Stonington — With three ingredients, a dash of art and a lot of science, a former brewmaster is bringing his expertise to a new distillery and craft cafe in the Velvet Mill.

Rum Tropic is the product of the economic toll of the Covid-19 pandemic and changes in the beer brewing industry. Owner Brian Kretchman found himself becoming subservient to a changing culture of beer drinkers whose tastes shifted away from the German style beers he loved to make to hoppy IPAs.

“I think the bottom line is, I want to be creative with it; I don’t want to just make what everybody else is making,” he said.

After 10 years operating the Kretschmann Brewing Company in Webster, Mass. named as a nod to the original spelling of his last name and the German beers he liked to brew, Kretchman and his wife decided to close the brew pub they had operated for 10 years, when their lease expired in August of 2021.

“We decided we would take the opportunity to leave the beer industry and stay in the adult beverage industry; we would just start something new,” he said from the small, two-room distillery he and his wife Kelly opened in January that has a small tropical-inspired seating area where guests can enjoy cocktails and artistic charcuterie boxes she created.

Throughout the pandemic, Kretchman spent 2 years studying the science and process of distilling, and, in July of 2021, the couple signed a lease in the Velvet Mill.

“We really loved being near the ocean,” he said, adding, “we just felt like we fit in here. We felt like we could start off small -- create a nice little, small distillery in here.”

The couple’s previous experience in the brewing industry was helpful.

“We’re getting that second chance, and now we’re angled to take all of the lessons we learned with the brewery and to make this into a larger success. That’s our mission,” he said.

Space was a big hurdle to overcome. Most rums are aged in barrels, but the Kretchmans did not have the space to store barrels for long periods of time, and they did not want to wait years before they could begin to sell the product. That is when Brian Kretchman applied science.

He developed a proprietary process, which he describes as mechanical, to rapidly age the rum in just 3 days, without adding any extra ingredients.

“We call it the smoothing process,” he said, adding, “it’s a trade secret.”

The art took a bit longer.

Developing the perfect recipe for the base rum took time. Though many rum distilleries use molasses, Kretchman decided against it, opting to use Demerara sugar, a raw cane sugar that originated in French Guyana, but today comes from Africa. When he developed his spice rum, his ingredients were traditional, but the ratios of ingredients such as orange peel, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice and peppercorn were adjusted in batch after batch until they were exactly what Kretchman wanted.

He used the same care to create “Rum Cords,” which he describes as “partway” between a cordial and a cocktail. Current flavor offerings are Lemon Drop, POG (papaya, orange and guava), Orange Crème, which is seasonal, and Coconut Crème.

His attention to detail has paid off, as demonstrated by customer Mike Belden of Mansfield, who stopped by the distillery on a recent Saturday with some friends to pick up a bottle of spiced rum and a bottle of Coconut Crème.

“We came here just for the distillery,” he said, adding that he enjoys the Coconut Crème because it is lighter and a little less sweet than bigger, brand name coconut liqueurs.

Kretchman has big plans for the future, including a pumpkin pie flavor set to debut by mid-September, a hot honey flavored rum and a spiced honey rum, called Hooked, in a nod to Stonington’s fishing industry.

Brian and Kelly Kretchman eventually hope to have a thriving wholesale business in addition to their Velvet Mill distillery, bottle sale and cocktail service location, which operates Friday through Sunday. Rum Tropic is also sold in liquor stores in Putnam and Plainfield and served at Woodfellas Pizza and Wings on Huntington Street in New London.