45th Parallel Spirits

Drew H (00:08):
Welcome to Whiskey Lore's Whiskey Flights, your weekly home for discovering great craft distillery experiences around the globe. I'm your travel guide Drew Hannush bestselling author of experiencing Irish whiskey and experience in Kentucky Bourbon. And at this very moment, I'm in the middle of a three distillery day tour of the Minneapolis area as I continue on my Midwest Great Lakes tour. And the first distillery of the day was lucky guys. And after a 25 minute drive along back roads to the Northeast, I reached my second destination, which is a distillery that I had absolutely no idea about until the whiskey lore Instagram community came out and droves voting for them. And our annual Bracketology fan favorite craft distillery competition. The distillery is 45th Parallel in New Richmond, Wisconsin Distillery. That's a little bit off the beaten path about 50 minutes east of Minneapolis, about 15 minutes north of I 94, and about seven and a half miles north of the actual 45th Parallel, which if you didn't know, is the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole.

(01:26):
And as I sit down today with my hosts, Paul Warney, the founder of 45th Parallel, and its master distiller Bob McKenzie. I'll be curious to learn a little bit more about the special distilling challenges they face in being in this Wisconsin climate and also some of the work they're doing with farmers in their grain to glass philosophy. And we'll also talk about a few unique spirits, one that includes aquavit, which is a Scandinavian inspired spirit in an area that is known for its Scandinavian influences. And I also want to talk about the location of this distillery, which sits in an industrial park right next to a brewery. And we're going to chat about their restaurant, their huge event space, and some of the things that make this distillery special. And of course, we're sitting in the event space right now, and it's a good chance for me to kind of get you familiar with Paul and the background of 45th Parallel Distillery. So I wanted to go all the way back to 2007, the time period when there weren't any distilleries in the state, and find out Paul, what got you interested in starting up a distillery?

Paul (02:41):
I was a stay-at-home dad for a couple of years with my wife, wanted a family to focus on her career, and I gave her some ideas of what I wanted to do. And then I mentioned to her about the distillery one night, and then the next day she came home with a book about vodka, and so I realized that she was on board.

Drew H (03:00):
Do you think this was kind of after you've been home for a little while, she's like, you know what? It might be good for him to go out. Were you restless?

Paul (03:07):
I think it was more me. Was it? It was only about two months of being a stay-at-home dad before I realized that this is not going to be a long-term thing. I'm going to have to figure something else out. So two years later, we opened up our distillery.

Drew H (03:22):
Okay, and you were amongst the first year in the state?

Paul (03:26):
Yes. Yes. Well, in the Midwest, there was one other distillery in the Milwaukee area that opened up like eight months before we did. But when we were looking at the state and talking to the state about applying for a permit, there wasn't a permit in the state. I didn't know about him until after we had already opened up.

Drew H (03:47):
Oh, that's interesting.

Paul (03:47):
Yeah,

Drew H (03:48):
Yeah. Well, was he making whiskey to start with?

Paul (03:51):
No, he was making vodka. Pretty much any startup at that time was making vodka. There's a couple reasons. One is you can sell it right away, and two, at that time, vodka was king.

Drew H (04:06):
Yeah. So what year did you start?

Paul (04:09):
2007 is when we first started distilling.

Drew H (04:11):
Okay. So the whole Mad Men craze really didn't hit until about 2007, 2008.

Paul (04:17):
At that time, premium vodka was exploding, and it really started in Minneapolis with, I was talking to you about one of the Philip's sons. He started importing high-end vodkas from Poland and Russia, and that really led to the vodka craze. And so that opened a door for small craft producers to make high-end vodka and get into the market.

Drew H (04:47):
And when you started out, you didn't have any distilling background. How did you go about figuring all of this out? Just out of books.

Paul (04:57):
I read as much as I could at that time. There wasn't a ton of literature on it. It was mostly you could find anything about making fuel ethanol, but as far as making spirits,

Bob (05:07):
There

Paul (05:07):
Was some stuff here and there. I think I got a lot of information from the still manufacturers. There were a couple of still manufacturers out of Europe that were really making stills for our size of an operation, and they traveled all over the world, so they really knew what they were doing. And so I asked them a lot of questions.

Drew H (05:27):
What was this place like early on? Was it getting family members involved and running that way, or were you hiring people right out of the gate?

