News
May 20, 2019Oligan Distilling Ferments its Way Into the Business Community
The Chamber, Ambassadors, local delegates, community, friends and family were all present to welcome Oligan Distilling to the Town of Colonie on Friday, May 17.
Sean O’Keeffe and Michael O’Hara were inspired to open Oligan Distilling while co-workers in the manufacturing department at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Sean, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College, has always been interested in sustainable local development and manufacturing, while Mike, who holds a chemical engineering degree from SUNY Buffalo, has long been interested in alcohol distillation. These interests, in combination with New York’s liberalization of distillation laws and their shared chemical manufacturing experience, provided what they saw as an excellent opportunity to open a business, and they incorporated O’Boys Distilling, LLC d/b/a Oligan Distilling.
Several months after incorporating, Sean left Regeneron to work at Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn. Following a year at Kings County, Sean returned to the Capital Region and began to renovate an old rental car property into a distillery with his brother-in-law and second business partner, Kyle Rueckert. After a lengthy build-out, Oligan Distilling had their soft opening February 6, 2019, after taking on Samuel Garrison as an additional partner.
Kyle and Sean are natives of Colonie and Loudonville, and Sam also grew up in the Capital Region. Mike hails from Buffalo. Oligan’s location was chosen for its close proximity to Route 7, I-87 and the Albany International Airport, as well as Sean’s and Kyle’s roots in the area. Oligan Distilling is the first craft beverage producer in the Colonie/Latham area.
Oligan Distilling operates a tasting room that is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday, 3 to 7 p.m. The tasting room offers a number of locally produced craft spirits as well as cocktails made with Oligan Vodka and Oligan Gin. Locally produced beer will soon be available. A single malt whiskey, flavored vodkas, barrel aged gins and other spirits are also in development.
The still Oligan Distilling uses to make high quality locally sourced craft spirits is the only one of its kind in New York State. It uses a high degree of automation and is able to distill high proof spirits in quantities other stills cannot produce. As such, Oligan Distilling produces and sells bulk alcohol to other New York alcohol producers. As far as we are aware, no other New York company is producing high proof alcohol from New York ingredients for use in New York products.
For further information please contact Sean O’Keeffe by phone at 518-937-5947 or by email at sean.oligandistilling@gmail.com.
