Iron Fish Distillery

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, the bestselling author of Experiencing Irish Whiskey and Experience in Kentucky Bourbon. And today we're going to be heading to the beautiful Crystal Lake and Crystal Mountain area of northern Michigan. It's a region that's known for its pristine waters and rolling hills, and its also homes who Michigan's first post prohibition farm distillery. The distillery is known as Iron Fish. And after my 692 mile drive the day before and four hour visit to the journeyman distillery, I decided to try to catch up on some sleep. I had to set my alarm early though because I needed to be up three and a half hours north of the journeyman distillery for my next location, which is the Iron Fish distillery. And unfortunately, I overslept a little bit, which put me in quite a pickle because, well, I had to be there by 11 o'clock.

(01:13):
It was already seven and I wasn't even in the car yet, so I got myself together as quickly as I could. My hope was that I was going to be able to get through Grand Rapids before traffic kicked in, but I was going to land there right around 8:00 AM So I made the brave decision to take the longer way to get to Iron Fish, but a way that didn't have quite as many town obstacles in the way, and that was up through Muskegon and then up us 31. And that actually ended up being the best way for me to get to the area. But as I was driving up, I soon realized that I had made a critical error in my planning. What I did was I tried to fit three distilleries into this one day, along with that three and a half hour drive, and the first distillery visit was at 11 at Iron Fish.

(02:09):
Then at 1230 I was supposed to be at Grand Traverse, and then at three o'clock I was supposed to be at the Traverse City Whiskey Company. All of them were places where I'd be doing interviews, but what I had neglected to think about for this first leg of the journey was the fact that once I was done that iron fish, I was going to have a 45 minute drive through the country to get to Grand Traverse. And I only had an hour and a half between when I arrived at Iron Fish and when I was supposed to be at Grand Traverse. I would say it was a rookie mistake, but unfortunately I am far from a rookie in this game. So it was just for some reason, a mental block of some form. While I was making great time coming up, US 31, all the stoplights were in my favor.

(02:57):
That road is very easy to drive up. It's a divided highway. So I reached out to Iron Fish and Jeff Edington, the COO that I was going to be interviewing and said, I might be able to get there by about 10 30. Would it be possible for us to start our conversation then? Well, he mentioned back that he didn't have much time himself, that he had a meeting not long after 11, so that would work out perfectly for him. So as I got into the area, it was about 10 15 and it's a beautiful spot up there, nice rolling hills, lots of trees. And after getting onto County Line Road, I saw a sign for the Iron Fish distillery. So as I make my way down to the distillery, let's take a moment to get to know a little bit more about Ville and the Crystal Mountain. Crystal Lake area.

(03:55):
Up near the pinky tip of northern Michigan sits two of the state's most stunning natural landmarks, crystal Lake and Crystal Mountain. Now Crystal Lake is one of the largest lakes in Michigan and is known for its clear blue waters and sandy beaches, making it a perfect spot for swimming, boating, and fishing. And the surrounding area is dotted with charming small towns that offer a peaceful retreat for those looking to escape the hustle and bustle. Just a short drive away is Crystal Mountain offering year round outdoor activities in the winter. It's a popular ski resort with slopes that cater to all levels of skiers and snowboarders. During the warmer months, the mountain transforms into a haven for hikers, mountain bikers and golfers. The views from the top are said to be breathtaking, offering a panoramic vista of Northern Michigan's lush forests and sparkling lakes. This area just south of Traverse City also provides easy access to Lake Michigan's beautiful shoreline. Visitors can explore the sleeping bear dunes, national Lakeshore, a stunning expanse of sand dunes that rise dramatically from the lake. Whether you're seeking adventure or relaxation, the Crystal Lake and Crystal Mountain area offers a little something for everyone.

(05:18):
Well, as soon as I turned down the road to get to Iron Fish, I noticed an old friend was here to remind me of my youth. It came in the form of a Michigan dirt road. Now, if you've never been to Michigan, you're going to find there's a lot of dirt roads in this state, and I don't think it's because they don't have enough money to pave these roads. What I think it is is the weather actually rips up all of these paved roads and they don't last very long. And if you've ever driven down I 96 in the winter or the summer, you'll feel the seams in the highway all the way down. It's like thump, thump, thump, thump. So I think it's just a matter of avoiding that. And what's cool about a lot of those Michigan dirt roads is I've driven as fast as 45 miles an hour on them and still have my fillings in my mouth.

