Sip Northwest, Winter 2015

location its the climate types of grains that we grow locally We need to be advancing our research program to keep up with these industries and provide the technical background to help our students succeed If you ask any of our distillers we look for more indigenous ingredients to the state agrees Ted Pappas the president of the Oregon Distillers Guild and owner of BIG BOTTOM WHISKEY in Hillsboro Oregon I would say thats probably true for every small distillery throughout the country Bigger distillers look north of the border or even as far as Europe to get the yield and price they need We look to our backyards rst The discerning spirits consumer only has to look at what beverage is famous and from where Clear Creeks pear brandy in Oregon Grand Teton Distillerys awardwinning SIPNORTHWEST COM potato vodka in Idaho and Montanas rapidly proliferating production of whiskeys and ryes to realize that distilling is deeply regional GREAT NORTHWEST GRAINS As many brewers have already discovered Montanas location in one of the nations great grain growing regions and near the North American outpost of Malteurop one of the globes biggest malting companies is ideal for a small craft distillery resulting in a distilling boom of sorts in the state read more about this upswing on pg 48 Competing crops in other states o er farmers better returns on their investment says Lola Raska the executive vice president for the Montana Grain Growers Association But Montanas growing season is relatively short and our climate is cool and dry resulting in ideal conditions for producing high quality small grains Feedstock location and transportation distances were a large part of the investigation during the feasibility study progress says HEADFRAME DISTILLERYS John McKee of their ongoing plans to expand their operations in Butte Montana and their decision to stick to locally grown and malted grain Kentucky distilleries need to rail this material from Great Falls in Montana so it makes a lot of nancial sense to bring it down to 25 hours from Great Falls and make great hooch here in Butte McKee continues In an unconscious echoing of his pioneer forebears McKee also notes that their western location puts Headframe only a days drive away from West Coast markets like Seattle and Vancouver But for many craft distillers and the small farms that they support the idea of expanding to far ung coastal markets still remains something of a long distant dream and somewhat beside the point Even as the Steins work on increasing production and building a barrelhouse theyre focused on more family oriented plans Dan Stein says the plan is for Austin and Heather to move from Portland to the country to work at the distillery In the next two three four years theyll be able to move home and join me and work in the distillery and the farm Stein says We need to get into a good nancial situation before they do Its almost to that point now And soon another generation of farmers will take their turn to transform a plentiful harvest into a few shining bottles of gleaming amber colored whiskey