Jason Jorgensen
Jason R. Jorgensen’s path to whiskey began far from California’s vineyards and tasting rooms. He and his future wife, Krystle, began dating in 1997 and grew up in Colorado as high-school sweethearts. After they married, the young couple lived in Arizona, but in 2010, their journey brought them to Northern California. There, they settled in Sonoma County and ultimately established Alley 6 Craft Distillery.
Jason Jorgensen was born in August of 1982. Instead of following a traditional academic path to university, Jorgensen entered the restaurant trade, first as a cook, then moved behind the bar after repeatedly asking the bar manager for work there. He was eventually hired as a barback, but Jorgensen soon advanced to head bartender and later to bar manager himself. By 2017, he had accumulated more than 15 years in bars and restaurants, along with experience in culinary school, landscaping, and carpentry. He also expanded his beverage education into wine and passed the introductory sommelier examination, but whiskey became the strongest thread connecting his restaurant career with his ambitions beyond it.
One day in the early 2010s, Jorgensen’s brother gave him a beer-making kit. Jason and Krystle used it to begin brewing. They also experimented with winemaking, gaining practical familiarity with fermentation along the way. On Jorgensen’s 30th birthday, the couple traveled to Scotland to determine whether their dream of owning a distillery could become a workable enterprise. The trip confirmed their interest, and returning home, they enrolled in distilling seminars and courses. However, in the 2010s, turning the idea into an operating California distillery required far more than learning to make whiskey. Yet the determined duo submitted a business plan to Healdsburg officials, obtained an industrial building near downtown that could accommodate both production and a tasting room. They then brought the property into compliance with fire and seismic codes, and raised $10,000 through crowdfunding. With that capital, equipment, including a European-made copper still, was purchased and installed. But city approval proved especially difficult because commercial distilling was brand new to Healdsburg, requiring the Jorgensens and local officials to address alcohol, fire, and earthquake-safety requirements together in a first-of-its-kind civic partnership.
Finally, all regulations were satisfied and Jason and Krystle founded Alley 6 Craft Distillery in 2012. The name came directly from Healdsburg: the town has six alleys, and the Jorgensens lived off the sixth. Their choice gave the business a local identity without using a conspicuous reference to Healdsburg or Sonoma County. Jason assumed the positions of head distiller, while Krystle became the enterprise’s creative director, bringing her background in interior, web, and graphic design to the company.
Whiskey also presented a financial problem that could not be solved by immediate sales. Distilled spirit had to remain in wood while rent, equipment, permitting, and operating expenses continued, creating a long interval between production and revenue. Jorgensen nevertheless committed Alley 6 to a grain-to-glass model in which the distillery milled, mashed, fermented, distilled, barreled, and bottled its whiskey at the Healdsburg facility rather than source. Finally, though, the company’s first batch of Alley 6 Rye Whiskey reached store shelves in the summer of 2015, approximately three years after the business was founded. The decision settled rye as Alley 6’s flagship whiskey. Jorgensen’s production sequence begins with milling the grain and mixing it with hot water in the mash tun. The sweet liquid is separated from the grain and fermented for about five days, after which it undergoes a stripping run to recover the alcohol and a second spirit run during which the heads, hearts, and tails are separated, while only the heart portion proceeds into the whiskey barrels for maturing. The early Alley 6 production utilized 15-gallon, heavily charred American white-oak barrels, with whiskey remaining in wood for at least nine months, but later, as costs stabilized, the distillery established a minimum aging period of two years.
Alley 6’s Rye has since received substantial recognition. It earned gold at the Craft Distillers Spirits Competition in 2017 and, in 2018, received gold as well as Best in Show, Best of Class, and Best of Division honors at the Distilled Spirits and Cocktail Competition. Further honors included gold at the California Craft Spirits Competition in 2018 and 2020, Best of Sunset at the 2021 Sunset International Spirits Awards, and gold at the 2022 Los Angeles Invitational Wine & Spirits Challenge. At the 2023 Bartender Spirits Awards, Alley 6 Rye won a gold medal with 92 points.
Jorgensen also applied his grain-distilling methods to Alley 6 Single Malt Whiskey. Made entirely from malted barley that was sourced from Heidelberg, Germany, it is twice distilled in direct-fired copper alembic pot stills and aged for at least 18 months in heavily charred American white-oak barrels. Bottled at the same 86 proof as the rye, the single malt also accumulated gold medals from the Craft Distillers Spirits Competition in 2017, the American Distilling Institute and other competitions in 2018, the California Craft Spirits Competition, the U.S. Open Whiskey Championship in 2020, and the Los Angeles Invitational in 2022.
Ultimately, Jason Jorgensen’s documented record establishes his central whiskey achievement: The freshman distiller, along with his supportive wife, converted a bartender’s keen knowledge of mixed drinks and whiskey into an independent yet successful Sonoma County distillery. His curiosity, determination, and talent at the still have accumulated his whiskeys numerous awards. With these accolades, Jorgensen has brought American whiskey to the forefront, smack in the middle of California wine country.
Sources:
Alley 6 Craft Distillery, “Established 2012 | Sonoma County | Healdsburg, CA,” Alley 6 Craft Distillery, accessed August 30, 2026, alley6.com
Taste the Dram, “From High School Sweethearts to Whiskey Distillers, the Alley 6 Craft Distillery Love Story,” contributing writer, February 14, 2017, tastethedram.com
Sonoma Small Business Development Center, “Alley 6 Craft Distillery,” author not given, date not given, sonomasbdc.org
The Whiskey Wash, “Alley 6 Rye Whiskey Rises Out of California Craft Scene,” Nino Kilgore-Marchetti, February 8, 2016, thewhiskeywash.com
The Whiskey Wash, “Whiskey Review: Alley 6 Rye Whiskey,” Carin Moonin, July 20, 2016, thewhiskeywash.com
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