(06:17):
Well, after going through a wooded area, things opened up. I turned down the road I needed to go on to get to the Iron Fish distillery. And on either side of me were fields of grain with these really cool signs in front of them that pretty much earmarked how many barrels of whiskey they were anticipating getting out of these fields of grain. So really that true feel of a farm distillery comes through just on the way into the distillery. So it took me a moment to find Jeff, but once I did, we walked upstairs into a cozy little lounge in the distillery and sat down at the couch and I set up my microphones and we dived into our conversation. And what I wanted to get to first was kind of the story behind Iron Fish, the story that goes back to Scotland. Talk about the origins of this. There's a Scottish connection

Jeff (07:17):
As

Drew H (07:17):
I understand, to the origin of this distillery.

Jeff (07:20):
Yeah, definitely. It's a really fun story. It's kind of a common story. It's with a little bit of a curve ball in there. We got four owners here at Iron Fish and two of the owners are his sisters and they're husbands. So it's a family affair. It all started with Richard's 60th birthday. David and his other brother-in-law got him tickets to go over to Scotland to taste whiskey just because something that they like to do. And it was scotch, everyone was scotch Scotch shots back then. It's just changed a little bit since with the American, of course. But yeah, they went over there, they had a really great time. They visited a lot of farm distilleries, so they kind of really loved that idea. And at that time, David, one of the other owners already had some property where we're located right now. So it kind of started as a fun little, oh, well, he's got this little hobby farm, maybe we've started distillery. Ha ha ha. Yeah, sure, yeah, let's just have another dram. And then they went home and no one really thought anything about it until a couple weeks later, Richard, or sorry, David got ahold of Richard and saying, I put that deposit down this still, so we should probably get together and talk about what we're going to do the next steps. And it kind of took Richard by surprise, I guess we're doing this.

Drew H (08:38):
Yeah. Was there a distillery over there that kind of stood out as one that they felt kind of as a blueprint or that really inspired them the most?

Jeff (08:48):
I don't think it was just this combination of all the really exciting ones, but there was a couple when they talk about the couple of farm Distill that they really like, but I can't remember the names off top of my head.

Drew H (08:58):
Okay. Probably Kil Holman I think is one that, yeah, it's really inspiring when you get there and you see all of the grain that's going to be turning into the whiskey. And that's exactly the experience I had when I turned down the dirt road and started heading into the distillery here. You really get to see where your whiskey's coming from.

Jeff (09:22):
Yeah, I mean we think it's definitely important to our origin story, but also just who we are. I mean, as Michigan's first farm distillery, we have 120 acres here of which 80 we grow is rye. We grow all haslet rye, which is a really exciting variety that we really think makes really good rye whiskey. So when you make that big turn, it's all going down this, it's almost two miles down dirt road. It's woods, woods, woods, a couple houses here and there, and all of a sudden you make this big turn and then the rye fields open up and you got the sunshine, and then you see the buildings, then you see the silos and yeah, it's a cool experience.

Drew H (09:57):
It's almost Michigan tradition to have somebody say, well, you turn down the dirt road to get to it,

Jeff (10:05):
You got to across the river, turn down the dirt road. It's the second left. Yeah.

Drew H (10:09):
Yeah. I always tell people it's because if they put pavement down, it gets so cold here that the roads buckle. I remember as a kid going down I 96 and you just hear thump, thump, thump hitting all the seams and the highway.

Jeff (10:24):
Yeah, and I mean, that's kind of what makes whiskey good too. I mean, you kind of want that hot cold, hot cold aging in the barrels, so it kind of works out in our favor.

Drew H (10:33):
So when did this actually get underway in terms of a project?

Jeff (10:38):
So it started, the paperwork started in 2015 and it really opened up 2016. We put, I think two or three barrels away in 2016. Then it kind of really went into production 2017.

Drew H (10:50):
Well, you got two things you have to do. Not really farming at that point. You're just getting started on the farming side of things. How did that come about? I know they owned the property, but were they farmers?

Jeff (11:04):
No. So David kind of owned the property. He originally wanted, this kind of all started as retirement plan too. I didn't really talk about that part earlier. This is all just kind of a fun thing to do after everyone retired from their very successful careers that they've been working their whole lives for. But David is just one of those guys. He's just a natural genius in general, but also he's always got his hands in something. He wants to figure this out, wants to figure that out. So this is, I think what he really wanted to do is just tinker around and learn how to farm. And he's got some grapevines and he put up hops before and he just wants to live a little bit on the farm.

