“What do you have besides beer?” and “Do you serve vodka?” have become regular questions at Ballston Spa’s Speckled Pig Brewing, according to co-owner Larry Heid. Since the brewery’s opening in 2022, he hasn’t been able to give satisfactory answers—until now.
With a dedicated customer base hooked on the brewery’s relaxed, family-friendly environment and enthusiastic staff, the owners of Speckled Pig are ready to give the people what they want: a distillery.
While the brewery’s five partners—RJ Elliot, Randy Elliot, Kelly Delaney-Elliot, Larry Heid, and Mary Jo Heid—had been thinking about opening a distillery for some time, it wasn’t until the owner of Jim’s Garage, the brewery’s neighbor, approached them about purchasing his building that they decided to take the next step.
During the six months of negotiations, the owners had plenty of time to think about what they wanted their distillery to embody and offer. Their goal became clearer: to bring to Ballston Spa a quaint, upscale, speakeasy-esque destination without the usual pretentiousness of a high-end restaurant/bar.
“If you’ve been to a cocktail bar, you know they can seem ‘stuffy,’” says Heid. “That’s exactly what we want to avoid.”
A big part of the distillery’s welcoming atmosphere will come from the employees themselves. At the brewery, staff members are encouraged to play their own music on alternating nights—a small but meaningful way to make them feel valued.
“It’s the staffing that makes Speckled Pig such a good place,” says Heid. “We give staff members a lot of freedom to just be themselves.” That same staff energy and sense of community is exactly what the owners want to carry over to the distillery.
One aspect of the brewery that won’t be carried over? The kids’ play area. While Heid actually took it as a compliment when one reviewer called Speckled Pig the “Chuck E. Cheese of the brewing world,” the distillery will focus on—well—adults, with later opening and closing times, for instance.
As for the name? Heid and team decided on The Still at Speckled Pig.
Located right next door to the brewery, The Still at Speckled Pig will offer elevated pub food (think charcuterie boards, smash burgers, skirt steaks, and salads) and distilled-on-site spirits in a high-end yet inviting space. Speckled Pig’s own gin, vodka, and rum will be available from the get-go; whiskey and bourbon, however, will need to be aged to perfection (for a minimum of two years). In the meantime, the distillery will contract with local farms so everyone can enjoy their drink of choice.
Future customers can also expect Sunday brunch, distillery tours, and a Cocktail Club for early supporters, which will entail an engraved paver out front, free monthly cocktails, and an annual celebration. Oh, and large garage doors that will open to a courtyard patio complete with fire pits and lounge furniture for al fresco dining and drinking.
While the distillery sounds like a destination in and of itself, Heid emphasizes that it should be just one stop in your bar-hopping tour de Ballston Spa, a town that’s seeing a surge in new restaurants and bars. “Ballston Spa is becoming the Brooklyn to Saratoga’s Manhattan,” he says. “A lot of people find they can’t live in Saratoga, but here in Ballston Spa you’ll find a trendy, cool, developing neighborhood where homes cost half as much.”
Heid and his other co-owners are aiming for a July opening, but, as they learned when launching Speckled Pig’s brewery, there are many factors that could impact or delay opening…the State Liquor Authority, federal government, construction, and permitting, to name a few.
“We have a saying in the brewery world,” says Heid. “It’s always twice as long and twice as much.”
Nonetheless, while the goal is to be open in July, Heid expects The Still to be up and running no later than September, when Speckled Pig hosts its annual Oktoberfest and anniversary celebration. That party? It just got a whole lot boozier.