Melissa Schuster, Burnt Barn Distillery

Melissa Schuster is a longtime Paradise resident, community advocate, former Town Council Member, occasional troublemaker, and — somewhat unexpectedly — a distiller. 

In what she cheerfully calls her “twilight-years career,” Melissa has become a self-described Distillerista at Burnt Barn Distilling Co., the Paradise craft distillery she founded with her husband, Cliff, following the Camp Fire. She’ll share the unlikely story of how fire, reinvention, a little stubbornness, and a whole lot of learning led to a new chapter — one that, fortunately, comes with bourbon.