Crystal Ridge Distillery

Our Story – Danny Bradley, Owner, President and CEO of Crystal Ridge Distillery, grew up in the shadows of the Ouachita Mountains; specifically, a sub-range called the Crystal Mountains. The quartz in those mountains is of such quality that the small town of Mt. Ida, a short drive from Hot Springs, is known as the “Quartz Capital” of the United States.

Like most boys in rural Arkansas, Danny grew up hunting, fishing, playing sports and ranging in those mountains. Following a stint with the United States Air Force, Danny returned to Arkansas and attended college at Henderson State, where he took a degrees in Health and Physics. Under internship, he taught P.E. and coached football at Lakeside High School and then taught Agriculture and was a FFA sponsor at Magnet Cove High School, just south of Hot Springs in Malvern.

Believing in the need to instill local youth with job skills and work ethic, Danny was also an Instructor at the Arkansas Career Training Institute in Hot Springs where he taught Construction Technology. In his spare time, Danny fished competitively in professional bass tournaments on Lake Ouachita and other regionally located lakes.

Danny then returned to college and graduated from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a Ph.D. in Poultry Science. After years of traveling the United States for work, he decided it was time to return to his home in Garland County. His love for Arkansas and the Hot Springs area inspired him to join in the revitalization of the downtown area. Knowing that jobs were key to sustain a thriving city, Danny chose to build a business, his distillery, downtown. Since its beginning, the mission of Crystal Ridge Distillery has been to create jobs. From the construction and renovation of “The Old Country Store” into Crystal Ridge Distillery itself, Danny not only put many people to work, but also helped immortalize a piece of history so important to Hot Springs.

Like more than a few boys growing up around the Ouachita Mountains, Danny’s father, Charlie, was an illegal moonshiner, although his career was short-lived. It has also been said that Danny himself distilled illegal shine for personal consumption and to the delight of a few dear friends. But that is not true; at least, he denies it vociferously. At around sixteen, Charlie, having watched the movie, “Thunder Road,” starring Robert Mitchum, with its moonshiners and fast cars, became enamored with the idea of moonshine and the cars that led to the creation of stock car racing. While he couldn’t afford the car, his parents did have cow and chicken feed along with a well-stocked pantry.  So, with stealth, the makings for mash were readily at hand. Charlie’s first batch was well into fermentation when his mother discovered it in the barn. Being on the side of temperance, she dumped it in the yard to the delight of the chickens, at least at first. Before long, the woozy chickens could be seen stumbling around the barnyard. Thus, ended Charlie’s career as a moonshiner, although he would later help his son Danny build a “legal” distillery.

Mary Bradley, Owner, VP and Chief Financial Officer at Crystal Ridge Distillery also oversees regulatory compliance. As product quality and safety is of utmost concern, having majored and taken degrees in Chemistry and Math, Mary is well suited to manage compliance. In her “other life,” Mary is a Clinical Trial Research Monitor and is currently studying the applicability of an existing pneumonia vaccine for use against Covid-19. Mary and Danny work well together, which is good, as they are married.

Asher Bradley, their oldest son, serves as General Manager and CMO. He is responsible for Marketing and Advertisement. Asher is well equipped for his position, having studied Business at Arkansas Tech. Like his father, Asher enjoyed sports and played pitcher and third base for the Lakeside Rams in Hot Springs. He went on to play college ball at Northern Oklahoma in Enid while earning an associate degree.

Our Process – Making moonshine is a process that dates back to a time when farmers could make more money from turning their corn into whiskey than selling it as grain alone. A process that is still illegal without the proper permits, we decided to bring the moonshine distillery process out of the woods to the heart of Downtown Hot Springs right here at Crystal Ridge.