Hearts 'n Tales Stories from the Stillhouse
October 22, 2026 • podcast
Tarpon Springs Distillery: Ouzo, Amazing Grace, and a Church Full of Whiskey
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Barry Butler turned an old Greek sponge warehouse in Tarpon Springs into a grain-to-glass distillery, with a 130-year-old church for a rickhouse and stills named Amazing Grace and R2D2D. Cal Evans talks with him about a savory ouzo found on an old blog, a Highland-style single malt made in Florida, free tours, and the Bahamian sponge divers buried down the road.

Kathy and I stumbled onto Tarpon Springs Distillery on a trip to the Tampa area, and it has been one of our favorites ever since. Last June we did the tasting and walked out with three bottles, including a Gramling Woods Single Malt that I now have to drive back up for on a regular basis. Kathy is a wine girl. That's one of the few spirits she'll ask for.

Barry Butler had been making liquor in his backyard and getting good at it. Everyone told him he should open a distillery, like the home cook who throws a great dinner party and hears he should open a restaurant. So he did. They started in 2018, it took about 20 months to build out, and about 60 days after they opened, COVID hit.

The building is the old Katzaras sponge warehouse, a block and a half from the sponge docks. Tarpon Springs is the largest Greek community outside of Greece, so Barry decided that if you open a distillery here, you make Greek things. The family let him keep the sponge scales and the rest of what was in the building. The first thing they made was ouzo, from a recipe he found on an old blog. It's the savory, Macedonian style with no sugar, made with anise, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, and orange zest. Their first batch won gold at the 2020 ADI judging, and took the category and the whole specialty class. Barry says they should have quit on top. They didn't.

Then there's the single malt. Barry explains why Florida ages whiskey a lot like Scotland does, with the same humidity and about the same temperature swing. It's 80% Munich dark barley and 20% six-row heritage barley smoked over Irish peat. He's careful to say it's not scotch. It's Highland-style single malt with a little smoke. The rye malt took a Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Barry puts it down to a grain bill he got right the first time, with grain from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville.

The barrels sleep in a 130-year-old church, 150 steps up the road, with a 30-foot peak ceiling and no heat or air conditioning. The church was built by Bahamian spongers, and the cemetery next door has 125 unmarked graves. Their Conch Shell Rum sends $5 a bottle to the cemetery foundation, and customers helped build a grave cross for every one of them. The stills have names too. Amazing Grace wears wood from an old Kentucky Baptist church. The other one is R2D2D, and Barry would like you to know it's not the Disney one.

We also talk about why Barry doesn't charge for tours or tastings, a gin that starts with 140 hand-cut avocados, ouzo on ice, and the cigar that goes with it. We get into the Rye Bar, the Bloody Mary menu, and a craft vermouth that makes a Florida Manhattan possible.

If you're anywhere near Tarpon Springs, go. Tours run from one to five, the last one is at four, and the sponge docks are right down the street.

Tarpon Springs Distillery, 605 N. Pinellas Ave, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689. (727) 940-2045. tarponspringsdistillery.net

