We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chad Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Chad, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The idea for Pine Bluffs Distilling came from conversations with my cousin who lives in Pine Bluffs. My wife and I were living in Vegas at the time, and my cousin had the idea to grow barley and malt it to sell to local breweries. So we moved our 3 kids to WY to figure it all out. After writing the business plan for a malt house, we realized that we would need another business to compliment the malt house. At the time, there were approximately 3500 breweries, and about 300 distilleries. So we figured we should open a distillery! Our Aunt came on as an owner as well around the same time. We felt this would work because there wasn’t/aren’t many distilleries in WY that produce product from nothing but WY grown grain. Our thought was that if wine has a certain terroir, then whiskey could as well using local grains. Whiskey with grain grown in say ND will taste different than grain grown 5 miles from the distillery. So we set out to be hyper local, which we maintain to this day.
Chad, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I got into the industry by learning how to homebrew beer while being a State of Nevada Gaming Control Board Agent. That turned into a passion for me. So once we moved to WY to start the malt house and distillery, that was the first time it was a job per se. I took a one week crash course at Moonshine University in Louisville KY to learn quickly about how to distill vs how to brew beer.
We now produce 2 Bourbons, a Rye Whiskey, various other whiskey’s such as four-grain, and five-grain, a corn based vodka, and a new American Gin.
I think a thing that sets us apart is that we can show the whole process to customers. We can go to the field, watch our grain being harvested, and then delivered to the distillery. We are proud of out relationships with our farmers, because without quality grain, we couldn’t make a quality product. Once we have that grain, we can show how we clean it, then cook it, ferment it, and finally distill. All of our barrels are housed on-site, and so is our very manual bottling line.
I am most proud of how we have been able to immerse ourself into the community. We host various fundraisers throughout the year including our annual Corgi Derby where we race corgis 40 yards, with the proceeds going to our local animal shelter. We also fundraise for families in need, and have raised over $20,000 over the last 3 years to provide meals during the Holiday season to families need help. We think that is pretty good for a town of 1,198. We also donated to over 50 organizations last year thru either cash donations or product donations.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We manufacture all of our own products. When we started, we had a choice to make. Should we source distilled spirits, or should we make them ourselves. While it would have been easier to source, we decided that wouldn’t be true to what we wanted to accomplish which was grain to glass, or farm to flask. Since day one, all product has been made in house, never sourced.
We’ve learned that we cannot produce product as cheap as the sourced product. For one cook, we can produce one barrel of whiskey. So we have to tell the story of why we do it this way. It is truly small batch.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think what has helped us with our reputation is that we tell our history. It’s not made up marketing, it is our own history. We are very transparent with how we do things, and why we do them. And if we make a mistake, we own up to it and not make excuses.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pinebluffsdistilling.com
- Instagram: pinebluffsdistilling
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinebluffsdistilling
Image Credits
Warehouse 21