Along North Houston Street in Granbury, on what used to be a used car lot, a brand new local distillery is churning out homemade spirits using a unique ingredient -- cow’s milk.
More specifically, waste from the milk known as "whey."
"It doesn't taste anywhere near milk,” said Ryan Hayse, who was there drinking vodka with buddies for his bachelor party.
The business is called Local Goat Distillery.
Owner Roger Wall said it’s only the second distillery in the country making whey-based spirits.
Wall and his wife Jessica opened about five months ago after they left the Texas Air National Guard and sold their farm.
"We're all about using waste products,” Roger Wall said. “We get the waste for free. That doesn't mean it's free to make. It takes a lot of man-hours. It is very hard to do."
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The whey comes straight from a farm in Dublin, Texas, in big containers. It takes about 300 gallons to make just 70 bottles of alcohol.
All of it goes through a big still that Wall imported from China.
"And we run it through the entire system here,” Wall said. “The whole point is to remove water. So once we remove all the water, it comes out a spirit."
The distillery opened just a few months ago, and the product is already getting rave reviews.
"It's clean, it's refreshing,” said Jeff Keesee, who was there for the bachelor party. “It's not as fruity or sweet as you think it would be. It's refreshing but not overpowering, you know. It's good."
