A Mother’s Day frost killed most of John Broadbent’s wine grapes and drove him to hard liquor.

“I’m not much of a whiskey or wine drinker,” Broadbent said. Their production is what grabs his attention these days – long days that can find him cooking, fermenting and distilling corn and grapes into Two Jays Iowa Corn Whiskey and Two Jays Iowa Grape Grappa, both 80 proof spirits that went on sale last month.

Initially, corn whiskey was a secondary concern to Broadbent. The real issue was what to do with his damaged grape crop.

The frost occurred in 2009, the same year the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division was holding meetings to determine whether it could come up with a law to keep at least one successful micro-distillery in the state and satisfy requests from people who saw a localized spirits industry as a way to promote tourism and economic development.

For Broadbent, the law would provide a way to use the skins and seeds from a red wine grape that grows in his two-acre commercial vineyard near Norwalk in Warren County.

Nearly 80 percent of his crop was destroyed by the Mother’s Day frost. That meant he could not supply at least two wineries in the county with fruit necessary to make their wines.

Unlike the legislative process – a law regulating the operation of micro-distilleries and the production of craft beers with an alcohol content above 5 percent passed the General Assembly in 2010 – Broadbent moves fast.

By January, he had obtained a license to operate the fourth distillery to open in the state since Prohibition, and on March 1, he sold his first bottle of Two Jays Iowa Corn Whiskey at retail.

Broadbent is a former banker, filling station owner and U.S. Postal Service supervisor who takes a hands-on approach to solving problems others might ponder but never resolve.

“Sometimes people ask me what time it is, and I tell them how to build a watch,” he quipped.

A ditch that separates his house from his vineyard is spanned by a foot bridge Broadbent built from scrap steel. Broadbent and his son, also named John and the second “J” in Two Jays, built the distillery and workshop. A salvaged coal-burning stove supplies heat to the building, whose rafters were special engineered by father and son. The heat blanket for the stove is made from an old watering tank.

Corn mash and grape skins, seeds and stems (used in the production of grappa) are cooked in a salvaged stainless steel dairy chiller. Broadbent fashioned a corn mill from roller guides used to guide vehicles into an automatic car wash.

Under the 2010 law, micro-distilleries must have an operational still. Lacking a still, Broadbent built his own, one that can switch from an old-fashioned copper-coil pot still to an industrial-type reflux still.

The pot still can retain some of the color and taste of the fruit or corn after it ferments, Broadbent said. His whiskey and grappa are distilled twice to remove such blemishes, then run through a filtering system before they are bottled.

After experimenting with various recipes for nearly 20 months, Broadbent decided to market the clear grappa and corn whiskey.

However, he also realizes that whiskey drinkers prefer a little color in their drink. He is not satisfied with a processes he developed to turn the whiskey brown by using oak that he has cut and toasted.

The law allows distilleries to provide one two-ounce sample a day to visitor and limits sales to 1.5 liters per person per day.

Broadbent’s production facility falls within a yellow line on the distillery floor. Whiskey and grappa are produced and bottled behind the line. Beyond the line and toward the entrance to the distillery, they are taxable goods.

So far, he has delivered about 58 cases of whiskey to the Alcoholic Beverages Division, where it is distributed to retailers. Any whiskey sold at the distillery is for off-site consumption, under state law.

“I have no idea how it sells at retail,” Broadbent said, although he believes the state has distributed about 30 cases. “I did hear that someone bought some in Council Bluffs.”

He’ll continue to perfect the whiskey production.

“I’m just looking for something that tastes smooth and homey,” he said.