Drew H (11:39):
Yeah, experiment a bit. And so when you start to do a project with whiskey though, you're going to have to grow a lot more. It doesn't sound like a retirement project for me. It sounds like a lot of hard work.

Jeff (11:51):
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think kind of spiraled kind of victim to their own success, which is a great thing. And that's why they're really big on having people like myself, some other people on our team, on the manager side to kind of take that next wave, bring in some new ideas and some experience to get this ball rolling.

Drew H (12:14):
I see the solar panels out there. So what are you guys doing in terms of process to produce this? Because you talk about grained glass and this concept, so what are the special things you're trying to bring to the development of your whiskey?

Jeff (12:32):
So I mean, it all starts on just sustainability. We have a sustainability pledge at Iron Fish that we are putting more back into the ground than we're taking out. We're taking care of our watershed. We're right by the Betsy River, which is a really popular Northern Michigan trout stream. So I mean, we just want to make sure our farming practices are good. We want to do and be as sustainable as possible for the good of the whiskey as general, as good as the environment we're around. So we use a lot of our electricity from that solar panel, but a lot comes from other sources as well. But yeah, it's just trying to do more with what we got.

Drew H (13:12):
So the rye that you're using, Haslet Rye, is that what you said? Correct. So was this a strain that they had seen in use somewhere else, and how did they come upon that as a good one to use?

Jeff (13:27):
Yeah, so there's a lot of good research out there. We work really closely with Michigan State University, which has a really great agricultural extension. They do a lot of different trials right now. They're actually going through a bunch of corn trials in particular to old varieties that make really good whiskey. We kind of partner with them and there's a bunch of other people around that do as well. So we used basically research that they already did based off their growing and how it grows, what it's resistant to crop wise, the yield. Obviously being in a northern climate, it's a little bit different, which obviously rye really likes. But yeah, we just really liked the analysis that Michigan State did on it and how we tested some and we liked how it tasted in the whiskey too. So

Drew H (14:13):
Is there a particular flavor profile it brings in terms of rye?

Jeff (14:17):
Yeah, I mean, just like most rye, it's really big on the spicy scale. It's a little bit lower on the vanilla than some rise are, but we're kind of okay with that. It's just kind of good all around mid, but high splice.

Drew H (14:29):
So talk about Matt Angler because would you say that's the flagship brand?

Jeff (14:35):
Yeah, absolutely. So Matt Angler, there's a whole crazy fun origin story in that too, but really what my head angler is is our estate brand. So anything using grain, we grow on our farm and other local sources as well. So like I said, we only have 120 acres. We can't grow all the grain we do, but all the grain we get is from local farms, most of 'em within Manistee County, which we are in right now and some stuff from outside. But everything from northern Michigan in general, so it is all local grain. We have a very custom bottle, custom molded bottle, which is really exciting and just the highest level.

Drew H (15:08):
Okay. And are you producing, you're basically doing Rise or are you doing bourbons and rise or

Jeff (15:15):
Experimenting? We do. Everything is fun. But yeah, we have five different bourbons that we're producing right now. We have two different rise, a lot of single malt. We're really big into that, obviously me coming from the beer world, our production manager as well comes from the beer world. So that's kind of up our alley and we kind of see that on the horizon that we're really excited about being a part of that. But Rise is a good part. We just released our four year last year, or this year, early this year. So next year we're going to release a five year rye. We're only almost eight years old now, so we're getting to the point where we're starting to really get our groove of tasting a little bit older whiskey. So we're excited about

Drew H (15:53):
That. Yeah. Well you did some work actually with some farmers in the upper peninsula too, as I understand.

Jeff (16:01):
So our bottle and bond, which it's a wheat whiskey, it's a 51% wheat, but we also grow some rye up up from the Ron Collins farm. He's just a local guy up there who's making his mark in the world making some different, well, he's grown has the rye, but he's making that for us, which is really exciting. So having grained from the two peninsulas of Michigan, it was kind of just important to kind of tie everything together. So yeah, we got rye from up there and then we used some wheat from a local guy in here in Manistee County, and we made our two peninsula, we call it whiskey, which eventually turned into our bottle and bond products. We thought that would be a good way to market it.

Drew H (16:41):
So does Barley grow around here very well?

Jeff (16:45):
Absolutely. It's Michigan. We grow everything

Drew H (16:46):
Pretty much.