Paul (05:37):
No, it was pretty much a one man shop for the first three years. My dad was retired and he would come over on weekends and help me out. And just to give me a break, I had a close friend who's still with me. He worked and helped me out on the side, and he probably did that for about two, three years without getting paid. So it was a slow slog in the beginning.

Drew H (06:05):
Yeah. Your dad, he's a immigrant, correct?

Paul (06:08):
Yes. Yeah, my father immigrated when his, he's of a German heritage and he came here after World War ii.

Drew H (06:17):
Okay. So it must've been

Paul (06:19):
In the fifties.

Drew H (06:20):
It must've been nice for him to see the growth of the business and getting that American dream rolling.

Paul (06:28):
I think that was, yeah, that's something that traditionally, I mean, his father was an entrepreneur, and so coming here as an immigrant, you're growing up poor and seeing the next generation be able to do what you wanted to do is special for him.

Drew H (06:44):
Yeah. Now you do a lot of contract distilling, so I understand. Was that something that you started out wanting to do, or was that something that just, it helps pay the bills?

Paul (06:58):
It wasn't something that when we got into this business that we were looking to do, but because of our location not being in a tourist area and being in a low population area, yeah. Yes. It paid the bills it brought in. We had the ability to make stuff, and so other people would call us up and ask us to make products for them, and that gave us the cash flow and the revenue to build our own inventory. It allowed us to build an aging inventory without taking shortcuts.

Drew H (07:34):
Yeah. Bob, when did you come along in the business?

Speaker 4 (07:39):
I came on board six years ago. I'd been working in the brewing industry in Minnesota and laterally Wisconsin for about 24 years before that. And yeah, just kind of getting tired of the brewing industry. It was definitely, I'd gone from happily working in a little brew pub to having deal with distributors and all the negatives that come along with having beer in liquor stores and was ready for a change. And luckily, this place was right across the soybean field from where I was working, and they were happy to take me on.

Drew H (08:21):
You have a thick accent, but when I come up here, I expect a thick accent to be that Minnesota Scandinavian kind of accent. So your background, you came from Scotland?

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yeah. I originally studied bru and distill at Harriet Watton in Edra, and then came over to work in a brew pub. There was a guy from North Dakota that came over and heard someone with a British accent for his British style brew pub. And back then you could actually make the claim that there weren't enough people in America to make beer. So I was able to come over on a visa, which is kind of laughable now,

Drew H (09:04):
Especially in Wisconsin.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've been over, I mean, as much as you say my talk about thick accents, my accent was much thicker back in the day.

Drew H (09:15):
Was it? Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
I learned to talk a little bit slower.

Drew H (09:20):
Nice. So I am guessing, what were you distilling at the time he arrived?

Paul (09:27):
Almost everything. We had our line of rise and bourbon, wheat, whiskeys, gins, yeah, pretty much everything. The one thing that we added since Bob came here is a single mal whiskey,

Drew H (09:44):
Which makes sense because coming from a brewing background first and then on top of that from Scotland, you just assumed. Yeah. What kind of single malts did you drink when you were over there?

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Honestly, I was much more a beer person.

Drew H (09:58):
Were you okay

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Back in the day? It's kind of the same thing as you. The nice thing about whiskey is just being able to open a bottle and take a small drink and then put it back and come back to it later. You don't have to drink entire bottle in one certain.

Drew H (10:15):
Yeah. Paul, I notice now, and we talked about this a little before we went on to record that this area, it feels like you're going through a bit of an industrial park to get here, at least the way I got to the facility. But it made me think about how early in the game you were in terms of building a distillery, because back then there were so few distilleries that you probably had no idea there was going to be a whiskey tourism side to all of this.

Paul (10:48):
When we were looking for a location, a town, we called many different communities, and always one of the first questions that came out of their mouth, is that going to smell? What's it going to be like?

(11:02):
And I had communities straight up say, I don't think we want that here. Nobody was doing it. Even the farmer that when we first called him and asked the supplies with grain, he said no. And one of the reasons why is he said he didn't think it would work. He thought it was crazy that somebody was making vodka over here and western Wisconsin. So the community that we ended up at this community wanted to grow. So they had a TIF program, but I think there was this divide that at that time, they weren't sure what to think of us. So they stuck us in the far corner as far away from town as they could all by ourselves. I think if they had to do it over again,

Drew H (11:51):
They

Paul (11:51):
Would put us closer to town.

Drew H (11:53):
But everything's kind of grown up around you now. Exactly. Progress can't stop progress. But now you've added in other features to the distillery. You were showing me the original footprint. It is much larger than the original footprint.

