Less than a week shy of his 80th birthday, Clear Creek Distillery founder Steve McCarthy died on January 2 from Parkinson’s Disease. Noted for founding the craft distillery in 1985 and pioneering American single malt whiskey, McCarthy was considered one of the godfathers of American craft distilling. He is survived by his wife, painter Lucinda Parker, and daughter Abigail McCarthy, a research fisheries biologist.
“What he was doing at Clear Creek was science-minded, but in a way that I don’t think was really understood by the populace at the time,” says Clear Creek master distiller Joe O’Sullivan. “He was introducing the idea that distilling could be an artistic and
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