Jeff (16:48):
So I mean it really kind of grows in the thumb region of Michigan. It does kind of grow up into central and there's some guys actually in Wexford County, which is the next county to our east who are growing at, we're kind of in the initial stages of talking with them to see what the yield is and all that kind of stuff and what good properties it has. So we're getting there. But yeah, there's a lot of malting facilities. Obviously Michigan's a great beer state, so we kind of got the infrastructure for some barley as well. So there's lots of growing grain from grants and trying to boost that economy. I dunno, four or five, maybe six. Sters is Michigan as well, trying some different stuff from them.

Drew H (17:31):
Yeah. Well another thing that you need are barrels. And so do you go all the way down to Kentucky and Missouri to get your barrels or are you doing that elsewhere?

Jeff (17:42):
Yeah, yes and no. So we got a lot of different suppliers for barrels. So our Matt Angler series, we actually go out to Napa and get wine barrels that are charred at spirit barrels. They're really nice, really good grain, a little more expensive too, but also it gives a different flavor profile than the traditional independent stave or any barrels. But there's also a local Cooper in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Joe Smith from Crow's Nest Barrels. We got a standing order for 15 barrels a month from him. He's been a great supplier of ours. He's just a small guy making it in the pole barn behind his house, but he does a really fantastic job. So we get some barrels from him as well, which is pretty cool. Keep it Michigan,

Drew H (18:25):
It is. Got to help that there's more distilleries in the state. It kind of supports having these auxiliary businesses as well.

Jeff (18:33):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's kind of rising tides lift all boats type thing. And Joe, he's got more business than he can handle. He is always looking for help and looking for ways to make more, and he's buying different equipment and crowing machines and where he is getting different supplies of wood and all that. So he's really excited about it as well.

Drew H (18:52):
So you've got a lot of stuff going on here. You think about a distillery way out in the country. So what are the other aspects of the distillery that people get to visit and experience while they're here?

Jeff (19:07):
Yeah, so I mean, being on 120 acre farm, we kind of have a little bit of fun around here in general. We have a really great, we think, customer experience. We have a really nice outside area, different picnic tables and patios and a bunch of yard games. And we have a big event. Barns, an old barn. This used to be a cow farm plus some fields as well. So there's a big old barn that we use. There's some pretty cool old buildings. The farmhouse we rent out as an Airbnb so people can come and stay the weekend, which is always good. But yeah, we have a bunch of buildings that we are up in the process of building out our fifth building storage building for barrel houses, which is pretty cool. But yeah, it is just a good experience to come out here. And we got food and we do wood-fired pizzas and great cocktails. Of course, it is very big focus of ours. So just good customer experience.

Drew H (19:59):
Where are you finding most of the people who are coming to visit are coming from?

Jeff (20:05):
Of course, just like anything, we're a destination. If you're coming, come out all the way to Thomasville Michigan, you're coming out to visit us for a reason. But a lot of people on vacation, people coming down from Traverse City up from Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago. But I mean, it's mostly just people who are into whiskey and we just kind of want to come visit destination, see where it's made, take a tour, check out behind the scenes.

Drew H (20:30):
Yeah. So how far out are you distributed in terms of

Jeff (20:35):
Yeah, so we're everywhere in Michigan. We're also in Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina and Colorado right now. And we're looking to open up maybe Ohio or Indiana pretty soon here. So

Drew H (20:49):
When somebody comes up and they're interested in sampling your whiskeys or maybe cocktails, that sort of thing, have you done any work in terms of trying to maybe figure out some spirits that are kind of Michigan related that you're working on in terms of making cocktails, that sort of thing?

Jeff (21:09):
Yeah, I mean, our cocktail team is amazing. They're always playing around kind of mad chemist type thing in there. So we grow. We also have a little small community garden that we grow ingredients just for our cocktails grow on a rosemary and sage, and we have edible flowers in there to make the cocktails look pretty. Even horse rad can make a horse radish vodka, obviously Northern Michigan's really big cherries, apples as well. So we make our own cherry bounce and just different cocktails like that. Slushes have been popular, so we've been playing around with different fruit juices and cocktails, especially in the hot summer, which it is right now.

Drew H (21:49):
Well, you bring up cherry bounce and I mean Michigan is known for its cherries, and as I've done my research into history, George Washington served cherry bounce. I found newspaper articles in Tennessee in the early 18 hundreds about people selling. So describe what cherry bounce is.

