A new Adirondack growth: Whiskey fungus

As distilling business expands, so does black sheen on Mineville buildings

By Gwendolyn Craig

In the northeastern corner of the Adirondack Park, white and yellow houses are turning gray, green metal roofs are turning brown and white gutters and fence posts are turning spotted black. It’s as if a five-o’clock shadow is growing over Grover Hills, a neighborhood in the hamlet of Mineville.

This sticky substance is new, some lifelong residents say. They point to about a half-mile northwest where rows of 14,000-square-foot, barn-red buildings hold thousands of barrels of aging whiskey. It is where WhistlePig Whiskey has stored products distilled in Vermont since approximately 2017.

State regulators have tested the moldy stuff and have concluded, in some cases, it is whiskey fungus, or Baudoinia compniacensis. Scientists first documented the soot-like sheen in the 1870s, outside the spirit warehouses of Cognac, France. More recently it plagued neighborhoods around a Jack Daniel’s plant in Tennessee and the Wiggly Bridge Distillery in Maine.

Mineville’s is the first case of whiskey fungus in New York, health and environmental officials said.

There are discrepancies between state and private labs over whether all instances of the black gummy substance are fungus caused by WhistlePig Whiskey and whether whiskey fungus can cause health impacts. It remains a nuisance for the dozens of homeowners in the path of the alcohol that evaporates in the aging process, a vapor known as “angel’s share.”

“I call it devil’s bull****,” said Mineville resident Harold (Joe) Nephew. The 74-year-old hasn’t had the black gunk on his house tested for whiskey fungus, but he’s certain that’s what it is. Nephew and others want WhistlePig to clean their homes, or do something to stop the escape of alcohol from the nearly 100,000 square feet of barrel warehouses near their Mineville properties. WhistlePig contends not all of the fungus can be attributed to its operations, though it considers “cleaning buildings in the community on a case-by-case basis.”

The spirited disagreements have town officials trying to placate both residents and a business that employs nearly three dozen people in a hamlet with a population of 1,300, part of the community that lost dozens of jobs when the state closed a prison in 2021.

WhistlePig is not in violation of any regulations, said Moriah Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava, and therefore the town cannot do much. Mineville is a hamlet within the town. “Some things you’re going to have to live with,” he said, referencing inconveniences caused by business such as odors from nearby paper plants or traffic at gas stations. “But I agree with the homeowners. If I was next door, I would expect something.”

WhistlePig moves in

WhistlePig Whiskey was created in 2007, named after Kunekune pigs that live on the company’s farm and not the moniker for woodchucks. Its libations are made of rye in Shoreham, Vt. and distributed in all 50 states. It is widely available at restaurants, bars and stores across New York, according to its website.

In 2016, the company purchased land in Mineville from the Essex County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA) to process, age and bottle its spirits. There, WhistlePig built seven 14,000 square-foot warehouses and one 14,000 square-foot bottling plant at the Moriah Business Park.

Jody Olcott, the ECIDA’s co-director, said the agency sold WhistlePig additional land next door, where it is building eight 14,000 square-foot warehouses. Each warehouse can hold about 14,000 barrels, Olcott said, which would allow WhistlePig to age more than 200,000 barrels once all the buildings are erected. The whiskey is aged five to 15 years, Olcott said.

It is unclear why WhistlePig did not build its warehouses in Vermont, though Olcott said the whiskey business had wanted to expand outside the Green Mountain State. In 2013, Vermont Public Radio reported that WhistlePig sought a farm exemption under Act 250, a land use and development law intended to mitigate environmental and community impacts, to build additional storage warehouses.

A Vermont Superior Court appeals judge in 2015 ruled that WhistlePig did not qualify for the exemption, but the company has several permits filed under Act 250, including for a 7,140 square-foot barrel and dry goods warehouse and associated access drive improvements. The town board in Shoreham declined the Explorer’s request for comment.

In New York, WhistlePig had looked at the former Lowe’s store in Ticonderoga, Olcott said, but the company’s purchase offer was denied.

