Tim Raines
Timothy C. Raines was born in 1988 and raised in South Texas. When his mother, Lynn, married Sam “George” Daher, Raines gained not only an attentive stepfather but also a kindred spirit whose interests would eventually help shape his career. Daher had been making beer at home since the 1990s and spent three years as president of his local homebrew club. After Raines earned his Master of Science degree from the University of Texas, he and Daher began discussing the possibility of turning their shared interest in making alcoholic beverages into a commercial enterprise.
Although the two men had a solid background in brewing, neither had extensive experience with commercial distillation. To prepare themselves, they spent two weeks training at a production distillery in Virginia, where they studied the operation of distilling equipment and learned the finer points of making distillation cuts—the critical separation of different portions of the distillate to achieve the desired character and flavor in the finished spirit. The training provided the practical foundation they needed to move beyond homebrewing and into commercial spirits production.
By 2017, Raines and Daher were prepared to put that experience to work. Together with Raines’s mother and Daher’s wife, Lynn, they founded Shire Distilling Company. Daher became president, while Raines assumed responsibility for operations and distillation. Lynn Daher completed the three-person leadership team as vice president of administration, making Shire a family enterprise from its beginning.
Raines helped establish Shire Distilling around three stated values: honor, integrity, and continually seeking a better spirit. The company also committed itself to small-batch production and quality ingredients, including locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible. Shire established its original home in Brookshire, Texas, about forty miles west of central Houston, where Raines began translating the principles he had learned through brewing into the more exacting process of whiskey production.
The transition required more than simply mastering a still. Brewing produces the fermented liquid that provides the foundation for distillation, but distilling separates and concentrates the alcohol and flavor compounds produced during fermentation. Whiskey presents an additional challenge because the new distillate must then spend considerable time maturing in oak before it can become a finished bourbon or other aged whiskey. For a young distillery, that waiting period creates a practical business problem: operating expenses continue while barrels of whiskey remain unavailable for sale. Raines and Shire addressed that problem in part with Shire Shine, a 90-proof unaged white whiskey. Because it required no extended barrel maturation, Shire Shine could be bottled and sold much sooner than bourbon while still showcasing the character of the corn-derived distillate. The whiskey offered a pronounced sweet-corn aroma with flavors of corn and light pepper. Shire Fire took the same general concept in another direction, adding natural cinnamon, red peppers, and brown sugar to create a 70-proof flavored whiskey alongside Shire’s traditional grain spirits.
While those products helped support the young company, Raines continued developing the aged whiskey that would become increasingly important to Shire’s identity. The centerpiece of that program became Shire Oak Premium Bourbon Whiskey. Matured in oak barrels and bottled at 86 proof, Shire Oak combined the corn and barrel characteristics that defined the distillery’s developing bourbon style. A barrel-strength version presented the whiskey without dilution to a conventional bottling proof. Its component batches originally entered their barrels at between 115 and 123 proof, and the resulting bourbon displayed aromas of oak and vanilla followed by flavors of leather, new oak, black pepper, and chocolate. Percheron Bourbon carried Raines’s work with wood maturation a step further. Named for the powerful Percheron breed of draft horse, the bourbon is finished with French oak staves, giving the whiskey an additional period of controlled wood influence following its initial maturation. Bottled at 92 proof, the standard Percheron offers aromas of honey, toasted oak, and mocha. Raines later expanded the concept with Percheron Cask Strength Batch No. 2. That expression brought together several important elements of Raines’s whiskey-making approach: grain-derived bourbon, extended barrel maturation, cask-strength presentation, and the deliberate use of French oak to add another dimension to the mature spirit.
Shire faced a very different challenge with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdowns that accompanied it. After emerging from that difficult period, the company continued developing its whiskey program and became a member of the Texas Whiskey Association and its statewide Texas Whiskey Trail. The affiliation placed Shire among a broader group of producers working to establish a distinct identity for whiskey made in Texas.
By December 2023, the company’s growth had created the need for a larger facility. Shire’s leadership also concluded that an urban location would provide advantages for the business, and the distillery moved from Brookshire to East Houston, occupying part of the former Flint Ink property. The relocation brought Shire closer to the center of the sprawling Houston market while allowing Raines and his family partners to continue the whiskey program they had developed during the company’s Brookshire years.
Recognition followed the move. At the 2024 Texas Whiskey Festival competition, Percheron Straight Bourbon received a bronze award in the bourbon category. A Shire rye whiskey produced in collaboration with Tejas also earned a silver award among the competition’s grain-to-glass rye whiskeys, extending the distillery’s recognition beyond its corn-based offerings and demonstrating the growing breadth of its grain whiskey program.
Much of Raines’s documented life before Shire remains outside the public record, leaving details about his childhood, family life, and early professional career limited. His story becomes considerably clearer, however, when he reaches the distillery floor. What began with two family members whose practical experience was rooted primarily in homebrewing became a functioning Texas whiskey distillery built around grain, fermentation, distillation, oak, and time. Raines remained at the center of that progression, directing operations and distillation as Shire moved from its first stills in Brookshire to an expanded operation in Houston. In the process, he helped transform a shared family interest in making beer and spirits into an established Texas distillery producing award-winning whiskey of its own.
Sources:
Shire Distilling Company official website, shiredistilling.com
VoyageHouston, “Meet George Daher of Shire Distilling Co. in Brookshire,” February 13, 2020, voyagehouston.com
Texas Whiskey Festival, “Texas Whiskey: Percheron Bourbon,” Jake Clements, September 17, 2024, www.txwhiskeyfest.com
Texas Whiskey Association, “Tim Raines, Shire Distilling Head Distiller,” May 28, 2026, texaswhiskey.org
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
