From Navy Rescue Swimmer To Distillery Owner: Whiskey, Business, & Community

In this episode, I sit down with Navy veteran and distillery owner Cort Meinelschmidt at Frontline Tastings in Tampa to talk about military service, Navy rescue swimming, whiskey, entrepreneurship, distilling, community development, and the realities of building a small alcohol business. Cort shares how being a nationally ranked swimmer helped lead him toward the Navy, why he became an aviation rescue swimmer, and how military service gave him the maturity and discipline he felt he needed before pursuing college and civilian life.

Cort and I discuss the training and experiences behind Navy rescue swimming, including his original plans to pursue the Navy SEAL pipeline, being medically disqualified, transitioning into rescue swimmer training, and performing real-world rescues after being flown into incidents. He also explains why he eventually left the Navy after nearly seven years despite advancing quickly through the enlisted ranks.

We then get into Cort’s transition from military service to the spirits industry. He and his wife developed an interest in small distilleries while traveling, and changes to Maryland distillery laws in 2019 helped make opening their own operation more practical. After purchasing their still in early 2020, they faced the disruption of COVID before finally opening their doors in March 2021. Cort explains how their interest in whiskey and bourbon, combined with a desire to contribute to their local downtown revitalization, shaped the business from the beginning.

Cort also breaks down the process of developing their whiskey products, including choosing wheated whiskey and bourbon styles, experimenting with heirloom grains, refining mash bills, and dealing with early batches that did not turn out as planned. We discuss how those experiments eventually led to wheated whiskey, cinnamon whiskey, honey whiskey, Maryland rye, bourbon, bottled-in-bond products, and cask-strength releases.

We also talk about growing a distillery beyond the product itself. Cort explains how live music, comedy nights, karaoke, poker nights, a restaurant, local businesses, and a nearby minor league baseball stadium have contributed to creating activity around the downtown area. He shares some of the biggest challenges small distilleries face, including attracting customers, changing state laws, federal and state reporting requirements, distribution, paperwork, and the administrative burden that can slow a business down.

https://meineldistillery.com/