07/16/2026
What a great story about Hochatown Distilling Company!
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More Than Bourbon: The Story of Hochatown Distilling Company.
When I sat down with Tommy “Blue” McDaniel at Hochatown Distilling Company, I thought I was going to hear a distillery story.
I did.
But I also heard an Oklahoma story.
A story about old liquor laws, Indian Territory, bootlegging, bourbon science, family, grief, patience, and what it takes to build something real in a state that was not exactly built to make the process easy.
Blue did not start with the wh***ey.
He started with the law.
“To discuss spirits in Oklahoma,” he said, “you need to understand the history.”
And he was right.
Oklahoma has one of the more complicated alcohol histories in the country. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, prohibition was written into its constitution. That meant alcohol wasn’t just restricted by ordinary law. It was tied into the basic structure of the state itself.
Even after national Prohibition ended in 1933, Oklahoma stayed dry for decades longer. Voters did not repeal statewide prohibition until 1959.
That history matters because, in Blue’s view, modern Oklahoma distillers are still working through the leftovers of that old system.
When Hochatown Distilling Company began in 2015, a distillery in Oklahoma could make spirits, but it could not simply sell a bottle directly to a customer who walked through the door. It could not operate the way many people naturally assume a craft distillery would operate.
Blue and his brother, Michell “Mitch” McDaniel, knew that going in.
Their attitude was simple.
They were going to build the distillery, make the wh***ey, and then help change the laws that stood in the way.
They never saw those laws as a reason not to build a distillery.
They saw them as another challenge to solve.
Hochatown Distilling Company was founded in southeast Oklahoma by four people who brought very different skills to the table. Blue McDaniel was a chemical engineer by education and spent years in technical sales. Mitch McDaniel was a chemist with decades of experience in food science and analytical chemistry. Mark McDaniel brought property development and construction experience. Nathan Jewell brought distilling knowledge and a family history tied to moonshining.
Together, they were not trying to build a label.
They were trying to build a distillery.
That distinction matters.
A lot of new wh***ey brands begin by buying barrels from somewhere else, creating a label, and selling the story while their own wh***ey ages in the background. There is nothing illegal about that, and plenty of good wh***ey has been sold that way.
But Hochatown wanted something different.
They wanted the bottle to say distilled, aged, and bottled by Hochatown Distilling Company.
That meant no shortcut.
They made wh***ey.
And they waited.
For years.
Blue described it as honoring the process. Bourbon does not care about your business plan. It does not care how badly you want to sell it. Once it goes into the barrel, the wh***ey decides the timeline.
Blue has a saying for that:
“The last thing you want to do is get in a game of patience with a man who makes bourbon wh***ey for a living.”
That patience shows up in the way they make their bourbon.
Hochatown uses an 80-10-10 mash bill: 80 percent corn, 10 percent malted barley, and 10 percent rye. Blue said the higher corn base was intentional. They wanted a strong foundation of sweetness, then used rye to shape the flavor profile and barley for enzymes, texture, and balance.
They also chose not to use the traditional Kentucky sour mash process in the usual way.
Instead, they took the principles behind sour mash and applied them through a sweet mash process. Blue explained that old sour mash practices helped control pH and feed yeast, even if early distillers did not fully understand the chemistry behind it. With Mitch’s chemistry background, Hochatown approached the same goal more deliberately.
They use reverse osmosis filtration on their water, then add back the minerals and nutrients they want in the process. Internally, they jokingly called it their “Kentucky water.”
That is where the story of Hochatown becomes more than branding.
It becomes two brothers using science, patience, and a love of bourbon to figure out what kind of wh***ey they wanted to make.
Blue said they did not go out and learn someone else’s process first. They did not want to simply copy Kentucky. They knew what they liked. Then they studied, tested, built, and worked until the wh***ey matched the idea in their heads.
From the first barrel forward, Blue said, the process stayed the same.
That is rare.
But building the wh***ey was only part of the fight.
