Heath Trigg dreamed up the idea for a flag made from whiskey barrels, but the Heritage Flag Co. Two years ago, Trigg would have said it takes careful planning and time to cultivate a new business. After all, he'd started two of them on his own. In 2006, he began his custom homebuilding business, Premier Properties of the Sandhills. Six years later, he opened Southern Pine Woodworking, a custom cab
inet shop to complement his building company. When the founders of Southern Pines Brewing Co. commissioned Southern Pine Woodworking to build a bar for their tap room, they imagined something sturdy and rustic, like the desk fashioned from heart of pine in Heath Trigg's Southern Pine Woodworking office. As they began talking about the plans for the brewery, however, another idea got inside Trigg's head. He wanted to try making it from whiskey barrels, like the ones used to age beer in the next room. A few months and several experiments later, the bar was completed. Trigg and his crew at Southern Pine Brewery had gained more than experience - they also had three new friends in Micah Niebauer, John Brumer and Jason Ginos, who had recently left active-duty military careers to open a brewery. The guys at Southern Pine Woodworking wanted to create a unique gift to mark the brewery's opening. After tossing around ideas for chairs and tables, Trigg literally dreamed up the perfect plan when his trusty Weimaraner, Luke, interrupted it for a middle-of-the-night trip outside. Trigg grabbed his wife's shopping pad from the kitchen island and began sketching out an American flag made from whiskey staves. It was the perfect gift to honor the military service behind Southern Pines Brewing Co. and celebrate the founders' realization of the American dream. It took three weeks of trial and error to turn Trigg's drawing into something he was proud to put on the brewery wall, but it finally came together. The response was more than any of them anticipated. It was then the first Heritage Flag was born. The rest is history!
