Sandra Ploufe, 83, demonstrates the recurrence of black fungus even after a recent house cleaning exercise. Her husband, Amos (Joe), who is 88, cannot clean the house himself.

The garage belonging to Mike Stoddard, which he constructed seven years ago, is showing signs of black discoloration on its siding. He suggests it has developed over the past few years, with the side facing WhistlePig appearing more affected than other sides.

Harold “Joe” Nephew, a tracheostomy patient, cannot clean his residence himself. After his family cleaned it in July, the fungus seems to be reappearing.

On either side of WhistlePig structures are 16 vents. The lower eight vents seem to display the presence of black fungus.

In the far northeast of the Adirondack Park, structures once white and yellow are slowly transitioning to a shade of grey. Similarly, once green tin rooftops have begun to take on a brownish hue, while previously pristine white guttering and fence posts show signs of black specks. The Grover Hills neighborhood, located in the small, peaceful hamlet of Mineville, appears to be developing a shadowy five o’clock shadow.

According to lifelong residents, this sticky, dark substance is a recent occurrence. They indicate a location roughly half a mile to the northwest. This designated area hosts numerous large, barn-red structures, each measuring close to 14,000 square feet, filled with barrels of maturing whiskey. Since around 2017, WhistlePig Whiskey has used these buildings to store their products, which are distilled in the state of Vermont.

State authorities have carried out tests on this bizarre mold and determined that, in certain instances, it corresponds with whiskey fungus, or Baudoinia compniacensis. This dark, sooty substance was first identified by scientists in the 1870s, outside spirit warehouses in the French town of Cognac. In more recent history, the fungus has been a problem for neighborhoods near a Jack Daniel’s facility in Tennessee and the Wiggly Bridge Distillery in the state of Maine.

This is the first time whiskey fungus has been found in New York, according to officials from both health and environmental departments.

Discrepancies persist between state and private laboratories over whether each occurrence of the black gummy substance is a fungus caused by WhistlePig Whiskey and the potential health implications of whiskey fungus. The alcohol vapor that evaporates during the whiskey aging process, often referred to as the “angel’s share,” continues to trouble numerous homeowners located in its path.

Mineville resident Harold “Joe” Nephew, aged 74, refers to the black substance as “devil’s goo.” Although he hasn’t tested this substance for whiskey fungus, he is convinced that’s exactly what it is. Nephew, along with other residents, implores WhistlePig to clean their homes or implement some measure to halt the alcohol vapor escape from the nearly 100,000 square feet of barrel houses in proximity to their Mineville properties. While WhistlePig concedes not all fungus incidents can be attributed to its operations, it is considering “cleaning community buildings on a case-by-case basis.”

The rising tensions have local officials struggling to keep peace between residents and a business that employs about thirty people in a hamlet of 1,300 inhabitants—part of a community that lost numerous jobs when the state closed a prison in 2021.

WhistlePig is not contravening any regulations, per Moriah Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava, so the town’s hands are tied. Mineville is a hamlet within the town. Scozzafava suggests residents may have to bear with the inconveniences like nearby paper mills’ odors or gas station traffic created by businesses. “But I empathize with the homeowners. If I were in their position, I would demand action too,” he said.

WhistlePig Whiskey was originated in 2007, attributing the name to Kunekune pigs resident on the company’s farm, rather than the nickname for woodchucks. The beverage is a rye production from Shoreham, Vt., and is retailed throughout all 50 states. A wide presence in restaurants, bars and stores across New York is asserted on its website.

In 2016, WhistlePig acquired land in Mineville from the jurisdiction of the Essex County Industrial Development Agency to operate processing, aging and bottling of its spirits. WhistlePig constructed seven 14,000-square-foot warehouses plus one 14,000-square-foot bottling facility at the Moriah Business Park.

