Nevertheless, Jackson presents some unique challenges. Cathead Distillery, a local spirits maker with Mississippi Delta roots and a bias for the blues, makes vodka, hard seltzers, bourbon, and gin. Head distiller Gabe Sandoval confirms that their distillery, just behind the downtown Jackson Convention Complex, is equipped with both reverse osmosis and charcoal filters. 

However, as low pressure in the municipal water lines began to allow more and more of the fine sediment of Yazoo clay into the pipes, the distillery had to add a prefilter to their system. That is, the water was so full of mud, that their carbon filter was becoming backed up. All of the water Cathead uses runs through their filters, including the water that runs through their condensers, never to be consumed by humans. 

There is a second distillery in Jackson, too, but it doesn’t exist yet. That is, in part, due to Jackson’s water infrastructure. Trey Malone, a local Mississippian who has extensive experience in beverage manufacturing thanks to his work at Common Collabs with contract cold brew coffee in Los Angeles, has dreams of bringing rum to Mississippi. 

He readily acknowledges that any beverage manufacturer needs to filter its water, “You need to do reverse osmosis regardless of where you are.” He explains, “It’s the only way that you can have a consistent product. We have way more consistency starting from a net zero practice.” Yet his new rum distillery, which will occupy Jackson’s old Lucky Town Brewery along Mill Street, is delayed indefinitely.