Episode 13: Rebecca Creek Distillery with Steve Ison

Steve Ison, founder and CEO of Rebecca Creek Distillery, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast to discuss how he made the leap from selling insurance to opening one of the first craft spirits distilleries in Texas. 

Ison, a 1993 political science graduate of Texas State University, founded the San Antonio-based distillery in 2009, making Rebecca Creek one of the first commercial distilleries opened in Texas since prohibition. Since then, Rebecca Creek has grown to become one of the larger craft spirits distilleries in the country, producing Rebecca Creek Whisky, Texas Ranger Whisky, and Enchanted Rock Vodka. In spring 2020, with the COVID-19 rapidly spreading, the distillery switched over to full-time production of ethyl alcohol, which is the primary component in hand sanitizer. Ultimately, Ison and Rebecca Creek donated hundreds of gallons of sanitizer to Texas State and other public universities as well as San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Austin for use by those cities' first responders to help prevent them from contracting COVID-19.

Further reading:

• Rebecca Creek Distillery shifts production from whiskey to hand sanitizer in fight against COVID-19