Writing :: Business profile/travel piece on Kansas distilleries

Kansas has some of the nation’s most stringent liquor laws so it’s taken awhile for the micro-distillery movement to gain momentum here in the wheat state. Remember how micro-breweries really took off in the 1980s and 1990s? That’s happening with small batch spirits and we’re finally seeing it in Kansas.

I wrote an article for Wichita Magazine about Wichita’s first legal distillery since prohibition, which started production late last year and is selling wheat vodka. Soon Wheat State Distilling will also sell rum, gin, bourbon and whiskey. The article is part business profile and part travel piece, because the distillery is open to the public for tours and tastings.

To accompany the article, I also wrote a short piece about another family-owned distillery here in Kansas that offers tours and tastings – Dark Horse Distillery in Lenexa, Kan. If you are in the Kansas City area, this place is worth the tour fee — their story is interesting, you learn the history of distilling, you get to sample the spirits and it’s just a phenomenal space to see.

I learned a lot about these family businesses and distilling while writing these articles. One thing to keep in mind when you visit a distillery or buy their products: ask if they distill all of their products. Some distilleries might make one product start to finish but then expand their line of spirits by flavoring and bottling a neutral grain spirit they purchase from a large industrial distilling operation. Both Wheat State Distilling and Dark Horse Distillery proudly make their entire product line in-house and use as many local ingredients as possible.

Here’s a link to a PDF of the package: Distillery Feature in May 2014 issue of Wichita Magazine

You can also read the articles via these links to Wichita Magazine’s website:

Person of interest: Cereal Entrepreneur David Bahre of Wheat State Distilling in Wichita, Kan.

http://wichitamag.com/blogsearch/issues/0205/cereal-entrepreneur/

Visiting Dark Horse Distillery in Lenexa, Kan.

http://wichitamag.com/blogsearch/issues/0205/dark-horse-distillery/

<photo> Damian Garcia at the beautiful bar at Dark Horse Distillery in Lenexa, Kansas.

<photo> Hand labeling bottles of Reunion rye whiskey at Dark Horse Distillery.

<photo> Wheat State Distilling owner and master distiller David Bahre dipping bottles in wax in Wichita, Kansas.

<photo> A wax dipped bottle at Wheat State Distilling. These are school neutral bottles, but this one happened to set in a way that looks like WuShock’s head (Wichita State mascot).