine-tuning recipes for their business, Hatfield & Sons Distillery.
“It’s been a long journey from the Salvation Army to this,” says Annie looking around the 6,000-square-foot space.
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Jennie RennerHatfield & Sons Distillery in WaynedaleJacob Hatfield, who goes by Jake, grew up in Fort Wayne and went to middle and high school in New Haven. His grandfather lived in Waynedale his whole life and his father was raised there. When Jake was in his early 20s, he moved back to Waynedale.
Annie spent her youngest years overseas where her parents were missionaries. When they moved back to Fort Wayne, she went to Southside High School. Ten years ago, she met Jake and they got married. They now have four children and live in Waynedale, less than a mile from where their distillery is located.
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CourtesyAnnie & Jake HatfieldIn 2018 they attempted to open a
distillery on North Clinton Street, but that location fell through. Annie says even though it was a setback at the time, it opened the door to something better.
“We’ve had several decent-sized setbacks,” she explains. “But every setback we feel was God closing a door to something that wasn’t the best and he’s opened the doors to something even better. We ended up at a better location with a better still, in our neighborhood.”
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Jake joined the pipefitter’s union in 2000 right out of high school. He did that for 22 years and in his free time, he began distilling spirits at home.
“It kind of turned into an obsession for me,” he says. “I like building things and understanding the process. My wife let me spend a lot of money on my hobby in the garage until it was ridiculous. Then we decided this is way over a hobby and we should try to make money with this.”
There's a common saying that, “If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.” But what happens if you take your hobby and make it your job?
“I'm looking for a new hobby,” says Jake. “This was my hobby. I’d come home and I'd be like I haven't built this part or I want to try this thing and then that's what I would think about at work– and now it is my work.”
His experience as a pipefitter ended up helping them through another big setback. Just after their first distillery location fell through, the Hatfields found out the company they ordered distilling equipment from filed for bankruptcy, closed, and never sent their equipment– leaving them out of the money they had used as a down payment on the equipment.
“We just blew our wad on equipment– now what?” Jake says he remembers thinking. “So I got busy using the skills that I learned in my job to start making equipment.”
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Jennie RennerInside the laboratory at Hatfield & Sons Distillery, where Jake creates their spirits.As it goes with any family business, Annie was able to put her skills to use for their business too. She went to school for marketing and real estate. When she’s not focused on the distillery, she manages an apartment complex.
“My job here (at the distillery) is to support Jake, make sure we are delivering to our clients on time, meeting people, doing events,” she explains.
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When they started the business, Jake and Annie planned to work with a distributor, but once they were ready to deliver, they couldn’t get a distributor to take their product.
“We go talk to a couple distributors and they say, ‘This is a terrible time of year. No restaurants are taking anything new. We'll look at you in January,’” says Jake. “And we're like, ‘But it's October and we need to sell something.’”
So after three and a half years of finalizing processes, working on recipes, and getting the building in working order, the Hatfields started selling their own products in December of 2023.
They describe self-distribution as an interesting learning experience– including following up with customers on a regular basis, seeing how their stocks are, and working with them on menus.
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Jennie RennerA pop-up cocktail menu at Henry's.“Jake and I have always been purists,” says Annie. “We drink bourbon– it’s just on ice. We have vodka– it’s just a little bit of water on ice. So when we have customers say, ‘We'd love to do a cocktail menu.’ Okay, we’ve got something new to learn.”
Annie says she doesn’t mind this kind of experimental work. She bought some mixers and figured it out.
“We just make sure we do everything top quality and we just play with it until it’s perfect, like our recipes,” she says. “It’s been fun.”
From the distillery equipment that Jake builds to the cocktail recipes, the Hatfields are intentional with the details when it comes to crafting quality products because the bottles feature their name.
“One thing about Jake is that he’s very intentional in every spirit he makes,” says Annie. “The way Jake built the distillery is the vodka has a piece of equipment that runs it, the gin goes on another. It’s not one-size-fits-all equipment.”
Jake explains that he builds the spirits with the drinks in mind.
“We want a good cocktail; to have a good cocktail, you have to have a good spirit; to have a good spirit, it has to be intentional in some way,” he says.
The whole process starts in his laboratory at the back of the building. He makes one-gallon batches, sorts it out, finds a direction to go in, and then it gets bigger and bigger from there.
“It’s amazing how much science goes into each spirit he's making,” says Annie. “He'll come home and talk to me about things like evaporation and boiling point.”
Part of the process includes taking detailed notes, too, something Jake learned the hard way. He says there have been times in the past where he’s made a great flavor, but had no record of how he made it.
“We have a lot more accurate scales now and anytime we go to build a recipe, everything's measured by weight, so that when we go to scale it, there's always the ratios,” he explains.
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Jennie RennerInside the laboratory at Hatfield & Sons Distillery, where Jake creates their spirits.His most recent experiment is a coffee liqueur. Next up could be a whiskey or bourbon, but those spirits require more time to age.
“Our gin needs a little aging, but clear spirits don't require a lot of time in the barrel like a dark spirit,” says Jake. “So if we're going to do a bourbon– depending on the size barrel we put it in– we're looking at three years, five, maybe longer. The bigger the barrel, the longer the period of time required.”
The vodka is made with sugar cane in a 44-plate still and is 40% ABV, 80 proof. The gin is made with grapefruit, lemon, lime, and mandarin fruit zest and comes in at 45% ABV, 90 proof.
“We tried frozen zest, dried zest, any shortcuts, and nothing was as good as fresh fruit,” says Annie. “So, we buy fresh fruit and Jake hand zests every fruit that goes in this for each batch.”
She says the clear spirits– gin and vodka– allow them to pay the bills and fund the whiskey-making process.
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Jennie RennerGin and vodka made by Hatfield & Sons DistilleryTheir vodka and gin are now served in
nearly 20 restaurants around Fort Wayne, and available at several liquor stores in the region. In May when they put the sign up at the distillery in Waynedale, they also started having bottle shop hours there. Plans are underway to add a tasting room in the near future.
“As patience and money allows, we’ll do the next step,” says Annie. “And we're really hoping the next step comes sooner rather than later– to sell cocktails.”
While they’re eager to move forward, Jake says they’re not rushing the process.
“We’re not in a hurry to put a product into the market if we’re not happy with it,” he says. “If we don’t want to share it with our friends, it’s probably not something we’re going to push out there.”
From the beginning of their business, the Hatfields have been supported by their loved ones and since its opening, Annie says the community feedback about Hatfield & Sons Distillery has been positive.
“We've been so grateful for the reception we've had… our community is awesome,” she says. “Fort Wayne’s great. We’re glad we’re here.”
Hatfield & Sons Distillery is located at 1818 Bluffton Road in Fort Wayne, IN 46809. Bottle Shop Hours are from 1-6 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.