Paul (12:09):
We started out with a 3000 square foot building that we built ourselves. It was a steel frame building. It was just a box, a box in the middle of a cornfield. But since then, we've added on about four times in this location. And now I guess you would consider it a campus?

Drew H (12:30):
Yeah.

Paul (12:31):
Yes.

Drew H (12:31):
You have a restaurant on site as well, and a large bar area as well.

Paul (12:38):
Yeah. In 2000, right in the middle of Covid, we started our building of our what you would a restaurant bar. Event center

Bob (12:48):
Is

Paul (12:48):
What we built. We built it because as a difference, an added source of revenue, and this community is growing a lot around us. It got to the point where we felt that this area could support something like this.

Drew H (13:03):
I hear that when you started that idea of bringing food into this, that you ran into a little cost prohibitive issue with a pizza oven that almost lent you not to have it.

Paul (13:17):
Yeah. My friend who started working here, he's had a restaurant, a background similar to Bob or Bob had 25 years in the brewing industry. When he came here, Scott had 25 years in the restaurant industry in Minneapolis. So I told him to design a kitchen the way he would do it, and he put it together, and I was looking over the budget and looking over each item, and I saw a $20,000 pizza oven that I said, no, that's not going to work. And I took it out. But then I showed the plan to the bank, and the bank saw the blank line and asked about it, and I told them why I took it out and they said, no, we want it in, and the bank put it back in.

Drew H (14:01):
So how did it work out for you?

Paul (14:04):
It makes sense. We wouldn't be where we are. We wouldn't have the following. We do have without it.

Drew H (14:13):
Yeah. It's a nice space. You have actually this revolving door that opens up or windows basically that open up. It give you kind of the feeling like you're on a patio even though you're actually inside. I'm sure that's very helpful, especially in the wintertime, to be able to shut that down.

Paul (14:34):
It gives us an open space. People want to have the open air, and so when it is nice out here, we can open up these big overhead doors. It's almost like being in an airplane hanger and it's just an added feature. It draws people.

Drew H (14:53):
Yeah. Well, of course you're making vodka, gin, aquavit, which I find interesting. Aquavit would be, I think of when I've gone through northern Minnesota and the Scandinavian areas in North Dakota and all of that. That would be something that would seem to be a fitting spirit. Was that kind of thought behind it, or did you have some other inspiration for it?

Paul (15:21):
Yeah, it was like a lot of other things that we started doing. It was somebody came through the door, a gentleman who had spent time in Denmark and in Iceland, he grew fond of aquavit, which is instead of real careway forward, they substitute dill for some of the caraway. He couldn't find it in the United States. So he came into us and asked us if we'd make it for him, and that's how we got into it. And it's actually growing in popularity. The di aquavit sells well in urban areas like in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Chicago, New York. The bartenders tend to like it because they can do different things with it.

Drew H (16:07):
Now, in terms of where you're getting your grain from, how did you, from the beginning kind of figure that you would get going on, getting your sources of grain?

Paul (16:19):
Well, in the beginning it was you go to, I went to a mill,

Bob (16:23):
And

Paul (16:25):
So we didn't have our own mill, so they were milling it for us, and that was one of the main reasons why we went there. However, the grain was inconsistent and I complained and they said that you need to find a single source, then find a farmer. At the time, I didn't even realize that farmers milled, they milled for their cattle, so for feed. So once I did find a farmer, I could realize that they could mill for us. Eventually we started, we added a mill into our own building and do our own milling, but for the first seven, eight years, the farm was doing the milling for us.

Drew H (17:04):
Okay, nice. And then you just tell 'em kind of how you want it done and they took care of it from there.

Paul (17:09):
Exactly.

Drew H (17:09):
Okay.

Paul (17:12):
The farms have hammer mills also, and so they can just get the, you tell 'em what you want, they'll put in a screen that works for that.

Drew H (17:20):
I'm guessing those hammer mills are a little loud when people are on a tour.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
They are,

Drew H (17:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
One of the more fun parts working in the distill is waiting for the tour guide come through and then turn on the hammer mill.

Paul (17:32):
Yeah, I think the auger system's just as loud too.

Drew H (17:36):
Yeah. Yeah.

Paul (17:37):
It's all lied.