The business has not received incentives from the ECIDA or the local municipalities, Olcott added. It is in line for Empire State Development’s Excelsior Jobs Program, which would allow the company to apply for a tax credit should it create and maintain 23 jobs. A spokesperson for Empire State Development said it was not yet clear if WhistlePig had filed for the tax credit. 

Ahren Wolson, director of operations for the distillery, said WhistlePig employs 34 full-time staff in Mineville. It’s no small employer for the hamlet considering the 2021 state’s shuttering of the Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility, which employed about 100 people. Wolson did not respond to the Explorer’s inquiries about the Empire State Development program or why the company chose Mineville for its bottling and storage process. 

“They’re a great neighbor,” Scozzafava said. “They pay good wages, property taxes, and they do give a lot back to the community. Unfortunately, one of the issues that has developed is this whiskey fungus.”

Whiskey fungus

Whiskey fungus has also been called warehouse staining fungus and distillery fungus. It forms as spirits age and about 2% to 5% of the alcohol turns to ethanol vapor. In bourbon and whiskey distilling hot spots such as Kentucky and Tennessee, the fungus is particularly noticeable, developing crusty black flakes on trees, traffic signs and buildings.

Such was the scene in Lincoln County, Tenn., where Jack Daniel’s was expanding its operations. Residents there sued the county, arguing the whiskey producer did not get the proper permits for its additional warehouses. The lawsuit delayed but did not stop Jack Daniel’s from its plans, said Jason Holleman, a Nashville attorney representing several of the residents. His clients had hoped county officials would require the installation of air filters to tamp down the growing fungus.

A Jack Daniel’s press officer did not respond to the Explorer, but in a USA Today article said such filtration would ruin the taste of their whiskey.

Unlike many Mineville residents, Holleman grew up knowing about whiskey fungus. Law enforcement in the south could track illegal moonshine operations via the thickening black gum on the trees.

Since this legal fight, Holleman has fielded calls from people all over the world dealing with the fungus, from Caribbean residents near rum distillers, to Scotland residents near Scotch distillers.

In early November, the air smelled sweet at the Moriah Business Park. Black dots stained the sides of WhistlePig’s red buildings. The gunk seemed to originate from silver vents. WhistlePig’s operations manager declined to comment.

Nearby, High Peaks Hospice rents administrative space from the ECIDA. Nicholas George, executive director, said whiskey fungus has covered the hospice office’s building. WhistlePig has washed the building a few times in the last few years. George said he was unconcerned about it. “It just looks terrible,” he said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) tested the substance, and in a report called it whiskey mold. The department later told the Explorer that “fungus” better described the specimen and it would be using the term “whiskey fungus” going forward.

George said he didn’t ask for the DEC to test the building and wasn’t sure who did. Olcott was not aware that the DEC tested the building for whiskey fungus and asked the Explorer to share a copy of the report. Olcott declined to comment on the whiskey fungus.

The ‘black schmutz’

Wolson said WhistlePig is “committed to being good neighbors,” but its relationship with Grover Hills residents appears strained, at best.

A sign in the neighborhood deli’s bulletin board said, “Black schmutz all over your house? Thank WhistlePig!” It included the Vermont distillery’s phone number and address.

“It’s absolutely disgusting,” said Susan Wright. She moved back to her childhood home in Mineville in 2021 after living in Albany and working for Hearst Corporation. She had never seen anything similar on her parents’ house before. She had the front of her roof cleaned this year, costing $600, she said, after WhistlePig declined to do the cleaning. The DEC took scrapings of the black developing around her windowsills in early November for testing. 

Nephew said he bought a pressure washer, but only a scrub brush gets the black gunk out of the crevices in vinyl siding. He retired from the Ticonderoga paper mill after 44 years, and at 74 and a lung cancer survivor, is no longer up to climbing ladders and scrubbing. His family has helped him with that.

