Wilderness Trail Distillery is the oldest legal distillery in historic Danville, Kentucky. We are a premium craft distillery that produces 100% of our high quality spirits, such as Bourbon, Rye Whiskey, Vodka and a unique rum from Kentucky sorghum molasses. We specialize in making unique spirits from local ingredients through a strong application of the science behind making spirits.
Jerod, I would like to kick off by asking what the backstory is to setting up the Wilderness Trail Distillery, how you came to be involved and what drew you to the project?
JS: Our story begins back in 2006 with our sister company, Ferm Solutions. It was founded by our two co-owners to work behind the scenes with distilleries by providing them with yeast, enzymes, laboratory analysis, consulting, trouble shooting, and antibiotics (for our Fuel Ethanol customers). Having our own Kentucky Bourbon distillery was always the plan but we wanted to do it our way, without outside investors or venture capital that may have influenced decisions based on money not quality.
After saving money up for a couple of years, Wilderness Trail Distillery was started in 2013 at a shared site with Ferm Solutions in Danville, Ky. In 2014 we acquired the historic Willis Grimes house and its surrounding 22 acres (we just added 13 more acres this week) and built our first rickhouse with a capacity of 2100 barrels. In June of 2016 we moved the entire operations here with our campus now consisting of the house built in 1859, 2 rickhouses with over 13,000 barrel capacity, a new laboratory, distillery, and warehouse. The move allowed us to supplement our 250 gallon copper pot with a 40’ column still that has increased production from 1 barrel a day to 10 a day with that number rising this Spring as we add a second shift.
I became involved in the project in 2009 when I started working for Ferm Solutions as I was completing my undergrad degree at UK. I’ve been into Bourbon hardcore for a long while so many of our conversations during breaks would gravitate to the subject. That is where I learned of Shane’s family history in the distilling industry, Pat’s love of drinking and collecting rare bottles and they learned about my near obsessive relationship with Bourbon.
Pat and Shane always talked of having their own distillery and when the project got off the ground in early 2013, they reached out to me about becoming part of Wilderness Trail. I had left Ferm Solutions in 2012 to complete my Master’s degree but wasn’t happy in my current job so I was excited to take the offer to return and turn my passion into a career. Of course Bourbon was a big factor in my decision to join the distillery but I also had a lot of respect for Pat and Shane and knew they wouldn’t start something without doing it right and giving it 100% of their effort and focus. I couldn’t work for a distillery that I didn’t believe in their product but that has never been a concern here.
What was the vision for the Wilderness Trail Distillery? What challenges did you first see when this distillery was being built?
JS: The vision has always been to make a premium, world class Bourbon at an affordable price. Whiskey good enough that you want to save for a special occasion but cheap enough that it won’t take half your paycheck to buy a bottle.
What have been the main challenges involved in setting up a new distillery?
JS: We faced many challenges in starting and then growing our Distillery. Federal and State regulation compliance, dealing with new vendors, setting up equipment, learning new roles, etc. that many distilleries face. Not that we haven’t made and continue to make mistakes but our learning curve was much shallower than most as we have helped many distilleries start up and expand over the years and applied that experience to our own place.
And what has been the part you’ve enjoyed most?
JS: The most fulfilling aspect of the job is sharing Bourbon education with folks from all over the globe. What I’ve the most is those days we thief samples from the barrel and get to taste what Wilderness Trail has made over the years and follow the juice on its journey. I’m a Bourbon guy and there isn’t much better than tasting it straight from the barrel, especially when it comes from a place that you are part of.
What exactly does your job entail?
JS: My job has a wide spectrum of responsibilities with the number one priority of making sure that our guests have a great tour experience. I give the majority of the tours here so that is a large part of my workday but I also help coordinate various projects, conduct samplings at retailers and events, visit bar and restaurant accounts, and oversee our brand management. A typical week could have me cleaning a toilet if needed or meeting with the Governor in between my other duties. No job is beneath me and that is true for the entire Wilderness Trail team. We have cultivated a great team here that can transition between many areas of responsibility to make sure we are always doing our best.
What whiskey expressions are currently produced at the distillery?