Drew H (17:38):
Yeah. It lets you know you're actually in a working facility for

Paul (17:41):
Sure. I think that if you wanted to say, Hey, how are you different than other distilleries? I think that's one of 'em, because I've gone into a lot of tours and distilleries and they're so clean. The stills are clean, they're shiny, there's no grain anywhere

Bob (18:01):
You

Paul (18:01):
Go into our place. The stills have, they haven't been shined in a while. There's water all over the place. There's grain all over the place. It is a working facility.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
They are due for their annual cleaning though,

Drew H (18:17):
Clean. Alright. So I saw them at they're dirties. Okay. All right. Yeah. And you've got a couple of sets of stills back there, so you still have the original stills that you've started out with.

Paul (18:26):
We have four stills here right now.

Drew H (18:28):
Yeah.

Paul (18:28):
We have the original, which is a hybrid still. So that has a column that can make clear spirits and it can make age spirits. Then we have stills that are more specialized, one for, they're all pot stills. Bob can explain that better for you.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yeah. Yeah. The advantage of the pot still, I guess the pot stills, they're all run as batch operations. So versus a continuous still where you're getting just a real narrow cut of the flavor of the whiskey or spirit or whatever you're distilling with a batch distillation, you get the whole range from whatever flavors are coming off, 160 proof all the way down to the flavors that are coming off 120 proof. So you just get a much more flavorful spirit from the batch distillation. And then we do have a couple of whiskey stills with the gooseneck swan neck. I always get those two mixed up just to make more traditional whiskey. Again, the advantage of those is the whiskey comes off a slightly lower proof, so you're getting more flavor,

Drew H (19:43):
The control. I mean, how much of an advantage is that for you in terms of, because we don't normally probably think in the modern world of bourbon being distilled on pot stills, but that's where it came from, was being on pot still.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah. And there are few, the bigger Kentucky distilleries, I think they're still doing some pot stills, at least for the final distillation. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of just part of being a small distillery. I think most craft distilleries are probably doing it that way unless they have a really big budget, because continuous stills are not cheap. But it's also definitely, it's the point of differentiation, and it's all about, I mean, every whiskey should have some point of uniqueness to it. I mean, we are very much into, with the local grain, with the Wisconsin climate, we're not trying to make Kentucky bourbon. We're trying to make Wisconsin whiskey or Wisconsin bourbon. So that's just part of our story. That's part of the whiskey we make that it's made on stills.

Paul (20:52):
Yeah. Yeah. About seven years ago when we were upping our capacity and we were getting more and more inquiries to make whiskey, I did go to the still manufacturer and I did say, Hey, I think they told me before that that next step is a continuous stripper. And I did tell 'em, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. But I got some advice from somebody that said, why don't you be different? Why don't you just, instead of going to a continuous stripper, just get a really big pot still and start doing your stripping that way.

Drew H (21:28):
And

Paul (21:28):
That's how we did it. We just decided that we were going to be a little bit different.

Drew H (21:31):
Yeah, there's a lot more control, I think, in terms of where you're making your cut points and being able to get the liquid that you really want to get out there. Well,

Paul (21:40):
I think there's more opportunity for mistakes, but then there's more opportunities to make something special.

Drew H (21:49):
So some of the products that you have, you are making a couple of weed whiskeys, one of them with a very unique name. So what is the difference between these wheat whiskeys?

Speaker 4 (22:05):
So I think Paul touched on the story a while back or earlier, but we were making wheat whiskey. It's kind of like both wheat and rye always been, everyone's like, oh, these are going to be the next big whiskeys. So I think they started making wheat whiskey a while back, and then this other farmer came along and had this heritage grain that his grandparents had grown called red fife. And Red fife was back in the late 18 hundreds, I think was the big wheat that everyone grew in Canada, and it's just really what they were grown up for. I don't know, because it really doesn't make great bread. It's really kind of just gummy, but it has phenomenal flavor. So we have a whiskey that we make from that red wife wheat, and it came along later to the game. We'd been making the wheat whiskey for a while, and kind of when it came along, everyone was like, oh, this is really good. So it's kind beginning to replace the regular wheat whiskey, but they're both phenomenal. They're both really nice whiskeys.

Paul (23:24):
Well, I started reading some articles about heritage grains that were coming out and why they were good for certain heritage grains were good for baking and other aspects, and the difference between that and the wheat that is commonly grown in United States now. So that's when I started looking for somebody that would grow it for us. And fortunately for us, a local farmer did call us up and said that they also wanted to try something like that and would we be interested in buying it from them. And up until now, we've been buying almost their entire harvest. And that started about seven years ago or eight years ago when we started making that. And really we had no idea how it was going to turn out until after about six years.

