Co-founder of multiple beverage ventures, Roy Milner has been in and around the spirits industry for the better part of two decades. Roy shares his latest adventure with friends to create Art of Alchemy, an enterprise whose mission he says is rooted in friendship, community, and collaboration.
Q: Do you like whiskey? How did you get into the world of whiskey?
A: I love whiskey. As I've traveled the world, I've been reminded that I grew up in Chattanooga in the shadow of two of the iconic distilleries in the whiskey business–Jack Daniels and George Dickel. I grew up around this culture of whiskey making, and since I've been in the beverage business and affiliated with Blackberry Farm, it just put me in the crosshairs of getting to spend a lot of time around great whiskey families, distilleries, and companies with incredible legacy and heritage. I never planned on being in the business, but life has a funny way of showing you opportunities and you either accept them or you don't.
Q: How did Art of Alchemy come to be?
A: During the pandemic, I had friends that I met through Blackberry. We were working with other brands to help them navigate the changes during the pandemic. It started to scratch that itch for all of us—what can we do together? That's something we've always wanted to do. We all realized quickly that procuring some of these whiskey barrels was what we really wanted to do; so, we bought several hundred of these barrels, and that became the genesis of Art of Alchemy.
We launched the brand late summer of 2021, and the plan was always to use that base rye as a blending platform. We took that rye, and we started sourcing other barrels that were interesting to us that other friends had access to.
I've always loved blending. I did a lot of blending when I was in beer, I've done some blending in wine. Blending to me is very fascinating. I just thought blending was a fun way to bring more people together. Again, thinking about community. I did a lot of collaborating and beer…beer’s a very collaborative industry, and the response to it was overwhelmingly positive.
We are a very small company and self-funded. We try to make our activations personal. We love the one-on-one connection. We love that relationship-building community-building element. Art of Alchemy has been a really fun way to bring people together around whiskey.
Q: Who are your partners?
A: Mac Macsovits and Steef Schelke. We all knew each other, had a chance to spend a lot of time together, and got along. We were at similar points in our lives where we wanted smaller projects to sink our teeth into, enjoy, and be able to travel. There's something inherently amazing about holding a product and sharing it with someone. When it's your product, it just has a different feeling. It hits a little differently. Those guys had not been able to make something that they could call their own. I had been in the beer business, but l'd never had the chance to do that in whiskey. We thought this was a great way for us to express our interests and passions with the product that we could share.
Q: What’s next for Art of Alchemy?
A: I think Art of Alchemy was always meant to be inspirational, forward leaning, a little rebellious, and a little disrupter. We’ve been playing around and blending different spirits. There's some stuff coming that will be extremely limited, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I don't know how the industry is going to respond, but we've never sought adoration. We just want to do something that's delicious and maybe a little different.
Art of Alchemy can be found in select retailers specializing in fine spirits as well as an original supporter, the Walnut Kitchen in Maryville. The first three releases are available, and the fourth and fifth will be available later this summer. Milner is excited for the future of Art of Alchemy. Grab some friends and family and enjoy a bottle of fine whiskey.
Learn more at AOAspirits.com
We love the one-on-one connection. We love that relationship-building community-building element. Art of Alchemy has been a really fun way to bring people together around whiskey.
Art of Alchemy was always meant to be inspirational, forward leaning, a little rebellious, and a little disrupter. There's some stuff coming that will be extremely limited, but it's going to be a lot of fun.