. . . and the famous rye whiskey from Templeton, Iowa, with Iowa Legendary Rye Whiskey. We use the recipe that one of Templeton, Iowa’s original bootleggers, Lorine Sextro, used when her family farm was home to a closely guarded secret distilling operation.
We create a sweet mash wort on site, using only the finest quality 100% rye grain grown especially for us by local Iowa farmer, Brian Irlbeck. The only other ingredients are purified water, sugar and yeast. After fermenting is complete, we distill in small batches to 80 proof using our hand-built, one-of-a-kind custom hybrid stills. The design for our stills is based on the same ones used by the Sextro family during Prohibition.
The delicious white rye that results is bottled for immediate enjoyment. For the whiskey that gets aged, we use a custom charred 15 gallon new oak barrel and store it where the elements can work to pull the whiskey in and out of the wood to impart the richest flavors. After 18 months or so, we meticulously taste test each barrel to make sure it’s ready to bottle.
Our Barrel Reserve whiskey gets the benefit of aging in one of our previously used barrels for at least 18 months or more. The resulting flavor is slightly more mellow from the whiskey seasoned wood. Again, each barrel is taste tested for peak flavor before it is bottled.
Each bottle is then hand labelled and individually numbered so you know exactly which barrel aged your one-of-a-kind bottle of whiskey was created.
Our rye vodka is truly unique — our rye mash is distilled using a modified vodka flute on our same custom stills and then charcoal filtered for purity. Each run is created in small batches and hand-crafted for some of the finest tasting vodka you will ever find.
We are excited and proud to carry on the Sextro family tradition started here in Carroll County so long ago.
Enjoy!
Heath, Rich and Lisa