Kyle Doyle

Kyle Doyle’s story at Iowa Distilling Company is rooted in a part of Iowa where cornfields, small towns, and family businesses remain closely connected. He grew up only a few miles from Cumming, a Warren County community south of Des Moines, and later attended Simpson College in nearby Indianola from 2001 to 2005. During his college years, Doyle studied abroad in Australia and several European countries, experiences he later credited with giving him an appreciation for other cultures and markets. Entrepreneurship was also familiar territory: Doyle came from a family of entrepreneurs and watched his father build a business from the ground up.

The business he eventually invested in, though, Iowa Distilling Company, existed before Doyle became its leader. Founded in 2012, it was among Iowa’s early native distilleries. In 2013, the young company introduced Prairie Fire Cinnamon Whiskey, Steel Drum Rum, and Country Gal Moonshine. The distillery was built around an intentionally local identity, using Iowa agricultural products and emphasizing relationships with area farmers and the local farmers’ cooperative that supplies grain. Doyle himself took the reins of Iowa Distilling Company in November 2016. He saw greater possibilities in what the company itself has called the “little distillery that could,” and his entrepreneurial background suited the task of expanding the operation and its brands. Rather than abandoning the company’s small-town identity as it grew, Doyle made that identity central to its business strategy. Iowa Distilling’s message increasingly revolved around producing what Doyle described as “top-shelf spirits with a down-home spin,” tying the quality of the spirits directly to Iowa grain, Iowa labor, and the Cumming operation.

Whiskey became an important part of that approach. Iowa Distilling’s production process begins with a fermented liquid wash that is transferred into small pot stills constructed only of stainless steel, copper, and glass. The stills are filled by hand and monitored during production, and its whiskey is distilled at least twice before pure water is added to bring it to bottling proof. Corn is obviously important to the operation. Doyle emphasized in 2018 that only the highest quality Iowa corn was being used in his company’s bourbon, making the grain itself part of the bourbon’s regional identity. IDC Straight Bourbon became the clearest expression of that idea. Bottled at 90 proof, the bourbon is distilled and hand-bottled in the Cumming facility. By 2018, IDC Straight Bourbon was among Iowa Distilling Company’s award-winning products, and thousands of bottles representing the company’s various labels were being produced and shipped each month. Bourbon was no longer simply another item in the portfolio; it gave Doyle a way to connect one of America’s most recognizable whiskey styles with Iowa’s most recognizable crop.

Prairie Fire Cinnamon Whiskey provided another, more unconventional route into the whiskey market. Introduced before Doyle assumed control, Prairie Fire developed into the company’s flagship spirit, and its popularity has proved unusually durable over the years. Local Cityview magazine readers selected Prairie Fire as the Des Moines area’s Best Whiskey for six consecutive years through the publication’s 2024 awards, with more than 4,000 gallons sold just in Iowa during fiscal 2023. The flavored whiskey also became a foundation for cocktails at the Cumming tasting room, allowing Iowa Distilling to present whiskey to customers who might not normally drink bourbon or straight spirits.

Saints ’n Sinners Apple Pie added another whiskey-centered product to the company’s lineup. By 2023, Prairie Fire and Saints ’n Sinners both ranked among Iowa’s top 10 native brands by gallons sold, while Iowa Distilling Company itself ranked sixth among the state’s native suppliers by volume. Doyle’s ambitions had clearly moved beyond merely keeping a small local distillery alive; by 2024, it could rightly be told that Iowa Distilling products had established a footprint in all 99 Iowa counties, turning the Cumming operation into a genuine statewide spirits business.

Recognition has followed at home. In other Best of Des Moines voting, Iowa Distilling Company was selected Best Local Bar, while Prairie Fire took Best Whiskey and Steel Drum Rum took Best Rum. Doyle remained active in the broader business community and, in 2025, completed the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s six-month Scale DSM Business Accelerator, a program focused on strategic growth and financial management for established entrepreneurs.

More than a decade after the distillery’s founding and nearly a decade after Doyle took control, Iowa Distilling Company remains a successful local distiller in Cumming. Its whiskey business reflects a straightforward proposition: Iowa grows enormous quantities of grain, and some of that grain can become distinctly Iowa spirits rather than leaving the state as an agricultural commodity. Under Doyle, Prairie Fire grew into a statewide flagship, Straight Bourbon gave the company a traditional American whiskey anchored by Iowa corn, and the distillery expanded its reach across all 99 counties. Doyle’s achievement has been to turn a small-town distillery into a recognizable Iowa brand without separating the business from the farmers, grain, community, and state identity on which it was built.

Sources

  1. Iowa Distilling Company official website, iowadistilling.com

  2. Cityview, “Iowa Distilling Company,” Jeff Pitts, June 6, 2018, dmcityview.com

  3. U.S.D.A. Natural Resources Conservation Service, “Iowa Learning Farms Hosts Conservation On Tap in Cumming,” 2022, nrcs.usda.gov

  4. Greater Des Moines Partnership, “The Partnership Celebrates the 2025 Scale DSM Graduates,” December 9, 2025, dsmpartnership.com

  5. Kyle Doyle LinkedIn Professional Profile, linkedin.com

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee