Happy New Year! We’re kicking off our coverage of the 2025 Imbibe 75 list of people and places sure to change we drink in the months ahead with this conversation with Howard Conyers. Trained as an aeronautic engineer and with a resume that includes work with NASA, he’s also a barbecue pit master and now a distiller at his family’s Backyard Distillery in Manning, South Carolina. For this episode, he shares the story behind his multifaceted career path, and the significance of moonshine and barbecue in rural and Black communities in the South.

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