JS: We make three main whiskey mashbills here; A wheated Bourbon from 64% corn, 24% wheat, and 12% malted barley, a rye Bourbon from 64% corn, 24% wheat, 12% malted barley, and a Rye Whiskey from 56% Rye, 33% corn, and 11% malted barley. In addition to those, we use our flexibility as a medium sized craft producer to mix things up occasionally. For example, we’ve made some 95% rye whiskey, some high corn bourbon, and a four grain bourbon along with a couple of things we’ll keep under our hat until the time is right for release.
What are the most important factors affecting whisky distillation? How do you ensure that these are carefully balanced to produce a consistently high quality product?
JS: There are many factors that affect whiskey distillation and some will affect flavor more than others but we don’t view them as one being more important than the others. We treat every aspect of our craft as if it were wholly responsible for all the flavor. From where we get our grains and how we mill them to our barrel specs and low barrel entry proof. It is all very important to us and that is how we keep our quality standards extremely high and consistent from barrel to barrel.
Do you think that your product is distinctive? If so, what makes it distinctive from other whiskies on the market?
JS: Our product is distinctive. It is definitely a traditional Kentucky Bourbon in flavor profile but should stand out in a blind tasting. That comes from a combination of factors including our recipe, yeast strain(s), barrel specs, our sweet mash fermentation, and our distillation process.
Walk us through the distillation process. From grain to glass? Is there a flavor profile you’re looking for before bottling the whiskey?
JS: The process starts with the grains. The barley is an outlier of the lot; since it does not grow well in Kentucky we bring that in from Wisconsin. Our rye comes from the Jefferson County area of Kentucky and our corn and wheat are grown just two miles away from the distillery by a local family farm. Using as much local grain as possible allows us a greater level of quality control since we are buying from one farm instead of a large areas combined crop from a large grain elevator. The grains are then milled at our distillery and fed directly into the cooker where we cook each grain at a different temperature to make sure that important proteins aren’t broken down into components the yeast can turn into undesirable compounds.
After cooking we transfer to our fermenters where we add our yeast strain and let them go to work. We only use a sweet mash process where no previous backset, our sour mash, is used. To ensure consistency and to keep an eye on bacteria levels, we check our mash using an HPLC analysis every single day on every fermentation. When ready we send the mash to our 40’ tall, 18” Vendome stripping column for distillation before finishing it in our 250 gallon copper doubler. Coming off the still at 135 proof, we cut our new make with limestone filtered spring water down to an old school 110 proof. The lower entry proof allows more of the water soluble flavor compounds in the barrel to add additional flavor to the whiskey.
Our barrels are made by Independent Stave company with a #4 alligator char, toasted heads, and 18 month air cured wood instead of the more common 6 months. With a significant amount of our whiskies to be offered as a single barrel product, we are looking for an extremely consistent flavor profile, we just want it to be consistently good. By using different mashbills, yeast strains, and aging locations in our multiple rickhouses, we are actively seeking a variation in flavor from each bottling. That said, we want all releases to be identifiable with the Wilderness Trail flavor profile which I can’t elaborate further on since we haven’t released any yet with our inventory still maturing.
Do you believe now is the most exciting time for a whiskey lover?
JS: Absolutely. Big producers are expanding and producing more than at any point in most of our lifetimes and our craft distilling brothers and sisters are honing their skills and producing excellent traditional and nontraditional varietals of whiskey. While supply on aged inventory is still tight, that will change in the foreseeable future. In my opinion, we are about to enter the golden age of American Whiskey.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers.
JS: We’d like to invite all of your readers to come and visit our operations. We are located on a beautiful farm in the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass region and give an in depth tour covering many aspects about yeast, fermentation, distillation, and aging that other distilleries leave out. Our tour isn’t an hour long sales pitch telling you why we are so great, it is a fun educational experience of Wilderness Trail sharing the Bourbon love.
We are very transparent in our process and we find that our guests respect that and find in very refreshing. No fake origin stories or legends here, just us making Bourbon to the best of our abilities. I’d also invite everyone to our website to sign up for our new ambassador program, the Wilderness Trail Family Tree, where you can sign up to stay in the loop on our upcoming offerings, be the first to get access to specialty bottlings, and exclusive invites to our Family Tree only events. I’ll wrap up with that because it is almost Five O’clock and I’ve got some 13 year old barrel proof Bourbon at home that is calling my name.
For more information on the distillery, please visit the links below:
website: WildernessWebsite
facebook: @WildernessDistillery
