Getting into the spirits: hobbyist turns passion into business.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: THUNDER BAY

Justin Frape has developed a fascination with a strange potion that's sold in tiny apothecary bottles.

The well-known Thunder Bay businessman has transformed an abiding interest in distilled spirits into a major career move in launching Frape & Sons, manufacturing bitters using locally sourced grains.

On a warm April day, Frape and his father were in his garage unpacking boxes containing components of his still shipped north from Kentucky and Tennessee.

The mash tun, hot liquor tank, fermenters and boilers had arrived from Bubba's Barrels of Knoxville, Tennessee. The "Hilly-billy flute," otherwise known as the reflux common still, came from Hillbilly Stills in Barlow, Kentucky.

Embarking on bitters is a radical departure from Frape's previous profession as a tax specialist assisting small businesses with federal research and development credits.

After being introduced to Kentucky bourbon at a party, he began researching production methods and embarked on distillery tours.

"The more I dug into it, the more it felt like a calling. It's science, it's creative and it's producing something. Rather than holding an amended corporate income tax return I can hold a bottle and say, I made this."

His business partners are Jay Stapleton, owner of the Waking Giant Coffee, who'll work on the formulations, and Jeff Burke of Brule Creek Farms, who'll supply and mill grains like hard-red string wheat, rye and buckwheat.

The grains are fermented and distilled to form the alcohol base. The botanicals are infused using a vapour infusion technique to produce bitters. Frape said it will produce a flavour unlike any other on the market.

After being largely forgotten for decades, bitters are making a bit of a comeback.

"With the craft cocktail revival it's been recognized as a finishing element," or, as one local bartender conveyed to Frape, it's considered the "salt and pepper."

It's highly concentrated stuff and is used by the dash--or an eye dropper--to flavour alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

This year's plans are to produce 60 to 65 batches, a batch being 32 litres. The 100-millilitre bottles he'll sell for $20 each.

His first offering, a coffee-flavoured bitter, will show up at the local farmers market and on Amazon this spring. He's also working on some national wholesale and distribution channels.

He's approached an Anishinaabe medicine man to help with the botanical...