Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Formby.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tony. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Acre Distilling Co opened in December 2015. I had been a 50% owner and operator of Fort Worth’s Rahr & Sons Brewing from 2006-14. When I sold my ownership in the brewery my head brewer, JB Flowers and his colleague Brad Berven decided they wanted to become distillers. Distilling alcohol has much in common with brewing beer. To make whiskey and other spirits, you first must brew a strong beer that is then distilled. JB and Brad were naturals to make this next step. JB and Brad convinced me to put the money up to build Acre Distilling, which I continue to run.
Acre Distilling is located in the heart of what was once Fort Worth’s Hell’s Half Acre – the rambunctious and infamous red light district of early Fort Worth from 1865-1920. Back then, the neighborhood was known locally as “the Acre.” Longhair Jim Courtwright was the Marshall in the 1880s. He was just as sketchy as the Acre neighborhood – gambler, drinker and a gun fighter. We named our Bourbon whiskey after him. His pals were Bat Masterson, Doc Holiday, and Wyatt Earp. They all spent time in Fort Worth in the Acre gambling and drinking. Later, 1895-1901 our neighbors were the famous train robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their gang the Wild Bunch. They lived across the street from our current location at the Market St hotel.
The Acre Distillery is located across the street from the Fort Worth Convention Center. It is a very short walk from most downtown hotels. The Acre was recently named “One of the 10 Best Craft Distillery Tasting Rooms in America” by Vinepair.com. In addition, the Daily Meal included the Acre as one of “Eleven Cocktail Experiences Worth Traveling For.” (Included in the list were The Ritz Hotel in Paris, Hotel Tressamo Lake Como, Italy, and several other notable establishments in other parts of the world). Finally, Acre has been nominated by the readers of the Fort Worth Star Telegram for a Worthy Award as one of the Three Best Cocktail Bars in the city.
All of the Acre’s 34 cocktails are made from spirits distilled and made at the Acre. We make over 20 products including four vodkas, three gins, three whiskeys, rum, and lemon-cello.
In 2019 two Acre products received honors at the World Spirits Competition held in San Francisco. Acre’s Texas Single Malt Whisky won a Silver Medal while Acre’s Two Minnie’s Gin won Double Gold! In addition, the Acre’s Hell’s Half Acre Rum was recently awarded the Platinum Medal at the Great American Spirits Competition held this May in New York. All of these spirits are featured at the distillery.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a challenge, but not a rough ride so far. The business has grown each of the past four years. The growth has been similar to that of the brewery, which continues to be a success. The biggest challenge is cash flow as we continue to produce and age whiskeys. We age a minimum of three years, so we are now able to sell these products. We will continue to distill and age larger volumes of whiskeys which of course, requires more money to be tied up.
We rely heavily on our in house cocktail, retail bottle, and Tour & Tasting business at the distillery. The challenge ahead is to get our brands better known in the market place so that our sales through restaurants, bars, and liquor stores grow more quickly. That is a priority now.
Please tell us about your business.
Acre Distilling is different than a lot of distilleries as we do not focus just on one spirit – whiskey or another spirit. We make over twenty products that fuel our extensive cocktail list – vodkas, whiskeys, gins, rum, and several other flavored items. Our business model is focused on high margin sales of cocktails and retail bottles sold at the distillery. While it may seem like a challenge to make so many products we have been very successful maintaining the quality of our spirits – Double Gold Medal and a Silver Medal at the 2019 World Spirits Competition (Acre Two Minnies London Dry Gin and Acre Texas Single Malt Whisky respectively) and one of four Platinum Medals awarded at the American Spirits Competition for our barrel aged Hell’s Half Acre Rum.
We are also proud of our exclusive use of Texas grains for our whiskeys – barley, white corn, rye, and wheat is grown for us by Texas farmers in the pan handle. We helped to start this four years ago. Now many of the much larger Texas distillers are buying their grain from these same farmers.
Finally, we are very excited about our new “Green Acre Initiative” which we commenced this year. This program includes the construction of a covered parking area that has a roof made of over 350 solar panels that will generate 104% of the distillery’s power needs. The project includes two electric car charging spots. In addition, we plan to use the covered area, which can park 50 cars as a downtown Farmer’s market on weekend mornings.
Our Green Acre Initiative also involves the elimination of all single use plastic at the distillery – cups and straws, a recycling program for our paper products, and a return bottle program for used Acre liquor bottles.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Being able to run and ride our bikes around the neighborhood with my pals without any supervision. We lived near a forest and we spent many hours in the woods.
Pricing:
- Acre Single Malt Whisky – Silver Medal World Spirits Comp. $45 Retail 750 ml Total Wines
- Acre Two Minnies Gin – Double Gold Medal Winner World Spirits Comp. $30 Retail 750 ml Total Wines
- Acre Vodkas $19 Retail 750 ml Total Wines
- Acre Hell’s Half Acre Rum, Cinnamon Girl Whisky, and Lemmoncello only available at the distillery.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1309 Calhoun Street
Fort Worth
Texas 76102 - Website: www.acredistilling.
com - Phone: 817 632-7722
- Email: tformby@acredistilling.
com - Instagram: acredistilling
- Facebook: acredistilling
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