Nephew said he spoke to a worker at WhistlePig, who told him the business was not responsible for cleaning outside of 900 feet from the operation. Nephew said WhistlePig determined he was about 1,000 feet away, but suggested they would clean his house. So far, he has not heard back.

“It’s discouraging,” Nephew said.

Down the street, 60-year-old Laurie Trepanier, who has lived in Mineville for three decades, has black sheen growing on her house’s siding and inside her home. The DEC collected outside samples in early November.

Trepanier cleans neighbors’ Sandra and Amos (Joe) Ploufe’s home. They, too, had the black dots all over their siding and fence this summer and recruited their sons to clean it with a kind of algicide.

Joe Ploufe, 88, visited WhistlePig about two years ago to see if they would clean it for them. The Ploufes said WhistlePig agreed to do so, but a year went by with no word. So, Joe Ploufe said, he visited them again and was asked to leave.

The DEC tested their house a few years ago, Sandra Ploufe, 83, said, and told them it was some kind of mold and not whiskey fungus.

“It’s not mold,” she said. “We lived here 40 years. We’ve never had this stuff.”

Mike Stoddard’s garage, also in Grover Hills, has three sides clear, but the side facing WhistlePig is covered in black polka dots. The 66-year-old retiree from Mountain Lake Services has lived in Mineville for 40 years.

He, too, had never seen anything like it. He is not concerned about cleaning it, he said, but he fears unknown health impacts, as do his neighbors. With 10 grandchildren who come by to play, Stoddard said he is worried about what they are breathing. The DEC has told him there are no health concerns.

Three DEC staff also collected samples from Stoddard’s garage in early November. The results of the samples are pending.

Discrepancies

The DEC received complaints about whiskey fungus in 2020, but did not conclude what it was. The DEC’s lab results from the hospice building’s 2023 swabs came back positive for whiskey fungus. The DEC said the investigation is ongoing.

A few complaints were filed again in October. The complaint forms included “action to be taken,” where the DEC wrote “there have been issues with DEC’s laboratory equipment,” leading to a delay in test results. The department also wrote distilleries have a state exemption from needing air permits but “given the situation and facility expansions, we are looking into what level of air permit may be required at the facility.”

WhistlePig did not respond to the Explorer’s questions about whether it was considering any air filtration systems.

The Explorer shared the 2020 and 2023 DEC lab reports it received in a records request with James Scott, who studies whiskey fungus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Despite DEC’s claim that the 2020 samples collected at nearby homes were not whiskey fungus, Scott said “the macroscopic photographs and description of the site are compatible with whiskey fungus.” He called the DEC’s testing methods “highly unconventional.”

Scott questioned the DEC’s methods of cultivating whiskey fungus in a petri dish to compare it to collected samples. “(T)he better approach is to perform light microscopy directly on field specimens. It is possible to use DNA-based (testing) methods as well,” Scott said. The images from the scanning electron microscope do not show the pigment of the sample, “a key component” for identifying whiskey fungus, he said.

The DEC said it is confident in its analysis of the samples, which were done at a particle-identification lab in Rensselaer.

WhistlePig Whiskey acknowledged “ethanol can accelerate growth” of whiskey fungus, but Wolson said it is “not exclusively the result of whiskey storage.” Wolson said it is naturally occurring and has “no known health or safety risks.”

Scott said WhistlePig’s statement was “approximately correct but a bit aspirational and very carefully worded.”

“If all other sources of fugitive ethanol vapour can be excluded, then it would be possible to attribute the growth to the facility were it emitting ethanol,” Scott wrote.

The state Department of Health said it is aware of the whiskey fungus case in Mineville and while “unsightly,” the department said “it is unlikely to pose a significant health risk to humans.”

Scott said the matter is inconclusive. He has not seen any scientific studies to answer the question of whether whiskey fungus has health impacts. Anecdotally, he said, “the potential for serious health risk is very low,” but people could still have allergic reactions or experience irritation from the fungus.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with a few lines about WhistlePig’s expansion permit history in Vermont.