Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 2 1 46 She smiles. "We're helping our peers build the tools to succeed." She pauses, then adds, "We succeed when we help oth- ers do the same." I'm beginning to suspect that Courtney and John are boozy superheroes, sav- ing the world one drink at a time, but Courtney reminds me that Headframe defines success not by a return to the shareholders but by the value they create for their community. Headframe Spirits opened on leap day of 2012, and now every time their leap/birthday comes around, they throw a big fundraising extravaganza to benefit four different non-profits, all nominated and voted on by their employees. There's also "Drink Like You Mean It," month-long fundraisers for non-profits and causes like the rebuilding of Butte's legendary M&M Bar, which sadly burned down re- cently. Headframe, working with Montana Broom and Brush, matched donations, resulting in thousands of dollars in aid. Courtney sums up succinctly Headframe's many efforts to help: "We need to be a successful business, but we aim to be as strategically philanthropic as we can." We then go to their second facility, an enormous ware- house overlooking the town. Appropriately enough, the warehouse lies in the shadow of the Kelley headframe herself. Inside I am greeted by a sight that I can only really com- pare to the scene in Willy Wonka when they finally get into the factory and see the chocolate river. I go agog when I see the hundreds of barrels, pallets of malt and grain (all ingre- dients sourced in Montana, she tells me), and further in the back, the elegant lines of stills under construction. I briefly entertain the fantasy that at the end of the tour, Courtney will hand me the keys to the whole place á la Gene Wilder, and then I'm reminded of a line from that classic film: "Can- dy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." Walking through the warehouse, Courtney shows me a certain set of barrels set apart from the others. She pulls the bung out of the top and invites me to put my nose to the aperture. It smells fantastic, bringing to mind autumnal colors with a sophisticated, delicate balance of scents. I lean in for another sniff as she tells me that it's one of their latest projects—Good Deeds Whiskey. It's a prod- uct of John's quest to con- nect with values-based dis- tillers across the country. He helped form the Good Guy Distillers, who undertook a project in support of the American Craft Spirits Association to provide scholarships to women and minorities interested in the distilling indus- try. Good Deeds Whiskey is a blend of seven single-malts contributed by the Good Guys to support ACSA's goal, and let me tell you, I'll be first in line for a bottle. As we wrap up the tour, Courtney makes her love of Butte clear but also expresses a need for a new narrative about the once-and-future boomtown: "If you're completely focused on looking back, you're not doing a great job of looking forward. Butte does an incredible job preserving and telling stories about our past. But we need to tell ourselves better stories about our present and future, we need to tell them to everyone else, and we need to hear those stories reflected back to us." Headframe, along with their many philanthropic collab- orators, are creating a new story. And from the smiles I saw around their tasting room, their evident desire to help and support their community, and, of course, the fine spirits that they lovingly manufacture, I think it's safe to say the story they are telling is a good one. Now to enjoy my customary shot of Kelley. Cheers! HEADFRAME DEFINES SUCCESS NOT BY A RETURN TO THE SHAREHOLDERS BUT BY THE VALUE THEY CREATE FOR THEIR COMMUNITY.

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