Jeff (22:10):
So I mean, there's a million ways to make it. Traditionally, it's basically bourbon mixed with fresh cherries. It's important to have a non pitted, it's got to have that pit in there to really kind give it an extra flavor. Not quite almondy, but it has a little bit of nutty characteristic. It has that flavor in there. Some people put different spices in there, some people just kind of leave it with maybe just a little bit of sugar to boost it up. But yeah, it is pretty simple. It's just basically aging cherries and bourbon

Drew H (22:40):
And so it's not like a mixture of juice or something like that. It's actually the cherries being it's a

Jeff (22:46):
Cold cherry. Yep, whole cherry. So you want to get 'em, you do want to freeze, so they breaks down the cell walls and lets the bourbon get into a little bit quicker. But yeah, it's basically aging for several months. Some people do a couple months, some people do a year, which is a little intense, but, and then you can just add whatever kind of spices or if you just want to keep it straight. Yeah.

Drew H (23:07):
Is there a particular cocktail that is a favorite around here?

Jeff (23:14):
We have a couple really, really popular cocktails in general. We have a cherry whiskey, Rita, which is kind of what we call it, our take on a margarita with cherry instead and using bourbon instead of tequila, which is fun. But then in general, we have our Wiley coyote, that's what it's called.

Drew H (23:35):
Okay.

Jeff (23:35):
Yeah, so it's a gin based drink with sour mix and a jalapeno. So it's got that spice, it's got the sour, and it's got the gin brightness. It's just a really great,

Drew H (23:46):
Well, if somebody's coming to the area and they're looking to kind of pair something non whiskeys to do along with this, I know there's a lot of stuff around here. It's beautiful in this area, and I'm sure there's a lot of outdoor activities to do. What are some of the main draws to this area?

Jeff (24:04):
So we're about 20 minutes inland from Lake Michigan and the whole Lake Michigan, the west shore, if you guys have never been there, pretty freaking amazing. Lots of sand, beaches, dune grass, sleeping, bear dunes, the National Lake shore, it's about 30 minutes north west of here. A lot of people come to check that out. Lots of great rivers for fishing or kayaking as well. The Manistee River, the Platte River, Manistee National Forest is just down the road as well. We're kind of right in the middle of a lot of great things. Traverse City is about 40 minutes away, always rated one of the top 10, top 50, whatever places to live if you look at any of those poles. So it's a great place to be up in northwest Michigan.

Drew H (24:45):
Very nice. And then for somebody coming to visit, are you seasonal? I mean, I would imagine weather up here probably makes it hard to be open all year long, but

Jeff (24:57):
Oh no, we're northern Michigan. We're open all year

Drew H (24:59):
Round. You. Let's do it. Yeah, it doesn't matter. 20 feet of snow, come on

Jeff (25:03):
Out. Yeah, it just depends on whether you're driving your car or your snowmobile. You're going to make it yourself.

Drew H (25:09):
Do you have a snowmobile part of your parking lot out there?

Jeff (25:13):
We always have a few pull up side by size mountain bikes, so we're really close to Crystal Mountain, which is a ski resort as well. It's just a mile down the road. We actually have a trail that goes through our woods and connects up with their mountain bike trail as well, cross country skiing as well. So we do get a good year round draw from there. People go skiing all day, then come over here for cocktails and go to the lodging and yeah, it's a great year round.

Drew H (25:37):
No better way to warm up than with some whiskey in your glass. Right?

Jeff (25:40):
That helps.

Drew H (25:41):
Yeah. Well, Jeff, thank you so much for walking me through this. I'm going to wander around here I guess in a minute and see what the facility looks like, but I appreciate you filling us in on the history, and I love seeing the farm estate theme growing here in the us. I think it really does give you an opportunity to taste the unique grains of the area and from the people who are actually growing it.

Jeff (26:06):
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me on. But yeah, I mean, we just want to make our little mark. We're not trying to be the biggest dogs, we're just trying to make something real unique and uniquely Northern Mission.

Drew H (26:17):
Cheers.

Jeff (26:17):
Cheers.

Drew H (26:18):
Well, I hope you enjoyed this virtual flight to Iron Fish Distillery. And 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 Iron Fish Distillery and a growing list of worldwide distilleries that we're featuring here on the show. Then dig deeper into the whiskey lore online travel directory. Use the heart feature to show others which distilleries you are interested in, or log in with a free membership and bookmark your favorite distilleries and add them to your own whiskey lore wishlist. The site features, planning tools, maps, tour dates, and booking links for over 300 distilleries worldwide, including Michigan distilleries, start your journey@whiskeylore.com slash flights. Now stay tuned because in just a moment, I'm going to have some closing travel tips if you're planning on visiting Iron Fish Distillery. But first, it's time for this week in whiskey lore.

