Sideshow Spirits sits in Lincoln’s growing craft distillery scene, housed in a converted warehouse space on P Street that feels more like an artisan workshop than a traditional distillery. Founded by Ben Glazer in 2016, this operation started as a one-man passion project after Glazer spent years perfecting recipes in his garage while working his day job in tech. The distillery produces small-batch bourbon, rye whiskey, and seasonal spirits using a 250-gallon copper still that Glazer sourced from a defunct operation in Kentucky. Glazer’s journey into distilling wasn’t exactly planned. After years of homebrewing and experimenting with fermentation, he caught the whiskey bug and decided Lincoln needed a proper craft distillery. The early days were rough – convincing city officials to approve the operation, learning commercial distilling regulations, and building out the space mostly by hand. He brought on master distiller Sarah Chen in 2018, whose background includes time at MGP in Indiana and a degree in fermentation science. Together, they’ve built a reputation for producing honest whiskey without the marketing fluff. The experience here is refreshingly straightforward. You’re not walking through a polished visitor center – you’re stepping into an actual working distillery where Chen might be checking fermentation tanks while you’re tasting their latest batch. The space retains its warehouse character with exposed brick and industrial fixtures, and the smell of mash and aging spirits hits you immediately. They’ve got a small tasting room that doubles as their retail space, and weekends often feature live music from local acts.