Jody Olcott, the ECIDA’s co-director, revealed that the agency supplied WhistlePig with adjacent extra land on which eight more 14,000-square-foot warehouses are being established. Each warehouse is capable of containing roughly 14,000 barrels, according to Olcott, which infers that WhistlePig could age upwards of 200,000 barrels when all the structures have been built. The whiskey undergoes an aging process of five to 15 years, as indicated by Olcott.

Director of operations for the distillery, Ahren Wolson, conveyed that WhistlePig supports 34 full-time employees in Mineville. This constitutes a significant employment source for the village, particularly in light of the 2021 governmental closure of the Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility, which formerly provided jobs for nearly 100 people. Wolson didn’t provide a response to the Explorer’s queries related to the Empire State Development programme or the reason behind WhistlePig’s choice of Mineville for its bottling and storage procedures.

“They’re a great neighbor,” Scozzafava said. “They pay good wages, property taxes, and they do give a lot back to the community. Unfortunately, one of the issues that has developed is this whiskey fungus.”

Whiskey fungus has also been called warehouse staining fungus and distillery fungus. It forms as spirits age and about 2 percent to 5 percent of the alcohol turns to ethanol vapor. In bourbon and whiskey distilling hot spots such as Kentucky and Tennessee, the fungus is particularly noticeable, developing crusty black flakes on trees, traffic signs and buildings.

Such was the scene in Lincoln County, Tennessee, where Jack Daniels was expanding its operations. Residents there sued the county, arguing the whiskey producer did not get the proper permits for its additional warehouses. The lawsuit delayed but did not stop Jack Daniels from its plans, said Jason Holleman, a Nashville attorney representing several of the residents. His clients had hoped county officials would require the installation of air filters to tamp down the growing fungus.

A Jack Daniels’s press officer did not respond to the Explorer, but in a USA Today article said such filtration would ruin the taste of their whiskey.

Unlike many residents of Mineville, Holleman was familiar with the concept of whiskey fungus from his childhood. The presence of this black sticky substance on trees was often used by the law enforcement in the south to locate hidden moonshine operations.

After this legal battle, Holleman received calls from people globally who were also dealing with the problem of whiskey fungus. These calls came from people living in the vicinity of rum distilleries in the Caribbean and Scotch distilleries in Scotland.

In early November, a sweet smell permeated the air at the Moriah Business Park. There were visible black specks on the crimson buildings of WhistlePig which seemed to emanate from the silver vents. However, the operations manager of WhistlePig declined to comment on the matter.

High Peaks Hospice, a neighboring facility that leases administrative space from the ECIDA, had its building covered with whiskey fungus. According to Nicholas George, the executive director, WhistlePig took the responsibility of cleaning their building a few times in the past years. While stating his lack of concern towards the substance, he mentioned, “It just looks terrible.”

Wolson stated that WhistlePig aims to maintain amicable relationships with its neighbors, yet its ties with the residents of Grover Hills seem tenuous.

There’s a note posted on the local deli’s bulletin board that reads, “Noticed black grime all over your dwelling? Thank WhistlePig!” The message included the contact information and location of the Vermont distillery.

Susan Wright, who returned to her childhood home in Mineville in 2021 after a stint in Albany working for the Times Union, expressed her disgust. She had never seen such occurrence on her parents’ property. She added that she spent $600 this year to clean the front part of her roof after WhistlePig refused to do so. In early November, samples of the black substance around her window sills were collected by the DEC for analysis.

On the other hand, Harold (Joe) Nephew explained that he purchased a pressure washer, but only a scrub brush effectively removes the black residue from the vinyl siding crevices. Now a lung cancer survivor and retired from the Ticonderoga paper mill after 44 years, the 74-year-old is no longer capable of scaling ladders and the tiresome scrubbing. His family members have since assisted him in this task.

A worker at WhistlePig informed Nephew that the company was not accountable for cleaning outside of 900 feet from their operation. Nephew resides approximately 1,000 feet away and WhistlePig agreed to clean his house, although they have yet to take action.

Nephew expressed his disappointment over the situation.

