A little history into the Wadelyn Ranch Distillery as told by Julie Lyn, Thomas Wade Daniel’s wife.
JL: Wade and I actually met online on a dating site for folks with horses. We talked on the phone for a bit, but soon Wade wanted to meet in person. He drove all the way from Kentucky to Michigan to meet me. We met for the first time in person 8 years ago today, Valentine’s Day 2009, and have been pretty inseparable ever since. Which is why Wade’s year, spent half a world away caused us to rethink what he could do to be closer to home and prompted us to start WadeLyn Ranch Distilling. We built our distillery building here on our horse farm and started out with a 26 gallon still back in 2013. Last year we upgraded to a 750 gallon hybrid pot still and 1000 gallon mash tanks, but the process hasn’t changed. Wade grinds our corn on an antique corn meal grist mill, which was a real step up from the hand crank Amish mill we used for our early batches. He then cooks the mash of corn and oats thoroughly, before letting it cool down to proper temperature for adding the barley and finally cool down enough for yeast to be added. My job is usually to pitch the yeast and make sure its happy. Happy yeast makes for a good fermentation. Wade checks the fermentation every day until it is ready to distill.
Our mash bill is unique, it is 80% corn, 10% oats and 10% barley. The high corn lends a sweetness, particularly in the finish and oats add smoothness and velvety mouth feel.
Wade raises Clydesdale horses (you know, like the famous beer company), which is why our logo has a rearing horse.
How did you find yourself in the world of Distilling?
W: Helping my grandfather and father make whisky.
Please tell me how the Wadelyn Ranch Distillery came about?
W: After working out of the country for a year, my wife said I needed to do something I could do closer to home. I said I knew how to make good whiskey and she said let’s build a distillery. We built our distillery on our farm; we are one of the few true farm distilleries. We actually grow some of our own corn that we use to make our products. The wife and I were raised on farms, so we wanted to support local farmers, too. This is why we buy local and provide our spent mash to farmers in our area to feed their livestock, nothing is wasted. Our motto is, “From the seed to the shelf”.
What exactly does your job entail?
TWD: Everything from planting the corn to bottling and shipping to the distributor.
What whiskey expressions do you currently produce, and how are they all different?
TWD: We have a barrel proof Bourbon and a 100 proof Bourbon, both currently 3 years old and a clear corn whisky we call Kentucky Lightning which comes in 100 proof and 130 proof.
What are the maturation conditions like?
TWD: We put it to rest in #3 char barrels for 3 years and we bottle the barrels in the same order they were stored in.
Where do you think the most flavor control can occur? Grain? Yeast? Water? Wood?
TWD: Grain, yeast, water and wood all have their affect on our Bourbon, but the distillation process itself and separation of the heads, hearts and tails is the biggest factor, followed by the wood and char of the barrels.
You bottle your whiskey at Cask Strength, is there a reason behind this?
TWD: I put only the hearts of the run in the barrel and what is good going in the barrel is going to be good coming out of the barrel. I didn’t want to add anything to the Bourbon, just straight out of the barrel and into the bottle.
What three words do you want people to associate with your whiskey?
TWD: Smooth, Enjoyable, Real, but what we usually hear is “damn that’s good”.
Is there a flavor profile that you aim to achieve when malting, mashing, fermenting, distilling and maturing?
TWD: No, I just try to make every barrel better.
What led you to start your own business?
TWD: The wife said I needed to be home more and I knew how to make whiskey.
Where do you see your distillery 5 years from now?
TWD: On the shelf in every state and growing.
Does the geographic location and the climate affect maturation of your whiskey?
TWD: Here in Kentucky the hot summers help push the bourbon into the wood of the barrels, but Kentucky is also known for a lot of temperature variation, which creates movement inside the barrel, cold weather moves bourbon out of the wood to be able to have warm weather move it back into the wood again. This process enhances the affect of the charred barrels to cause vanilla, caramel and cinnamon notes in our Bourbon.
Do you source the ingredients locally? If not, do you plan to?
TWD: Yes, all our grains are grown locally and some of our corn is actually grown here on our farm.
What is in the pipeline for 2017 that we should look out for?
TWD: Our 100 proof Bourbon is a new product that will soon be available.
Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
TWD: I would love to share a bottle with them.
For more information on the distillery, please visit the links below:
website: http://www.wadelynranchdistilling.com/
facebook: Wadelyn Ranch
