www. LovellChronicle.com
November 18, 2010 I The Lovell Chronicle I 9
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DAVID ][~X~
Brent Rageth pauses to fill a grain truck with corn while combining on Nov. 11 at his farm northwest of Byron. The harvested
corn was then trucked to Wyoming Whiskey in Kirby.
Brent Rageth
• • •
The Wyoming Whiske3
at Kirby is the first legal
tillery in the history of
is producing handcrafted,
bourbon under the
bon Hall of Famer Steve
only ingredients from
ruing.
Groundbreaking took
cember of 2007, and
Nally started work in
Steve had retired
Mark distillery in 2003:!
with the company.
job there was to do" at
over the years and was
tiller for the last 15,
He was inducted into
Bourbon Hall of Fame in i
2006.
Production of
began in July of 2009,
opening celebration was .........
of
2009.
BY DAVID PECK and I said we could. It's early to make sure it's he added. "That's why fessional from the day Wyoming Whiskey's 000th bar-
There's a Byron cormec- a special variety of corn mature before the first I like it. They have aStove Nallylocated him rel was filled April 27, 20 , and there
tiontoanewWyomingven- for the distillery - high hard freeze." Corn isgood word. You don't to the present day," De- are now more than l,600 arreIs in two
ture that has piqued the in- starch." planted around the need it to be on paperFazio said. "He will call aging warehouses know as rickhous-
terest of people across theCorn is the main in- first of May and is har- when you're working me and give me up- es. Around 250 bottles (750 ml) can be
state, gredient in bourbon, andvested in early Novem- with honest people like dates on the crop, and filled from each barrel. The company is
People driving south the wheat is used for fla- ber. He said the farm that." he made a special trip looking at anywhere two to four
toward Thermopolis may vor, Rageth said. The third uses water from Bitter SHARED PRAISE to Jackson to meet withmore years of aging:i!for the bourbon
have noticed the shiny new ingredient is barley, a key Creek delivered by the The feeling'is mu-me and Kate and Brad with the company tto being, "It will
facility that has sprung up component of the distill-Sidon Canal. tual from the WyomingMead and give usinfor- be ready when it's and ready."
just off the highway to the ing process, which in the One of the things Whiskey folks. Donna mation on the particu- Bourbon pro ction requires the
Rageth said he likes Nally called Brent andlar seed he was using use of new whit %ak charred barrels
about working with Sherry Rageth "good, for corn and wheat and and aging for g minimum two years.
Wyoming Whiskey is down-to-earth peoplef the particular strain The main ingredient is at least 51 per-
that the business at- adding, "We're real and yields, cent corn a three-grain mash bill
rangement he struck glad to be working with "It was very obvi- (recipe). Aft
with the company is them and having them ous he had spent some is the American spirit. It
based on a handshake grow the grain to make time with Stove Nally c - iy be made in the United States
- a relationship builtour bourbon, They care to talk about the quali- of America. The new or fully matured
on "honesty, trust andabout quality as muchties Wyoming Whiskey whiskey can never be filtered through
is looking for in these anything that can alter the natural
good faith," adding that as we do."
Wyoming Whiskey
Chief Operating Officer
David DeFazio of Jack-
son also had praise for
Rageth.
"Brent has been
the consummate pro-
grains and selected the
exact corn and wheat
strains that met our
needs."
Rageth added that
See 'RAGETH,'
-page 16
taste or color.
In the case of Wyoming Whiskey
the grains used are corn, wheat and
malted barley. Some companies use
rye for their flavoring grain. Wyoming
Whiskey uses wheat. Barley is essen-
See 'WHISKEY,' page, 16
the working relation-
ship will continue "as
long as I deliver a qual-
ity product at a fair
price." "
"You don't see that
very often anymore,"
t
i i!:i:!i!iii!!iiiiiiiiiii!!ii ii
: (307)
east in the small town of
Kirby, about 12 miles north
of Thermop.
