montana photograph Headframe Spirits
I love Butte, Montana. It’s genuine and it’s honestly humble. Butte owns its mining past, good and bad, and it moves forward with friendly grace.
Courtney and John McKee are examples of that. In 2012, they started Headframe Spirits, named for the structures that mark the mine shafts scattered inside the Butte city limits. They distill spirits and also make the stills.
Headframe Spirits took over a building that used to be a Buick dealership in uptown Butte, Montana.
Mike Stoltz welds a stainless steel patch onto a tank at the Headframe Spirits distillery in Butte, Montana.
John McKee says he founded the company after a job distilling biodiesel fuel ended. He says his continuous column stills are more than twice as efficient as the old pot stills.
Every bottle of whiskey sold by Headframe Spirits gets a hand-written note.
Bartender Jessica Tutty pours a glass of Neversweat bourbon. Each whiskey produced by Headframe Spirits is named for a mine in Butte, Montana.
See these pictures on my website here.
Thomas Lee True West 