Raise a glass: spirits uncork revenue for the distillers that make them and the farmers who grow their ingredients.

• Author: Wood, Suzanne
• Position: CASH CROP

Jeremy Norris' family has owned its Johnston County farm since the early 1800s. By the time he was a boy, the family had sold all but about 30 of its original 400 acres. His grandfather, Leonard Wood, planted them, selling the produce at his stand on N.C. 50 near Benson. Despite that business's success, those missing acres gnawed at Wood. So he began buying them back, when he could, about 25 years ago. He quickly realized that it would be a long time before crops paid for them. But he had an idea.

Wood believed the farm's location, near Interstate 40, was ideal for bringing tourists to a moonshine distillery and museum. His would be a nod to his bootlegging relatives who hid stills on the property. Norris agreed. He is owner and master distiller at Broadslab Distillery LLC, the manifestation of his grandfather's dream. It's in its sixth year and annually produces about 12,000 bottles of clear whiskey--he calls it "shine"--as well as oak-aged whiskey, apple-infused brandy and rum. The brand is sold at Alcoholic Beverage Control stores statewide and the distillery, thanks to liquor laws that were loosened in 2015.

North Carolina has more than 70 distilleries. Although that's fewer than its more than 100 wineries and more than 170 craft breweries, Scott Maitland, president of Statesville-based Distillers Association of North Carolina, says there's likely to be more. He says distilling is growing at a faster rate than the state's craft-beer industry, and he should know. Before opening Chapel Hill-based TOPO Organic Spirits, he owned and operated TOPO Brewery, which was the state's fifth craft brewery when it opened in 1996. Distilleries may be reaching critical mass more quickly than breweries, but owners face more restrictive permitting rules and higher taxation. "If we were given [legislative and tax] parity ... we would see the same growth."

Most farmers are unlikely to begin distilling operations. "It's not cheap, and it's not for the faint of heart," Maitland says. But that doesn't mean farmers can't benefit from them. There's a growing need for grain, especially red winter wheat, which thrives in North Carolina soil and is preferred by distillers. "Ninety-nine percent of beer in North Carolina is made from ingredients grown outside of North Carolina." He wants to develop the industry's supply chain, and that will go a long way toward helping the state live up to its potential as the "spirit capital of the East," he says.

Many of the...