Laurie Trepanier, a 60-year-old resident of Mineville who has lived there for thirty years, has also been affected. A black sheen can be seen developing both outside her house and inside. The Department of Environmental Conservation collected samples from outside her house in early November.

Additionally, Trepanier is tasked with cleaning the house of her neighbors, Sandra and Amos Ploufe. Their house and fence were also plagued by black spots over summer, compelling them to get their sons to clean it using a form of algicide.

Joe Ploufe, 88, had a visit to WhistlePig around two years ago to inquire if they could assist in its cleaning. The Ploufes mentioned that WhistlePig acquiesced, however, a year elapsed with no update. Thus, Joe Ploufe noted that he visited them another time and was told to exit.

A few years prior, the DEC conducted tests at their home, said Sandra Ploufe, 83, and communicated to them that it was a type of mold rather than whiskey fungus.

“This is not mold,” she expressed. “We’ve been residing here for 40 years. We’ve never encountered this kind of substance.”

Mike Stoddard’s garage, located as well in Grover Hills, has three clean sides, but the side that is the closest to WhistlePig is spotted with black polka dots. This 66-year-old retiree from Mountain Lake Services has spent 40 years of his life in Mineville.

He had never witnessed anything of the sort before. Despite not being perturbed by the cleaning aspect, he expressed fear about potential undiscovered health risks, a concern shared by his neighbours. Stoddard stated that with ten grandchildren frequently visiting to play, he is apprehensive about the air they are inhaling. The DEC has assured him that there are no health hazards.

In early November, three DEC employees gathered samples from Stoddard’s garage. The test results are currently awaited.

Although the DEC received grumbles about the whiskey fungus in 2020, they could not decisively identify it. Lab results from the swabs taken from the hospice building in 2023 confirmed the presence of whiskey fungus, according to the DEC. They mentioned that the probe is still underway.

In October, several more complaints were lodged. The complaint forms contained a section for “action to be taken”, in which the DEC disclosed that their laboratory equipment had been experiencing problems, causing a lag in test results. The department also pointed out that distilleries are granted a state exemption from requiring air permits, but “considering the status quo and expansions of the facility, we are assessing what degree of air permit might be necessary at the facility.”

WhistlePig declined to answer the inquiries from the Explorer about the possibility of incorporating any air filtration systems.

The Explorer presented both the 2020 and 2023 DEC laboratory analysis it obtained via a records request to James Scott, a researcher of whiskey fungus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Despite the DEC’s assertion that the the samples gathered from nearby residences in 2020 were not whiskey fungus, Scott contends that the “macroscopic photos and site descriptions are in accord with whiskey fungus.” He expressed criticism of the DEC’s uncommonly used testing procedures.

The approach the DEC used to cultivate whiskey fungus in a petri dish for comparison with the gathered samples was also thrown into question by Scott. He advised that “The preferable strategy would be to conduct light microscopy straight on the field specimens. The applicability of DNA-based testing methods is also a possibility,” he remarked. He commented that the scanning electron microscope images do not exhibit the pigment of the sample, which is an “essential aspect” in identifying whiskey fungus.

The DEC expressed confidence in its analysis of the samples performed at a particle-identification laboratory in Rensselaer.

WhistlePig Whiskey admitted that “ethanol may boost the growth” of whiskey fungus, though Wolson maintained that it’s not “solely due to whiskey storage.” He added that it occurs naturally and does not pose “any evident health or safety threats.”

Scott responded to WhistlePig’s remark by stating it was “roughly accurate though slightly optimistic and meticulously phrased.”

According to Scott, “If all alternative sources of stray ethanol vapor could be discounted, then the facility emitting ethanol could be blamed for the growth.”

The state Health Department confirmed its awareness of the whiskey fungus situation in Mineville and said that while it may be “visually unappealing,” it’s “unlikely to significantly affect human health.”

Scott said the matter is inconclusive. He has not seen any scientific studies to answer the question of whether whiskey fungus has health impacts. Anecdotally, he said, “the potential for serious health risk is very low.” But people could still have allergic reactions or experience irritation from the fungus.

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