(27:18):
It was 146 years ago this week that the border area of Putnam and Overton County, Tennessee became a war zone in the notorious moonshiner revenue or battle in a year filled with such battles in Tennessee 1878. This one would be known as the Putnam County War, and it began shortly after revenues led by Deputy Internal Revenue collector James M. Davis spent a day attempting to dismantle reported Brandy Stills in the region seeking refuge for the night. The Revenuers approached a friendly named John Peak, a man who was a hundred years of age, but peak felt he was unable to adequately house the revenues. Since he was entertaining guests, he made a suggestion for them to visit another local resident, and Davis used the opportunity to dispatch two men to Cookville for reinforcements sensing danger in the area. After finding out the other man was not home, Davis and his crew returned to the peak house and he and a man named Captain Phillips went down to gather some food in Peak's Garden when Phillips spotted an armed man heading towards the tree with a rifle in his hand.

(28:32):
After warning, Davis Phillips jumped a fence and while he was in the air, he heard shots ring out and the sting of a bullet in his side making their way back up to the house, the revenue was barricaded themselves inside and endured a day and a half of gunfire from the moonshiners. Morgan sent in two men under a flag of truce to settle the dispute. During the negotiations, it was discovered that the reason Morgan attacked the revenues was because he heard that Davis had threatened his life. When reinforcements arrived, the moonshiners dispersed and Morgan was eventually persuaded to appear in court. After much delay, the revenues would send Captain Phillips to ask Morgan to come in. When Morgan finally appeared in Nashville, he stated that the only reason that he had fired upon the revenues was because he feared for his life. Under threats he felt came from Davis, Davis and Morgan would become fast friends and would stay that way until the day that Davis was killed during another moonshine raid. If these are the kinds of stories that you enjoy hearing, make sure check out my book, the Lost History of Tennessee Whiskey, where I talk about the two eras of moonshiners, the old days of the Wildcatters, like Campbell Morgan, the more notorious era of the bootleggers and moonshiners of prohibition. The lost history of Tennessee whiskey is available at Amazon or through your favorite online retailer.

(30:06):
And as we prepare to leave Iron Fish Distillery and make our way to our next distillery destination, let me give you two additional attractions in the area you might consider visiting. First is for the golf enthusiast. If that's you, then just a short drive from the distillery are two championship golf courses with the Mountain Ridge Course offering a challenging layout with stunning views of the surrounding countryside. And the Betsy Valley course is said to be a little bit more forgiving and perfect for a leisurely round with friends. And if you'd like to relax near Lake Michigan and enjoy another craft distillery, then check out the Furnace Street Distillery located between Alberta Beach and Betsy Bay Marina, just 18 miles northwest of Iron Fish. As we close out our trip to the Iron Fish distillery, if you're still on the fence about visiting, let me give you my three reasons why you should have this distillery on your whiskey lower wishlist.

(31:00):
The first is the farm nature of this distillery. You can't make it to Isla and see kill homan and farm distilleries like that. Well then come out out and soak up the farm atmosphere. Check out the fields of grain as you drive in and enjoy a cocktail in front of the agriculture that will eventually be distilled into iron fish spirits. Second, the variety of spirits at Iron Fish is impressive from their award-winning bourbon and rye whiskeys to their innovative barrel finished spirits, the growing list of vodkas, gins, and single malts, and it's a great opportunity to taste the terroir of Northern Michigan. And third, the distillery's commitment to sustainability is evident in every aspect of the operation. Their implementing of things like regenerative farming make their whiskey not only delicious, but also environmentally responsible. With a trip to the site, you can learn that story firsthand.

(31:57):
Well, it's time to head off to our next destination. After I take a moment to walk around the distillery with Iron Fish's master blunder, we're going to have to be quick about the drive to reach that distillery By 1230 in the place we're headed to has its own rich story. It's a distillery that can't claim to be the first distillery since prohibition in Michigan, but it can claim that it is the oldest of the current craft distilleries in the state. Join me next time as the Midwest Great Lakes Tour 2024 rolls on. Make sure to subscribe to the Whiskey Lower podcast so you don't miss any of the great whiskey flights to come. I'm your travel 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 lord.com/flights. Whiskey lords of production of Travel fuels life, LLC.