(Photo credited courtesy to “SouthSoundTalk”)
Dain tell us about yourself. What is your career history before getting into distilling?
DG: My career started with the inception of Heritage Distilling Co. I had just graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Economics of Public Policy and minors in Philosophy and Business. I started working at HDC coming in late at night to clean out the mash tank and got nicknamed ‘The Mash Monkey’.
At this time we only had 3 employees and we all had to wear multiple hats. Through reading, workshops, and all on the job training from Master Distiller Justin Stiefel I started Mashing, Fermenting, Distilling, Bottling, recipe development, and help with teaching our My Batch classes. One thing just kept leading to another and I fell deeper into the distilling world of all types of spirits. As a company we have gone from 3 products to over 40 in just 3 years and I was lucky enough to be there every step along the way.
Why did you go into this type of business. What was the vision behind Heritage Distilling Company.
DG: My interest in this type of business started with the explosion of craft beer in the northwest at a drinking age I cannot legally admit. When all my friends were bringing packs of light beer to gatherings I was bringing 22oz bottles of the most outrageous craft beer I could find. This eventually led me into researching and indulging local craft spirits which fascinated me because they were providing new flavors and characteristics to the distilling industry that I had yet to see or taste on the typical retail liquor shelf.
When studying abroad I brought a local bottle of whiskey and just so happened to become friends with an Irish bartender. I gave him the last half of my northwest whiskey and he sampled me through his entire library of Irish whiskey. After that night I traveled to a few European distilleries and my pallet and knowledge of spirits continued to evolve. At this time I realized that I wanted to get involved in the industry and I reached out to my hometown distillery that was opening in 2 months, and that is where I met owners Justin and Jennifer Stiefel. I knocked on the door, introduced myself, got a call a month later asking if I could come clean the mash tank and I jumped right in.
The vision behind HDC started with an idea while drinking single malt around a campfire. Justin and Jennifer believed they could start a local distillery producing top quality spirits while becoming the local distillery in your backyard. There are quite a few parts to the Heritage vision including being a great local distillery, giving unique experiences in house, and coming up with ideas for products that are affordable and quality.
Hard work and dedication pays off! Great story Dain. How long have you been working in the whiskey industry?
DG: I have been working in the industry for over 4 years now and learning all aspects of it. I continue to travel the world whenever I can arranged around things that are involved with spirits. Starting from 3 employees and 3 products to over 50 employees and over 40 products it has been a wild ride.
What type of whiskey expressions does your facility currently make, and how are they all different?
DG: We make quite the variety of whiskeys at our facility that all provide different expressions.
Our first whiskey made was Commander’s Rye, unaged Rye Whiskey using George Washington’s own Rye recipe. This isn’t your regular moonshine and tastes a lot better than when George himself was probably drinking it. Our custom Italian hybrid still creates such a smooth flavor profile while maintaining clean notes of grains used in the recipe. Any whiskey connoisseur will secretly find themselves pulling this out of the freezer and sipping it on ice.
Our Elk Rider product line represents your more traditional American whiskey recipes. The Elk Rider Blended whiskey consists of bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskeys aged separately and then blended together. This provides a distinct blend that no one else can create and a very drinkable whiskey. The Elk Rider Bourbon (65% Corn, 30% Rye, 5% Malted Barley) is a very traditional Bourbon recipe. The way we ferment and distill on our grain and the way we take it off the still provides a one of a kind full bodied flavor making this one of our top selling Bourbons. The Elk Rider Rye (95% Rye, 5% Malted Barley) is my go to whiskey and the one I consume the most of. Rye whiskey has been making a comeback and many people still have never tried it and our Elk Rider Rye is the answer for them. All of our whiskeys are distilled one pass through our custom built still. This Rye stands out completely different than others for this reason. Very subtle across the tongue with a kick of pepper in the back and then smooths out nicely.
One of our most recent editions is our Dual Barrel Bourbon and Rye whiskey that has become a national product for Total Wine. We take our Bourbon and Rye and finish them on a second barrel that was once used for our in house vanilla extract that we make on site. The extract barrels does not flavor the whiskey, but brings a sweet profile to the front of the whiskeys that really levels them out. I have never tried anything else like them ever. These are the first whiskeys I go to when making traditional cocktails like a Manhattan or Old Fashion, they really take them to the next level.
