Drinking Wyoming: Pine Bluffs Distillery’s Coming-Of-Age Whiskey And Spirits

Cowboy State Daily’s 'Drinking Wyoming' is presented by Pine Bluffs Distilling.

PINE BLUFFS — In a nondescript barn-like building in the middle of this a small Wyoming town on the Nebraska border with more elevation than people, there’s a little bit of magic happening.

Entirely without fanfare, four Wyoming farmers and five grains were brought together to make one outstanding spirit.

It’s called 5 Grain Whiskey, and it’s a product that showcases Wyoming in a unique way.

There’s sweet from Wyoming-grown corn, spice from Wyoming-grown rye and creaminess from Wyoming-grown oats. There’s a touch of soft and mellow heat from Wyoming-grown wheat, and it’s all finished off with a bit of spice — malt from Wyoming-grown barley.

Poured into a crystal glass, it’s an amber taste of Wyoming, one that takes a few years — four, actually — to mature.

That maturity is a process that takes both fire and angels to complete.

Angels because some of that whiskey evaporates to the heavens during the aging process. That’s known in whiskey circles as the "angel’s share."

And fire because every oak barrel that holds whiskey and bourbon is first fired on the inside, flames and smoke shooting up to the heavens.

The char that remains lends a beautiful amber color, as well as the characteristic flavors whiskey is known for — vanilla and spice, and all things nice.

The 5 Grain Whiskey is just one of several signature spirits available at Pine Bluffs Distillery for the adventurous whiskey drinker. There’s also its American Single Malt Whiskey, Red Bourbon, Wheated Bourbon, Oat Whiskey, Straight Rye Whiskey, a citrus-forward gin, and vodka.

Every spirit is made with Wyoming-grown grains.

And that’s another act of magic quietly happening at Pine Bluffs Distillery.

“We have three different families growing for us right now,” owner Chad Brown told Cowboy State Daily. “And I was at Town and Country doing tastings last night. One of the employees came over and he was like, ‘Yeah, one of your farmers came in here this week, and he was super, super proud that his grain is sitting on the shelf.’”

Brown’s pretty proud of that, too.

He loves the idea that he’s creating a value-added Wyoming product, one that’s supporting not just his own dreams, but the dreams of other families in Wyoming.

What’s With Whiskey

People say bourbon tastes sweet compared to rye, but fans of rye find it a bit more mellow on the palate.

That might be a conversation only true bourbon and whiskey fans will appreciate, given that the blend of flavors can be hard even for experts to differentiate. But the debate demonstrates why craft spirits like whiskey are having such a moment right now.

Distillers have no end of possibilities, given the palette of local grains and malts that can go into a mash, lending completely different flavors and end experiences, be it whiskey, vodka, gin, or something else.

American whiskeys are second in popularity only to vodka right now, and reached $5.1 billion in sales in 2022, a 10.5% revenue growth year over year that outpaced all other spirits except tequila.

Whiskey volumes, meanwhile, have grown 5.2% to 31.2 million cases, making it the third-largest beverage in the alcohol category.

That’s driving an explosion in whiskey styles, as well as interesting and unique cocktails across America.

The same applies to vodka and gin, too — a factor Pine Bluffs Distilling has leveraged to create a gin that doesn’t taste like juniper at all. Instead, it’s a citrus-forward drink, which goes very well in an entirely new set of cocktails. Which they have been more than happy to create for guests in their tasting room.

Also driving the popularity of craft spirits are history and tradition. They’re made essentially the same way they have been for centuries — though technology has made the process smarter.

For example, at Pine Bluffs Distilling, they are recycling the water that would normally be discharged, so that it can be re-used in the process.

The business has only had to fill its 6,000-gallon water tank twice since beginning in 2017, despite producing more than 1,300 barrels of whiskey in that time, as well as hundreds of gallons of vodka and gin.

“I moved here from Vegas, which is also a desert where water is scarce,” Brown said. “So, we chose to recycle our condensing water.”

That means the business will have lots of room to grow production, without overwhelming scarce resources.

American Dream Come True

Making spirits from Wyoming grains is a dream come true for Brown.

He was looking for a way out of Vegas, to a small town like the one he grew up in, to raise his three daughters.

But he and his wife would need gainful employment to make that equation work — something that seemed a bit like a pipe dream with the realities of today, where small towns are dwindling, and all the “good” jobs seem to be in cities.

It all came together in a conversation over beers in Brown’s garage in 2012.

Brown’s cousin Gene Purdy, a wheat and barley farmer living in Pine Bluffs, had come to visit Brown in Vegas. Their conversation hopped around, as most beer conversations do, ranging from Brown’s wish to find a wholesome small town to Purdy’s wish that farmers could make more money.

All of it might have been just air and words, except for one fateful moment when the discussion turned to a 50-pound bag of barley sitting in Brown’s garage.

It was the barley Brown used to make craft beer, something he pursued as a hobby.

Purdy wondered how much Brown paid for the barley.

He was shocked by the answer.

Brown had paid $1 per pound for the barley — $50 for the whole bag.

That was way, way more than Purdy receives for barley he grows. As a farmer, he gets about $2.50 for 50 pounds of barley.

The math struck both of them as completely ridiculous.

A Business Idea Is Born

Purdy went home, but he couldn’t get the absurdity of that out of his mind.

Plus, all the grains Brown needed to brew beer are commonly grown in Wyoming.

In 2014, Purdy returned to Vegas to visit with Brown, but this time he had an idea. He wanted Brown to move out to Wyoming and work on his farm, and they would start their own barley malting business.

They could sell malted barley to Wyoming’s craft brewers and create a value-added Wyoming business.

After some number crunching, though, Brown realized that they could produce way more malted barley than the craft beer industry in Wyoming needed. And, unfortunately, that revenue by itself wasn’t enough to support their operation.

They needed another product to close the loop.

Given that Brown was already brewing craft beer, that was a logical choice for malted barley. But there were a lot of craft brewers out there already, Brown realized. It had become highly competitive.

“There were about 3,800 brewers in the country at the time,” Brown said. “And, if my memory serves, there were only 300 distilleries.”

But distilleries also use grains to produce spirits, Brown knew. And if he were a distiller, he could more easily differentiate his product.

That settled him on producing Wyoming whiskey, bourbon, vodka and gin — all with Wyoming grains.

Even Magic Takes Time

Still, despite all the smart thinking and planning, it took time for everything to come together. The ownership group, which includes Brown’s aunt, Kathy Brown, his wife Theresa, and Justin and Mark Fornstrom, who grow all the corn for the operation, had a building to build, a pandemic to get through, and growing pains to overcome.

Those growing pains ultimately meant letting go of the barley malting business, and focusing on the distillery.

Building the business was much like whiskey making, where there are elements of fire — outer and inner soul fire — and the work of mysterious angels, too.

It’s a process that can't be rushed.

But, Brown says the results have been worth it.

He has a crystal glass of golden amber in his hands, and a glint like fire in the night shining in his eyes. He is smiling at his daughter, Madelyn Brown, as she wipes a counter clean, and she is smiling right back at him.

Moving to Wyoming wasn’t what she had in mind when she was growing up, she admitted to Cowboy State Daily. But now that she’s here, she wouldn’t change a thing.

“I tried a lot of things I never would have tried back there,” she said. “So, I’m glad we came here.”

And that’s the real magic Brown was hoping for when he started a malting company and whiskey distillery in a small Wyoming town that had more elevation than population.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.