Craft Whiskey Founders
Northwest States Region
The Desert States Region includes the States of: Arizona and Nevada
Below are links to Whiskey Founders that have made huge contributions to the growth of the Desert States Whiskey and Western Whiskey Industry as a whole. These may have been historical figures that lived long ago before prohibition or may be living leaders that have advanced the cause and craft of the industry. Craft Whiskey has now been its own whiskey category for years.
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1
Jason Grossmiller
Arizona Distilling Co.
Jason Grossmiller purchased a small still and began experimenting in a backyard setting. These first efforts were practical, iterative, and self-directed, but soon, the combination of independent experimentation provided the technical foundation he needed to get Arizona Distilling Company off the ground.
2
Aaron Chepenik
Smoke Wagon
When his whiskey was ready in 2015, Chepenik named it “Smoke Wagon,” after a 1873 Colt single-action revolver. The name carried a flint of frontier swagger; the bottle, with its raised sagebrush and crossed revolvers over the state outline, completed the statement.
3
Colby & Ashley Frey
Frey Ranch Distillery
In the spring of 2006, long before “grain-to-glass” became a chorus line in American whiskey, the Freys secured their license to distill and formally founded Frey Ranch Distillery on the family farm outside Fallon, Nevada. Their goal was to prove that high-desert grains could sing in a bottle.
4
Steven Paul
Whiskey Del Bac
In 2006, Stephen Paul was at home, cooking over mesquite wood scraps from their furniture shop and drinking Scotch whisky. When his wife posed a simple question: why not dry malted barley over mesquite instead of peat, as is done in Scotland? That question became the foundation of Hamilton Distillers.