Jason Fruits
In the quiet farm country of western Indiana, where grain elevators and cornfields dominate the landscape, Jason Fruits built a reputation as one of the Midwest’s most distinctive craft whiskey producers. As CEO, owner, and Master Distiller of Old 55 Distillery in Newtown, Indiana, Fruits leads a family-run operation that turned agricultural knowledge into a whiskey-making enterprise rooted firmly in local soil and community tradition.
Jason Fruits’ story is closely tied to the agricultural and family businesses that shaped both his career and the distillery he helps run. He grew up in western Indiana in a family whose livelihood revolved around grain and farming communities. The Fruits family operated one of the larger grain-handling businesses in the region, running a grain elevator that served hundreds of farmers across Montgomery and surrounding counties.
The business placed the family at the center of the local agricultural economy. Corn, wheat, and other grains moved through their facilities every harvest season, and relationships with farmers were central to the company’s work. This environment gave Fruits an early familiarity with the crops that later became the foundation of Old 55’s whiskey mash bills. Jason also grew up alongside several siblings; Ashley, Aaron, and his brother Chris, who would later join him in operating the distillery. The Fruits children were raised in a household where family cooperation and business were intertwined, a structure that later proved ideal for launching a family-owned distilling operation.
After finishing high school, Jason attended Indiana’s Purdue University. Following his studies, he initially pursued a career outside the small town where he grew up. Yet the pull of family enterprise and rural Indiana remained strong. His eventual return to Newtown would prove decisive for the creation of Old 55 Distillery. The turning point came when his father, Jeff Fruits, began exploring ways to diversify the family’s grain-based business. Despite not being a drinker himself, Jeff Fruits proposed entering the whiskey industry as a way to add value to the grain that moved through the family’s operations. The idea reflected a practical agricultural logic: if the family already handled the raw material, why not produce a finished spirit from it?
In 2013, the family quickly moved forward with the plan to build a distillery. Old 55 Distillery officially began operations in 2014, after copper and stainless-steel distilling equipment was imported from Germany and installed in Newtown. The distillery’s name comes from Indiana State Road 55, the rural highway running past the facility. The road, like the distillery itself, reflects the agricultural character of the surrounding region.
From the beginning, the Fruits family designed Old 55 as a “field-to-bottle” distillery, meaning the entire production process—from grain sourcing to bottling—occurs within the family’s own supply chain. Grain used in the mash bills is grown on nearby fields or sourced from farmers connected to the family’s agricultural network. Milling, mashing, fermentation, distillation, and bottling all occur at the Newtown distillery itself.
Within this rural family enterprise, Jason Fruits emerged as the central figure in whiskey production. Serving as CEO, owner, and Master Distiller, he oversees the distillation process and the development of the distillery’s mash bills and aging techniques.
One of the defining features of Old 55 whiskey is its mash bill approach. Fruits often works with a simplified two-grain formula, commonly using 80 percent yellow field corn and 20 percent red winter wheat without malted barley. The resulting whiskey emphasizes the sweetness of corn and the softness of wheat. Another distinctive production decision is the use of 30-gallon charred oak barrels, which accelerate maturation compared with standard 53-gallon bourbon barrels. Fruits places the barrels in underground storage areas, where stable temperatures slow evaporation and allow the whiskey to age gradually despite the smaller barrel size. The process typically requires about seven days to complete the distillation cycle, followed by a minimum of four years of barrel aging before the whiskey is bottled.
Under Fruits’ direction, Old 55 has focused primarily on bourbon and American whiskey, with several distinctive expressions built around locally grown grain. Among the most notable are Single Barrel Bourbon; Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon; and 100 Percent Sweet Corn Bourbon. These distinctive products helped bring attention to the distillery. In the 2020 International Whisky Competition, Old 55 nearly swept the floor. Not only did they take home the top prize for their American Single Malt, but their Single Barrel Bourbon Bottled-in-Bond whisky took second place and their Single Barrel American Single Malt grabbed third.
The town of Newtown, Indiana where Old 55 operates is a small rural community west of Indianapolis. By establishing a distillery there, the Fruits family brought a new industry into an area historically defined by agriculture. The distillery draws visitors interested in craft whiskey and rural Indiana tourism, helping place Fountain County on the map for bourbon enthusiasts traveling through the Midwest. Jason Fruits frequently emphasizes that the distillery’s success depends on the community surrounding it.
Within a decade of its founding, Old 55 Distillery established itself as one of Indiana’s most recognizable craft whiskey producers. Its focus on local grain, unconventional mash bills, and small-barrel maturation set it apart from many larger American bourbon distilleries.
In the fields surrounding Newtown, the grain that once passed through the family’s elevators now moves through copper stills instead. The transformation reflects a simple but powerful idea: when a family that understands grain decides to make whiskey from it, the result can reshape both a business and a community.
Sources:
Land Values, “Old 55 Distillery”, Kristen A. Schmitt, landvalues.com/old-55-distillery
Old 55 Distillery official website, “Our Process / Field-to-Bottle Whiskey”, old55distillery.com
Indiana Capital Chronicle, “A fast-growing industry… Indiana’s craft distillers look ahead”, August 12, 2024
The Bourbon Road, “Big Chief Hits the Road – Old 55 Distillery,” March 3, 2021
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee