Thornton Distilling brings a taste of history with ghosts, gangsters and a 160-year-old well
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Ghosts, gangsters and a 160-year-old well: They're all part of the story behind a distillerty in the south suburbs. The founders of Thornton Distilling say it opened in Illinois' oldest standing brewery just months before COVID.
So now they are finally getting people talking about their drinks.
CBS 2's Jim Williams got a look under the distillery to see the history down below.
There's more than one kind of spirit at Thornton Distilling.
"I guess the primary ghost is the night watchman," siad Andrew Howell. "The night watchman was the groundskeeper during prohibition. He supposedly still haunts the walls or haunts the space."
The distillery, located next to Thorn Creek, has quite a history dating back more than 160 years. And it's all because of a treasure for brewers located one level underground. To reach it you have to go through a locked gate and climb through a hole in a brick wall.
It's an artesian well.
"The artesian well is naturally pressurized. It's a flowing well, so if it wasn't capped it would be flowing like a geyser right now. Water would be shooting from the ground," Howell said.
Howell, one of the founders, says the building and the well date back to 1857 when a German immigrant named John Bielfeldt built the original brewery. He made his popular beer there for many decades using that limestone filtered water.
"It is exceptionally good brewing water. It's limestone filtered, which means that it adds important minerals to the water that are good for yeast health as well as takes out certain chemicals that would be detrimental," said Ari Klafter.
According to their research, the founders say when prohibition hit someone else took over.
"At which point the Chicago Outfit enters the picture," said Howell.
The Chicago Outfit, as in Al Capone's gang.
"We believe they were bootlegging distilled spirits here as well as beer," said Howell. "There was just a hot bed of actvity here."
The mob history is fascinating, but the distillery's founders say it was the well that brought them to start the company in 2016. The building had been empty for years.
After restoring it, the distillery finally opened just months before the pandemic.
This year they are finally able to operate at full strength. They are holding tastings all over the area of their own line of spirits, each with a dash of history.
"Being a distiller is my life's calling," said Klafter.
Thornton Distilling's brand of spirits is called Dead Drop, which is a prohibition era term for barrels of liquor left at a secret location to be picked up later.