Drew H (24:18):
Yeah. Wheat is one of those interesting things that over the years people have grown intolerances to different gluten intolerance. That's something that's become a real concern with people. I hear that this addresses that in some ways.

Paul (24:38):
That's what I've read in the past. And they said that's one of the reasons why these heritage grains aren't growing anymore is because when they're fertilized, they grow too tall and the wind knocks 'em over and they're losing their harvest. So in the vein of increasing production and efficiencies, they started bringing in these dwarf varieties of wheats from Asia, and these dwarf varieties are very efficient in growing. They can fertilize 'em and they can grow fast. They don't get too tall, however, they're not as easily digestible, and that's leading to a lot of gluten intolerance.

Drew H (25:22):
Yeah, that's interesting. I went overseas and I was there in Scotland for 23 days, came back, and as soon as I tried to eat American wheat, my stomach was not happy about it. It's like they say it takes 21 days to form a habit, and it's like my body formed a habit of not being used to American

Bob (25:42):
Wheat.

Drew H (25:43):
So it shows you something is going on.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Exactly. Although it is worth pointing out that all whiskey is gluten free anyway. So the secret is just to

Drew H (25:53):
Have

Speaker 4 (25:53):
A good drink of whiskey.

Drew H (25:55):
I was going to say, I'm glad you said that because it's one of those things that I'm working on a book of whiskey myths, and that's one of the ones that when you see gluten-free on a bottle, you go, okay, is it really? I mean, it is, yes, but why is the one next to it?

Paul (26:14):
Right.

Drew H (26:14):
Not at all.

Paul (26:15):
So, well, it was a tough nut to crack. I mean, people did not want to believe it. It got to the point where I wouldn't even argue with people anymore because they weren't going to believe you that in fact, I think the United States government didn't even go along with it until recently. It was probably just about two, three years ago that the government finally put out a statement saying that all distilled spirits are gluten-free.

Drew H (26:41):
So what is your most popular spirit you think that you sell at this point?

Paul (26:45):
Our border bourbon

Drew H (26:47):
And border signifying that you are right on the border of the two states.

Paul (26:51):
Yeah, so the reason why is I lived in Minneapolis for the first 15 years of this business, so I crossed the border every day, and that's why we called it border b and plus over here you got the Green Bay Packers and you got the Minnesota Vikings. They're kind of rivals. They always called it the border bourbon. I mean the border battle every time they played.

Drew H (27:16):
Yeah. Where did they lean in this town?

Paul (27:20):
This town at Green Bay. But there's plenty of Viking fans

Drew H (27:24):
Makes for interesting Sundays when people are out enjoying the time out at the pub or wherever they may be. So talk about when people come to the distillery. You do tours and when do you do tours?

Paul (27:41):
We have one tour on Friday at six, and then we have two tours in the afternoon on Saturday and one tour in the afternoon. On a Sunday? Yes.

Drew H (27:52):
Okay. And what will they taste when they come in?

Paul (27:55):
They can taste pretty much whatever they want. We usually start with the clear spirits and we have a few, you'll have vodka, you'll have gin, you'll have aquavit, and then we work into the dark spirits with our different whiskey blends. We have too many things for people to taste everything, but if they ask to taste something, we'll get it for 'em. And then we have a couple of cordials also to finish up with.

Drew H (28:23):
Very nice. Well, Paul and Bob, I appreciate you walking through everything for us and talking about the history and what you're making here. And people now have an excuse to come up and hear the hammer mill.

Paul (28:37):
Oh, great. Yeah. And then we also say they can sniff the bunghole. So one of our tour guides likes to have a barrel sitting there with the bunghole in the ass people to sniff, sniff the bunghole, and they get a kick out of it.

Drew H (28:51):
So the Beavis and Butthead fans out there, we'll get that one. Well, thank you so much for spending time with me today and letting people know about you and cheers.

Paul (29:02):
I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks.

