Juicing up the joint.

• Author: Martin, Cathy
• Position: NC TREND: Charlotte Region - Report

Once the illicit commodity of bootleggers, legal moonshine distilleries are blossoming as U.S. sales of alcoholic spirits reached nearly $72 billion in 2015. Now, 2-year-old Southern Grace Distilleries soon will be brewing moonshine and other spirits in a former Cabarrus County correctional facility.

The business was started by three former staffers of U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, a Democrat ousted in 2012. Making the rounds at ABC stores, "We learned that people were looking for a real moonshine, higher proof and higher quality/' says Leanne Powell, president of Southern Grace and Kissell's former chief of staff.

Powell, Thomas Thacker and Perry Morris set up a distillery in the back of the historic Warren C. Coleman textile mill in Concord. Texas native Morris drew from old family traditions in making moonshine, and Southern Grace's first product, Sun Dog 130 com whiskey, hit shelves last year. The product, which retails for about $30 for a 750-ml bottle, was named for Thacker's dog Mia. Morris no longer works for Southern Grace but remains a stockholder, while Wadesboro native Thacker is chief operating officer. Kissell is a board member.

Now, the business is expanding into a nearly 20,000-square-foot space that will enable it to add new products. Mt. Pleasant Properties, led by local physicians Tom Earnhardt and Allen Dobson Jr., paid $350,000 for the Cabarrus County Correctional Center, which operated from 1929 until 2011 when state budget cuts forced its closing. The developers plan to spend $750,000 to upfit the property, which sits just outside Mount Pleasant. Southern Grace will finance a 4,830-square-foot barrelhouse to age bourbon.

Southern Grace has five licensed products, and for each bottle sold, the company makes a donation to charity. Sales of Sun Dog 130 benefit local animal shelters, while proceeds from the...