Frey Ranch sits in a singular phase in American whiskey: a full farm and distillery property operation, they develop each little bit of their very own grain, then distill and age on website. And as a Nevada-based operation, they function in one among America’s driest climates, typically placing them on the forefront of local weather change’s impression on every part from rising grain to ageing barrels.
Not too long ago, Drinkhacker caught up with Frey Ranch co-founder Colby Frey, a fifth-generation Nevada farmer who’s trying a long time forward with regards to each grain and ageing operations. As Frey Ranch continues their development — on tempo to put down over 4,000 barrels in 2023 — even small fluctuations in local weather could have larger impacts on their operation. Colby was forthcoming about how that might problem their development — and what his crew is doing in response.
Notice: This interview has been flippantly edited for readability.
Drinkhacker: Are you able to give us a way of measurement, scope, and scale of Frey Ranch’s operation? Acreage used for grain that goes into the whiskey, proof gallons distilled per yr, barrels crammed, and so on.?
Colby Frey: Certainly one of our core tenets as a distillery is that Frey Ranch won’t ever supply grains from wherever outdoors of our personal farming operation to create our whiskeys. Because of this, annually we plan to develop and harvest not less than 1 ½ occasions the grains we might want to guarantee we have now further readily available for any unexpected circumstances. Mom Nature is unpredictable, which is why throughout every planting season, we consider grain overages for dry seasons, moist seasons, and each weather-driven eventuality. The flexibility and need to provide whiskeys constituted of the grains we develop and harvest ourselves is our motive for being and the essence of who we’re as farmers at the beginning.
As we take a look at our whole operation, right this moment we farm about 2,500 acres and personal round 2,000 acres, which we make the most of to develop our crops, together with corn, wheat, barley, rye and oats – and our rotation and export crop – alfalfa. We lease these further 500 acres from a neighboring farm. In 2023, we’ll plant about 580+ acres of our sluggish grown wheat, rye, barley and oats, and subsequent spring, an extra 250+ acres of yellow dent corn. These 830+ acres will yield greater than 100,000 9-liter instances of Frey Ranch Whiskey. One vital level is that we develop for high quality by no means for amount – so we have now further acres to find out what our wants could also be and may plan accordingly.
As of right this moment, we’re on tempo to fill greater than 18,000 barrels since our distillery operation was born – and this yr alone we’ll fill about 4,500 barrels with a majority of these barrels allotted to producing our Frey Ranch 4 Grain Straight Bourbon.
A majority of the barrels we lay down are earmarked for bourbon – 80% to be precise – with the remaining 15% allotted to rye product and 5% to our experimental whiskies, like 100% malted corn or our new Frey Ranch American Single Malt Smoked.
As a part of the model’s enlargement plans, earlier in 2023, Frey Ranch launched in Arizona and Texas, making us now accessible at retail, and in bars and eating places in six states. We expanded our distillery operations with the addition of two fermenters and a mash cooker – rising total manufacturing capability by 50 p.c.
Drinkhacker: How would possibly local weather change impression Frey Ranch’s operations? Have you ever all seen any impacts of local weather change since opening?
Colby Frey: As a fifth technology farmer, my household has weathered the storm each actually and figuratively – and at this stage, we’ve skilled each conceivable climate sample within the Northern Nevada area. The important thing to survival is adaptation and realizing that there is no such thing as a calendar or farmer’s almanac that can information your success. You study by trial and error, and thankfully when Ashley (my spouse and co-founder) and I made a decision to launch our whiskey operation, we had a blueprint for the way to navigate Mom Nature’s whims from greater than a century of firsthand expertise from my forefathers.
As a result of farming and agriculture aren’t a “one measurement suits all” enterprise, we issue within the distinctive local weather, terroir, water supply and topography in Northern Nevada to make sure we’re yielding the perfect, most fascinating crops. Nevada has the driest local weather within the U.S., and we have now entry to water run-off from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Vary, so what works for us on this area isn’t essentially going to work for farmers within the Midwest or Northeast. Alternatively, what works of their area won’t work for us.
As fifth technology stewards of the land, we goal to go away the land higher than we discovered it. And that strategy means doing issues the best manner, not the straightforward manner. Sustainability (or what we name taking excellent care of the land so it takes excellent care of us) is a crucial a part of our course of as a result of it’s the way it’s at all times been achieved on our farm with a number of generations price of trial and error to get it proper.
Drinkhacker: Let’s speak about Frey Ranch’s efforts targeted on sustainability.
Colby Frey: The choices we make are at all times about sustaining our land and our enterprise, as these are paramount to our success and require our consideration in equal measure. If we don’t handle the environment, soil, and pure sources, we won’t have a future as farmers. We see ourselves as non permanent stewards of the land. I used to be lucky to inherit the land from my mother and father in nice situation and my aim in life is to go away it to my household in nearly as good or higher situation.