Drew H (29:04):
I hope you enjoyed this flight to the 45th Parallel Distillery. If I piqued your interest in traveling to the distillery, make sure to head to whiskey lore.com/flights where you can view the profile of the 45th Parallel Distillery and a growing list of worldwide distilleries that we're featuring on the show. Dig deeper into the whiskey lore online distillery travel guide. Use the heart feature to show your interest in a distillery or log in with a free membership and bookmark your favorite distilleries to add them to your wishlist. The site features, planning tools, maps, tour dates, and booking links For now over 600 distilleries worldwide. Start your journey@whiskeylore.com slash flights. And coming up next, I'm going to have some closing travel tips for you. But first, it's time for this week in whiskey lore.

(30:00):
It was 65 years ago this week that the state of Tennessee saw the grand opening of the Cascade Hollow Distillery near to Tennessee. It had been 50 years and eight months since the last drops of Cascade, Tennessee Sour Mash whiskey came off of the still Back then. The facility was owned by Manny Schwab, who also owned the George Dickel Wholesaling Company in Nashville, Tennessee. But with the onset of Tennessee prohibition, Manny moved the brand to Kentucky where it was sold as a Kentucky bourbon. Well, sadly, the historic Cascade Hollow Tennessee distillery burned down a decade and a half later at the height of prohibition in the Cascade Hollow Spring ended up being used by a local community as a water source. The triumphant return of the name George Dickel to Tennessee was announced by New York Hinley Corporation in 1956 after their attempt to buy the Jack Daniels distillery was Rebuffed.

(30:58):
Hinley had acquired the rights to the names George Dickel and Cascade Whiskey some 20 years earlier, and decided the best way back into Tennessee was to bring those brands home on a crisp and cool Friday. In October of 1959, Louis Rosen Steel president and chairman of Hinley Industries promised a crowd of 150 who were scarfing down bits of barbecue that Hinley would not sell or produce Kentucky Bourbon at this location, but rather they would return to their Tennessee roots. They also promised that this whiskey will positively not be bottled until the peak of perfection. With four strikes of a mallet, he sealed the ceremonial first barrel of George Dickel whiskey, the barrel bore, the inscription presented to Louis s Rosendale October 16th, 1959 by employees of George, a Dickel company, tele home of Tennessee. He followed the ceiling of the barrel with a thank you to the Coffee County community for passing the referendum that allowed the distillery to open. It would be only the second distillery in the state next to Jack Daniels, which was in its 20th year of distilling. After prohibition, the state wouldn't see its next successful distillery for another 40 years to hear more of the crazy story behind George Dickel, make sure you're subscribed to the Whiskey, Lord. The Interviews podcast as later this week, I'll be interviewing one of the descendants of the family that owned the Dickel brand that's coming up this week on whiskey lore. The interviews, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss this fascinating conversation.

(32:43):
As we're prepared to leave the 45th Parallel Distillery, I've got a fantastic side trip you might consider if you're heading to the area. It's the new Richmond Heritage Center, which is located just a couple of minutes away, this family friendly destination. We'll give you a glimpse into the region's history, along with its collection of historic buildings, including a schoolhouse log, cabin, and blacksmith shop. It's a great opportunity to explore the local heritage with interactive exhibits and educational activities that will make history come alive for visitors of all ages. As we close out our trip to the 45th Parallel Distillery, if you are still on the fence about visiting, well, let me give you my three reasons why I think you should have this distillery on your whiskey lower wishlist. Well, first, you can immerse yourself in an extended 90 minute tour that will provide you with a glimpse into the distilleries processes like milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, aging, and bottling.

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And then you'll finish with a nice dive into their wide variety of spirits, including rye, bourbon, wheat, aquavit, vodka, gin, and special releases. And second, if you're a fan of or are curious about wheat whiskey, well, you'll have two different expressions to choose from. They're W Wheat, which is made with 67% wheat or a wheat whiskey that's made with a heritage grain called red fife. And you'll get a heartier wheat content in that one up to 72%. And third, enjoy their much. Talked about wood-fired pizza in their restaurant. Embrace your inner Italian with a cannoli, and to make sure to pair that food with one of their artisan crafted cocktails. Well, we're about to head out to my third distillery of the day. It's a distillery that's bringing a bit of Irish to Minneapolis, and not just in flavor and style, but they've also imported one of their legendary distillers. Make sure you're subscribed to the Whiskey Lore Podcast to reserve your seat as we dip into the Minneapolis scene. To the Midwest Great Lakes Tour 2024 rolls on. I'm your tour guide Drew Hanish. And until we meet again, cheers and Slava for transcripts and travel information, including maps, distillery planning information and more. Head to whiskey lo.com/flights. Whiskey LOEs a production of Travel Fuels Life LLC.