Vanessa Braxton, First African American Woman Master Distiller
Vanessa Braxton refuses to accept the title of GOAT — Greatest of All Time. Not yet, at least. Even after more than a decade of crafting Black Momma Vodka from her distillery in Suffolk County, New York, she still feels she’s got work to do.
It’s a surprising assertion from the spirits producer. That’s because Vanessa already wields an impressive understanding of the distilling industry and the craft — not to mention an outstanding resume. A New York State proclamation declared her the first African American woman to serve as Master Distiller or Master Blender in the state. And that record extends nationwide.
“I'm still – no pun intended – the only black woman with a still,” She jokes. Although the pun definitely seems intentional.
How It Started
Vanessa’s journey to Master Distiller wasn’t a straight line. It took a few turns. While she got the ball rolling in college, making bootleg liquor for parties, she followed a career path in civil engineering. And she killed it at that job too.
“One of my biggest projects was $2 billion for Fulton Street Transit Center, South Street Ferry and the Transit Museum,” explains Vanessa. She worked her way up to an executive position. On top of managing million-dollar projects, the future Master Distiller also served as the Vice President of Business Development for COMTO, the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. All while raising three kids.
After 20 years as an engineer, Vanessa retired in 2009 and moved to Southern California with her husband. Only then did she decide she wanted to become a distiller. “I was retired and bored and I was like, ‘you know what? I want to start my liquor company.’”
The notion took her up the west coast to Bend, Oregon. That’s where a friend of hers owned a DSP (Distilled Spirits Plant). She called him with her idea to start a liquor company and he invited her to craft her brand on his equipment. She created a DBA for Black Momma Vodka at that point, making it official with a license in 2012. Her brand rolled out soon after, at a time when craft spirits didn’t really feature brands per se.
By 2015, Vanessa took her brand back to New York and set up shop in her current location on Long Island. That’s when she met Dr. Sonat Birnecker Hart and her partner and husband, Dr. Robert Birnecker, the owners of Chicago’s KOVAL Distillery. Even though they weren’t actively training distillers at the time, the pair took Vanessa under their wing and helped her strengthen her craft.
“They taught me everything; I mean soup to nuts, everything,” Vanessa explains. “I spent like two weeks out there. Then I always had her and Robert, as you know, accessible to whatever I was doing.”
Here is where Vanessa really honed her identity as a distiller. “I feel like getting that one-on-one from people who are in the industry really took me to another level in doing what I was doing,” she notes. “Blending, distilling and doing all the things that I really do.” It was a lesson she’d call up later in her career when she herself began training up-and-coming distillers.
Challenges Along the Way
With expert training to draw from, Vanessa pushed forward with her brand, finding success. But it wasn’t exactly all smooth sailing.
Like any powerful woman in any industry, Vanessa saw the ugly side of the business. “Just straight disrespect,” as she tells it. “[At the Bar & Restaurant Expo in Las Vegas], I will never forget my first year. A gentleman asked me where I got the money.”
Another unnamed man in the industry insulted the name of her brand. She had to cuss out another guy from Texas. (The Texan later submitted an order for her spirits.)
None of it stopped her. “I'm a black woman, born and raised in Brooklyn,” She says. “As an engineer in construction, already a male-dominated industry, so I have thick skin. But you're not going to talk to me in any type of way. I don't care if you buy or not, you're gonna get the tongue lashing of Vanessa Braxton.”
She powered through and rose above it all, developing her naturally infused vodka, along with a line of loose-leaf teas, CBD teas and agave products. Currently, she’s working on launching a gin and crafting her own whiskey.
How It’s Going
Of course, Vanessa doesn’t stop at distilling. She’s building beyond her brand and becoming a powerhouse in the spirits industry. The distiller collaborates with other woman-owned and minority-owned spirits companies in bottling, blending and aging. A warehouse she owns in Gary, Indiana hosts her barrels of whiskey but it also acts as rental space for other distilleries.
“I'm just trying to show craft distillers that there are so many things that we can do,” Vanessa reveals. “But we can make a dollar out of $0.15, right?”
With all that going on, it might be enough for some people. But not Vanessa. She’s invited young aspiring distillers to her space to teach them the craft. In a way, she’s giving back the support she received from the Birneckers. In Vanessa’s case, she’s doing it for her community.
“I'm also helping teach these youngsters how to distill and what the industry is about because I'm in a predominantly Black community,” she says. “They don't have access to something like this.”
Through her work training new distillers, Vanessa is also generating jobs in the community. “I have people who look like me that work for me and I'm training them.”
So why won’t Vanessa accept that Greatest of All Time title? Maybe she will soon enough. “Listen, when I make this gin and I see how this whiskey turns out, then I'll be the GOAT.”
As far as we’re concerned, the crown is hers whenever she wants it.