A wooden shelf mounted against a white wall beneath an exposed metal air duct holds a brass antique diving helmet centered between two large natural sea sponges. To the right of the helmet is a decorative globe with a large broken section revealing its interior.
A large circular, porous tan-brown sponge or coral with a hollow center rests on a wooden shelf in front of a sunlit window. Folded clothing lies on the lower shelf and a parked vehicle and buildings are visible outside.
A wooden shelving unit holds multiple rows of assorted liquor bottles (clear, amber, and various labeled spirits) arranged across four main shelves with two wooden drawers and a wooden crate at the bottom, and a small double-framed sign hanging from the top center; a window to the right shows trees outside.
High on a wall beneath exposed white ceiling beams, a wooden shelf displays a detailed model sailing ship flanked by several large natural sea sponges and coral pieces, with a garland of large cylindrical wooden buoys draped across the shelf front.
A high wooden shelf holds a copper alembic still with a pressure gauge and tricolor medals draped over it, flanked by two small glass bottles and a hammered copper container, with a model sailing ship and a conch shell to the right.
A three-tier black metal shelving unit filled with rows of liquor and syrup bottles—clear and dark spirits, labeled bottles with paper tags, and several silver Monin syrup bottles—occupies the center of the image. Behind the shelves is a large distillery-themed poster on the wall and clipboards hanging to the left, with a refrigerator visible on the right.
A café/bar service area with wall-mounted shelves holding rows of glass jars and bottles, multiple syrup pumps, stacked drinking glasses, utensils and small storage containers, plus decorative items like a model ship and a dried pufferfish on the top shelf. Below the shelves are a sink, dish rack, metal dispensers and a refrigerated display case at the right edge.
Two men sit on stools facing each other amid video production gear—two tripod-mounted cameras, a large softbox light, and a microphone—one holding a small laptop while the other wears a baseball cap with sunglasses perched on the brim. Behind them is a rustic counter with corrugated metal facing and shelves filled with glass jars, bottles, plants, and decorative items under a hanging lantern.
A freestanding dark blue A-frame sign with a decorative border and diver-helmet-and-tentacle illustration reads "Tarpon Springs Distillery" at the top and "WE ARE OPEN" in large letters, followed by "TOURS + TASTINGS," "CRAFT COCKTAILS," and "LIVE MUSIC." The sign stands on a concrete floor in a dimly lit interior with a yellow "Caution/Cuidado Wet Floor" sign to the left and shelving and boxes visible in the background.
A large, porous, bowl-shaped tan sponge contains several smaller round tan sponges and rests on a low metal platform with caster wheels. The assembly sits on a concrete floor against a white wall, with the edge of a yellow "CAUTION" sign visible at left.
Two men sit on wooden stools holding handheld microphones in a rustic tasting-room or bar with weathered wood walls, shelves of glassware and bottles, a hanging lantern and a model ship behind them. One man wears a gray shirt, shorts and a baseball cap with sunglasses on the brim, and the other wears a beige polo, jeans and brown boots.
A mounted decorative plaque showing a sepia-toned portrait of an older man standing with one hand on his hip at left and a block of printed biographical text at right beneath the heading "HONORING THE PAST." The plaque features a patterned blue border along the bottom, a small circular logo at lower right, four visible metal mounting screws in the corners, and reflections/glare across the photograph.
In a corner near a glass door, a wooden easel-style chalkboard sign and an antique scale stand beside a low wheeled platform holding a curved basin filled with large porous, sponge-like rocks. A yellow caution sign, a matching porous planter, an electrical box and framed artwork are visible on the adjacent wall.
An indoor distillery room with a large wooden fermentation barrel mounted on a black stand at center and stainless steel jugs and a funnel beneath it. The barrel is flanked by tall stainless steel column stills, piping and a wheeled metal ladder on the left, and a stainless steel unit labeled "PATTON" on the right.
A distillery interior features a large copper pot still with a bulbous swan-neck head and a wooden staved outer jacket connected to a tall stainless-steel column with multiple circular sight glasses. A metal step ladder, a yellow cabinet, ducts, pipes, and exposed ceiling joists are visible around the equipment.
A weathered wooden barrel or plank surface with a metal plaque mounted near the top that reads "Barry Papous Craft Distillery" above a decorative "CSA" emblem. A rectangular wooden tag engraved in flowing script with the words "Amazing Grace" is attached below the plaque.
A wood-clad cylindrical metal vessel with a copper-domed top and an attached stainless-steel column featuring multiple sight-glasses, valves and pressure gauges stands against a white cinderblock wall, with black hoses connecting it to wall piping beneath a rectangular high window. Nearby are a dark wooden platform, a green hand truck, and a vertical metal ruler leaning against the wall.
Two smiling middle-aged men stand in a rustic shop or tasting room; the man on the left points at a bottle the man on the right is holding. The space includes a corrugated metal bar with wooden stools, shelving and racks of hats and shirts, framed pictures on the walls, and sunlight streaming through windows.
A rustic cinderblock wall features a large black hand-painted sign reading "THE RYE BAR" with painted wheat stalks, above metal sinks and counters, wooden shelves holding cleaning supplies, an overhead fan, and a mounted television.
A blue fabric canopy/stage displays a large white "Tarpon Springs Distillery" logo centered on the back wall with two circular windows on either side and strings of star-shaped lights hanging from the frame. A wooden platform in front has a few Adirondack-style chairs at the edge and palm foliage is visible through the right circular window.