The other part was Oklahoma law.
Blue and Mitch began going to the State Capitol, not as professional lobbyists, but as distillers trying to explain the problem. Tourists were coming to Hochatown. Visitors wanted to taste the bourbon, hear the story, and buy a bottle to take home.
For most people, that sounds normal.
In Oklahoma, at the time, it was not.
Blue remembered walking up to the Capitol and passing a marker commemorating Oklahoma’s repeal of prohibition.
He and Mitch would stop and look at it.
“If they could do it,” they would say, *“we can do it.”
That became part of the motivation.
In 2021, Senate Bill 315 changed the landscape for Oklahoma distilleries by allowing licensed distilleries to sell the spirits they produce directly to visitors at their distilleries.
For Hochatown, that was monumental.
There is also a very human twist to that story.
During COVID, Hochatown used relief funds to make hand sanitizer and gave it away locally. When the Oklahoma State Capitol needed sanitizer to open its legislative session, Blue and Mitch helped provide it.
Not long after, legislation they had spent years supporting and advocating for finally moved through.
The governor signed it in April 2021.
Hochatown could finally sell bottles directly to the people walking into the distillery.
Blue is also quick to point out that changes like these never happen because of one distillery alone. Lawmakers, industry organizations, and other Oklahoma craft distillers all played important roles. Hochatown was proud to be part of that effort.
But the moment that may mean the most to Blue came later.
Bottled in Bond bourbon holds a special place in American wh***ey history. Created under federal law in 1897, it became a mark of trust. It tells the drinker that the wh***ey came from one distillery, one distilling season, was aged at least four years, and bottled at exactly 100 proof.
As Blue and Mitch talked about what success would really mean, they kept coming back to one milestone: releasing a Bottled in Bond bourbon.
To them, it wasn’t just another bourbon release.
It was proof that they had done things the hard way.
They had made their own wh***ey, patiently aged it, and earned a place among America’s distilleries on their own terms.
Then tragedy struck.
In April 2022, before they could celebrate that milestone together, Mitch died suddenly after suffering a heart attack.
Blue described getting the call, driving to his brother’s house, and performing CPR.
It is impossible to hear that part of the story and not understand that this distillery is more than tanks, barrels, bottles, and labels.
It is family.
After Mitch died, Blue had to pick up the work his brother had been handling. Mitch had worked on labels and regulatory details. Blue took his notes, figured out the process, and pushed forward.
Later that year, Hochatown released its Bottled in Bond bourbon.
For Blue, that bottle is more than a wh***ey.
It is proof that they belonged.
Proof that they had paid their dues.
Proof that the dream he and Mitch started together had survived.
Hochatown also makes a Small Batch bourbon, a Barrel Proof expression, and a Small Batch Select that Blue said grew out of blending ideas between the 90-proof Small Batch and the 120-proof Barrel Proof. The Small Batch Select landed at 104 proof, partly because Mitch didn’t want to deal with a decimal on the label.
Their newer Barrel Proof came out at 124.7 proof.
Blue smiled when he explained the decimal.
That “.7” was for Mitch.
A little brotherly jab, still sitting there on the bottle.
That is the kind of detail you cannot invent in a marketing meeting.
Today, Hochatown Distilling Company is still pushing forward. Blue talked about new equipment, expanding production, building the brand, and continuing to work within Oklahoma’s evolving alcohol laws.
The bourbon was excellent.
But what stayed with me most was the story behind it.
That is why this story matters.
It is not just about a bottle on a shelf.
It is about what had to happen before that bottle could legally be sold to the person standing in the distillery.
It is about four people who chose to build a distillery instead of simply creating a wh***ey brand.
It is about two brothers who believed bourbon was worth waiting for.
It is about people who refused to accept, “That’s just the way things are,” and instead worked to leave Oklahoma’s distilling industry better than they found it.
That is BarRoom Knowledge.
Because great bourbon deserves a great story.
And Hochatown has both.
Cheers!
