The hulking green drab Humvee sets the tone even before walking in the front door at Hotel Tango Distillery.
The south Indianapolis craft distiller is proud of its military bona fides. Take the name, a nod to the NATO phonetic alphabet used by the armed forces. The bottles of vodka, rum, gin and other spirits are styled like the Meals, Ready-to-Eat field rations distributed in the U.S. military. The bottles are shaped like canteens.
But it’s more than just a look. The approach that founder Travis Barnes learned throughout his time in the U.S. Marine Corps is evident in every bottle of craft spirits he makes.
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“We really focus on my military background as part of the process we use to produce high quality spirits. ‘Distilled with discipline’ is kind of the moniker we use to let people know it’s all about our processes and practices that translate into high-quality spirits,” he said.
Barnes and his wife, Hilary, have founded the first combat-disabled, veteran-owned distillery in the country. Hotel Tango Distillery, which was the first distillery to open in Indianapolis since Prohibition, is now available in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, as well as on more than 50 military bases from Washington D.C. to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Their growth has been a stressful, but exhilarating climb for a small company with simple roots.
“These’s a ton of room to grow in Indiana, and there’s a lot out there. it’s been an awesome ride,” Barnes said.
Craft spirits have become a booming business, with small-batch whiskey, rum, vodka and other styles becoming increasingly popular. The number of active craft distilleries in the U.S. reached 1,835 in 2018, up from 1,589 the year before, according to the American Craft Spirits Association.
Indiana reported 37 active distilleries throughout the state, the 17th most in the U.S.
But when the idea for Hotel Tango first started forming, the state was barren of craft distilleries.
Barnes enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2002, motivated to serve following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Following boot camp, he was assigned to the First Reconnaissance Battalion, Company A, First Platoon, and his unit was shipped to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Over the next few years, he served three tours of duty in Iraq, rising to the rank of sergeant and receiving multiple combat action medals and citations.
At the same time, he also experienced several IED attacks during his service. Those attacks resulted in traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, for which he was given an honorable discharge and sent home.
Re-entering civilian life, Barnes needed to figure out the path for the rest of his life. He enrolled again in college, finishing his degree from Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, and then earning his law degree from Indiana University McKinney School of Law. During this time, he met Hilary, and they were married in 2012.
He also started playing around with a home distilling kit in his backyard as a hobby.
His first still was a 20-gallon stainless steel milk can and some copper parts, using a turkey fryer to heat it up and garden hoses to move the distilled liquor. After reading a few books and researching on the internet, his first batch came out.
“It actually worked. It produced kind of a moonshine. That was it,” he said. “I was giving it away as birthday and Christmas presents to people, who said it was really good, and I should try doing it legally.”
Barnes’ interest in distilling came at a fortuitous time. A bill passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2013 allowed for small, artisan distilleries to operate legally in the state and sell directly to consumers. Much like loosening regulations paved the way for the craft beer boom, small spirits-makers could begin to build a following too.
State regulators held a limited time frame for companies to apply for licenses, before implying a three-year moratorium on new licenses to gauge how the system would work. Hotel Tango became one of only four companies to receive approval.
“After we got the licensing in place, it was off to the races for investors and getting the actual facility up and able to bring in the public,” Barnes said.
In creating his fledgling distillery, Barnes wanted to pay homage to his military experience and the precision and attention to detail it had molded in him. He and Hilary Barnes decided to use their first-name initials and apply the military phonetic alphabet to it. In that system, H is Hotel, and T is Tango.
Construction on the distillery and tasting room in the Fletcher Place neighborhood of Indianapolis commenced, and in September of 2014 the facility opened to the public.
Hotel Tango staff of distillers played with different recipes, learning by trial and error the best approach to different spirits.
“It was half art, half science. We had a little bit of understanding of the process, but within that, there are guideposts that you learn to stand between,” Barnes said.
Though they had distilled whiskey to eventually become bourbon, those batches had to be barreled and stored for a number of years before they could be presented to the public.
The company’s first available spirit was vodka; the style was a perfect starting point.
“I don’t want to say that it’s easy to make, but you’re shooting for colorless, odorless, flavorless,” Barnes said. “You want it to be a neutral spirit without any real distinguishing profile characteristics in it.”
Vodka led to rum, then gin. The distillery now offers nine premium spirits, including bourbon, rye whiskey, cherry liqueur, orangecello and lemoncello.
As their experience has grown, so has their experimentation. Most Johnson County residents heading north on Interstate 65 into Indianapolis have seen the green-roofed barn with “Hotel Tango” spelled out. That’s the distillery’s working farm, which had originally been envisioned as a storage facility for barrels. But Hotel Tango reached out to Indy Urban Acres, a project of the Indianapolis Parks Foundation, to grow local produce and provide food to those in need.
Last year, they were able to donate 20,000 pounds of produce through the group.
“We don’t charge them for using the farm. We get a benefit by using some of what they grow in our tasting rooms, and we showcase them. But we donate all of that food to help fight hunger,” Barnes said.
Hotel Tango has also been very deliberate with its community partnerships and marketing, working with local and national groups to help spread the word of what they do. They’ve held events with the Indianapolis Zoo, Indy Fuel hockey team, Indianapolis Indians baseball team and with Penn & Beech, an Indianapolis candlemaker, to reach different audiences.
The distillery has worked with groups such as Helping Veterans and their Families, hosting their annual Operation Alpha event to raise money for the nonprofit organization. More of that kind of work is in the plans, said Kelsey Strohmeyer, brand coordinator for Hotel Tango.
“We always try to do veteran partnerships, and we’re trying to expand our partnerships outside of Indiana as we grow. We’d like to work with more veteran-operated places as well,” she said. “Travis takes a lot of pride in the partnerships that we’ve created in Indy, and now, because of the expansion, we can do that in the military.”
The coming year is poised to continue on the overall growth of Hotel Tango. The distillery, which is now available in stores such as Kroger and Meijer, will enter eight new markets in 2020. Tasting rooms in Zionsville and Fort Wayne will open later this year.
“It’s been like I’d imagine any successful high-growth business and industry — there are a lot of peaks and valleys, a lot of unknowns on how to figure things out,” Barnes said. “But it’s been fun.”
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Hotel Tango Distillery
What: The first combat-disabled, veteran-owned distillery in the U.S. and Indianapolis’ first distillery since prohibition.
Who: Founded by Travis Barnes, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and his wife, Hilary.
Where: 702 Virginia Ave., Indianapolis
Spirits
- Bourbon
- Reserve bourbon
- Rye whiskey
- Vodka
- Gin
- Wild Rum
- Cherry Liqueur
- Orangecello
- Lemoncello
Information: hoteltangowhiskey.com
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