The newest whiskey we have is a flavored whiskey called Brown Sugar Bourbon (BSB). During down proofing after the Bourbon is dumped from the barrel we mix in a Brown Sugar simple syrup. This brings a sweet almost dessert flavor profile to the Bourbon but oh is it so delicious. There is no other flavored whiskey in the market that will make your taste buds graciously accept what they were just offered. Once the bottle is empty you begin to beg for more. Oh ya, we also have a High Altitude BSB 103 which is our Brown Sugar Bourbon bottled at 103 proof!
The Elk Rider and Dual Barrel Collection are all bottled at 92 proof and all of our whiskeys are non chill filtered leaving all the delicious flavors in the whiskey for you to discover.
That’s quite a list. One day we all hope to try some of your whiskey. Do you source the ingredients locally?
DG: Yes! To be a craft distillery in Washington State majority (51%) of your ingredients by law have to come from the state. We also have a large production of crops and farming on the whole east side of our state. Majority of our grains come from Odessa, WA. The owner of this farm was a fraternity brother with the owner of Heritage. We have a great relationship with them. Using locally sourced ingredients is very beneficial. There are many types of grains but they can also change in characteristic depending on where they are grown which provide unique flavor profiles that you can only find in our products.
Does the geographic location and the climate affect the maturation process or the flavor profile of your whiskey?
DG: Indeed it does! Washington State is a great climate for the maturation process of whiskey. Warm to hot summers, cold to freezing winters, and sometimes multiple types of weather in the same day. Many of our barrels are aged at our distillery as well. The bottom row stays fairly temperate near our cement floors. With our still in the same room our barrels at the top get a great amount of heat near them daily with a nice cool down at night. It is amazing what I have noticed in the maturation process here in what I would consider a small space.
How long has your bourbon been aged.
DG: With our growth over the last four years most of our whiskeys currently being sold are right around the 2 year mark, but you wouldn’t be able to guess that when tasting them. I have plenty of barrels set aside for longer maturations. As we approach our 5th year anniversary there will be some very special releases.
What does whiskey mean to you?
DG: Hard work enjoyed at the end of the day.
What do you think is going to be the next big thing on the whiskey horizon?
DG: My dream would be Rye whiskey. The next big thing on the whiskey horizon is Flavored Whiskeys, there definitely seems to be a trend. There has always been your typical mass produced honey whiskies and some of the large producers that I recently visited on The Bourbon Trail are releasing multiple types that are all fairly new. I have read news of others about to release some flavored whiskeys as well. Still have yet to taste something that compares to the BSB.
Dain, lets get a bit personal, do you remember your first dram? Can you tell us about it?
DG: Besides my young over-indulgence in Black Velvet, my first ‘Dram’ was of Rouge’s Dead Guy Whiskey. I was always a fan of their beers (Once got a hold of Dead Guy Ale aged in Dead Guy Whiskey Barrels!) and this was the first local whiskey I ever tried and the first time I spent more than $18.00 on a bottle of whiskey. The first sip was amazing, I had never tried anything like it before. This is what led me to start trying any local craft spirit I could get my hands on.
What’s your favorite time and place to enjoy the dram?
DG: There is always a time and place for a dram at any time or place!
The most comfortable place is at home, pouring drams from my whiskey collection and enjoying it with my fiancé, while my wirehaired pointer lays on my lap sniffing my glass trying to lick and sneak a sip from the glass.
My favorite place is when traveling abroad, finding a bar with a great collection, and indulging with the locals sitting next to me.
Describe your whiskey with 3 words
DG: Pacific Northwest Local
Do you think now is the most interesting time to be a whiskey lover?
DG: Yes, Whiskey and Bourbon especially, has been growing dramatically the last 5 – 10 years. Large producers are making new whiskeys, craft distilling has boomed leading to new whiskies being introduced all over and especially here in the Northwest and West Coast. This whiskey revolution is only going to continue to grow and if you are currently a whiskey lover you are right in the middle of it.
What is in the pipeline for your distillery for 2017? And where do you see yourselves 5 years from now?
Hannah Hanley, GM for Heritage here. 2017 is the 5th anniversary of Heritage Distilling Company’s Flagship location opening and we’ll be celebrating with a some releases that Dain has been working on starting this spring. The HDC model is a little different in that we will be opening a few new distillery locations and tasting room locations starting this year and into the next 5 years. This year, we will add a distillery, tasting room and retail space on Capitol Hill in Seattle and another one in Roslyn, Washington. More bigger plans coming (we aren’t quite ready to talk about those yet). We also plan on opening new states for distribution and hope to cover at least 2/3 of the US by the end of 2017 and 100% of the US in 5 years. We’re always looking forward to the next step in expanding our production and retail sales.