Our sustainability measures at Frey Ranch are primarily based on frequent sense and generations of experimenting with the land, the local weather, and the terroir in Northern Nevada. We’re very proud to develop 100% of the grains we use to create our portfolio of American whiskeys, as not many U.S. whiskey manufacturers can say the identical. This has a sizeable impression on lowering our carbon footprint, as we aren’t hauling grains from Canada or abroad.
After the grains are malted and distilled on the Ranch, the leftover spent grains from the fermentation course of are hauled on a tractor to the dairy subsequent door offering a nutrient complement for his or her dairy cows. In trade, the cows present “nature’s greatest fertilizer” – manure – which then is used on the soil that grows Frey Ranch’s whiskey grains – together with our corn, wheat, barley, and rye.
Different sustainable points of our enterprise embrace rising alfalfa, which is a long-term crop that doesn’t require annual tilling – permitting the soil to keep up its pure carbon and microbes. Alfalfa is a legume and replenishes the soil by producing its personal nitrogen naturally, getting the soil ready for future crops. Primarily, alfalfa is “simpler on the land.” We’re additionally on a 7-year crop rotation to maintain our soil wholesome and fertile.
The phrase whisky interprets into Gaelic for “water of life” and, in fact, we will’t develop our crops or make whiskey with out water. Close by Lake Tahoe is thought for its crystal-clear water, and we use this identical Sierra Nevada snowmelt to flood irrigate our whiskey fields. By manually working the water canals by hand-powers gates, we depend on 100% gravity and no electrical energy. To effectively cool our stills and fermenters, pure water is saved on the Ranch which saves extra electrical energy than anti-freeze or electrical cooling methods.
As a last piece, we upcycle our used Frey Ranch whiskey bottles into candles, vases and grain jars and encourage clients to reuse their bottles or drop them off on the Ranch. Along with the bottle itself, the topper is made with 100% recycled metallic.
Drinkhacker: What are some frequent misconceptions or added challenges concerning the operation? What would possibly folks not perceive for a real grain-to-bottle operation?
Colby Frey: As a result of we develop all of our whiskey grains ourselves, we will keep true to our mantra of prioritizing high quality over amount – tailoring our planting and harvesting projections primarily based on our personal wants versus counting on the variables of the open grain market.
What’s fascinating is that we’re forecasting on two fronts: crop planting and harvesting, in addition to barrel ageing. For instance, we’re planting rye proper now that gained’t be prepared to reap till August 2024. Then, that harvest season has to maintain us till we harvest in August of 2025. This implies we have now to plan a lot farther forward of a standard distillery. When you’re shopping for grains off the open market, you may order what you want, however at Frey Ranch we have now to be methodical in what we plant, develop and harvest, so our projections have to be exact to account for not solely the time we have to develop the crops, but in addition the time our whiskey is sitting in barrels ageing in our warehouses. It’s unimaginable to assume that the grains we plant right this moment gained’t be consumed in one among our whiskeys till 2030 or 2031 on the earliest.
And, in fact, being a Nevada distillery, we’re positioned in a desert local weather. Nonetheless, we’re fortunate to be positioned in Fallon, Nevada. Fallon is named the “Oasis of Nevada,” as a result of we have now entry to water from the Truckee and Carson Rivers and water is saved in a reservoir till we’d like it. For us, all of it begins and stops with our grains, so we be certain that to not plant crops which can be overly water dependent. At Frey Ranch, we observe flood irrigation, which makes use of 100% gravity and no electrical energy. In actual fact, flood irrigation creates hydroelectric energy throughout its journey to the farm. This enables us to make use of water solely when our crops require it versus counting on Mom Nature
Drinkhacker: If you happen to may return in time and provide yourselves one piece of recommendation earlier than beginning distilling operation, what would possibly or not it’s?
Colby Frey: As one of many solely true property distilleries within the nation, Ashley and I are extremely pleased with what we’ve constructed – and are grateful for the superb crew behind Frey Ranch – in addition to our whiskey followers and the Nevada group – who’ve gotten us to the place we’re right this moment.
In hindsight, I’d remind myself to remain true to who we’re – farmers, first and foremost- which has served us properly, as we’ve taken lots of the efficiencies we discovered in farming and utilized them to our distillery operations.
As a begin up again then, we could not have anticipated the market potential for a farm to glass distillery – and maybe we’d have been extra bold with the scale of our earlier operations, however we really feel we’re rising at tempo and staying on prime of improvements whereas nurturing our core whiskey expressions.
However to cap it off, truthfully our favourite factor about moving into the whiskey enterprise has been the group and camaraderie. There are such a lot of unimaginable individuals who contact this enterprise – from fellow distillers, to bartenders, to retailers, to our followers, to the folks like your self who write about whiskey for a dwelling. It’s been an honor to carve out a distinct segment for ourselves with our farm-to-glass strategy and welcome folks to our Fallon farm – which can be our household residence.