Wyoming Whiskey is
the brainchild of Jackson
attorneys Brad Mead and
David DeFazio. The two
friends, though not part-
ners in their law practic-
es, have become partners
in Wyoming's first whiskey
distillery and hired master
distiller Steve Nally from
Kentucky to produce Wyo-
ming's first premium whis-
key - handcrafted bourbon
-- using only ingredients
from Wyoming.
Two key components
.of the bourbon- corn and
wheat -- are grown north-
west of Byron on a farm
owned and operated by
Brent and Sherry Rageth,
fulfilling the company's
dedication to use nothing
but Wyoming ingredients
in the production of the
whiskey.
In an interview last
week, Brent Rageth said he
bought the old John Abra-
ham farm, later owned
for years by Gary Petrich,
nearly three years ago. He
revived and expanded the
farm three miles west of
the Byron Cemetery, which
hadn't been farmed for six
or seven years, he said. He
added two pivot irrigation
systems to the original two,
noting, "A lot of this place
was sagebrush and weeds."
Originally from Pine
Bluffs, Wyo., Rageth has
been farming for 26 years,
farming initially near Pine
Bluffs and for many years
now near Big Springs, Neb.
He heard about the avail-
ability of the Byron farm
and purchased it from
Petrieh in January of 2008.
The farm is 820 acres, and
he farms 550 acres.
"I heard about the place
in 2005. I found it in a real
estate magazine and finally
came to look at it in 2007,"
he said.
Rageth just completed
his third season farming
the place, growing exclu-
sively wheat the first two
seasons and adding corn
this year for the distillery.
He said he planted 220
acres of corn this year and
330 acres of wheat.
Shortly after buying
the Wyoming farm, Rageth
heard about the distillery
project through a college
chum who lives in Wor-
land.
"They wanted to buy
some wheat and I was one
of the few people growing
wheat in the area," Rageth
said. "I introduced myself
(to Steve - master distiller
-- and Donna NaUy - direc,
tor of public relations), and
our personalities hit it off
and it went from there.
"We're corn farmers in
Nebraska, and they asked
if we could grow corn here
case of Wyoming Whiskey
is grown in the Riverton
area and is malted in Great
Falls, Mont.
One of the key aspects
of the whiskey is the purity
of the ingredients, Rageth
said. He said he uses Pio-
neer corn that is specially
ordered and has not been
genetically altered at all.
"It's hard to find corn
like that in the U.S.," he
said. "Most corn is Round-
up ready and bio-tech toler-
ant. We use conventional,
non-genetically modified
organism (GMO) corn that
is Wyoming grown. It's just
as natural as we can get
it."
Water for the distillery
comes directly from the ar-
tesian, limestone aquifer
near Manderson.
A GOOD MATCH
Rageth said he is
thrilled to be growing for
Wyoming Whiskey, calling
it a "match made in Heav-
en."
"We're really fortunate
we got the opportunity," he
said. "It's really going to
make this farm work. I re-
ally like the people. They're
really good people to work
with - honest and fair.
The whole organization is
a good organization. We're
lucky we got the opportu-
nity."
At the same time, Wy-
oming Whiskey is benefit-
ting from the experience
Rageth has.
"They really needed
someone who knew corn,
and the guys I'm connect-
ed to - we know corn," he
said. "We plant 3,500 acres
of corn and wheat in Ne-
braska."
Rageth grew 25,000
bushels of corn for Wyo-
ming Whiskey this summer
and at 1,000 bushels per
truck load was on track to
make 25 runs to Kirby this
fall. That should be enough
for a year and a half of dis-
tilling, he said.
He also shipped 4,000
bushels of wheat to the
distillery and also helped
Steve Nally with hauling
the malted Barley from
Great Falls.
"This is good for Byron,"
he said. "It's good that we're
growing the crop right here
in Byron. You can't grow
92-day corn in Thermopo-
lis. It usually freezes before
it's done.
"Steve and Donna (Nal-
ly) have been to my house
(in Nebraska) to make sure
I have the wherewithal to
do what I said I was going
to do. Sherry and I have
built a real good friendship
with Steve and Donna Nal-
ly."
Rageth said he will
plant his spring wheat
around March 20 and har-
vest in mid-August, not-
ing, "You need to get it in
