What happens after you open one of the first on-farm craft distilleries in the country? A whole lot, it turns out.

Last year, we shared the story of how Jamie Walter and family opened Whiskey Acres Distilling Co. on their DeKalb farm, one of the first on-farm craft distilleries in the nation. Their goal was to capture more value in the corn they raise, and take full advantage of their 90-mile proximity to Chicago consumers.

TASTY? “Even within the No. 2 yellow dent class, people don’t think of corn as having different flavors because typically as commodity producers, we don’t worry about flavor,” says Jamie Walter. “But there are actually different flavors from different varieties.”

“It’s been a whirlwind,” says Walter. With help from partner Nick Nagele and Walter’s father, Jim, Whiskey Acres began distilling bourbon and vodka in early 2015. They sold vodka right away, opened a tasting room in summer 2015, hired eight employees, and began selling aged bourbon this past June.

“It’s been a lot of change, very fast,” Walter adds. They’ve hosted more than 6,000 visitors at their tasting room, and they sell product at 300 locations all over Illinois. On the day they introduced their aged bourbon, 1,000 visitors showed up at the tasting room. Forty people even camped out overnight to be the first in line.

Whiskey Acres products have also won awards — and esteem — at international spirits competitions in Denver, San Francisco, Louisville and Los Angeles. “We’ve been up against the big boys, so it’s been great,” Walter adds.

Walter says the DeKalb community has been incredibly supportive of their efforts, with about 25% of their visitors coming from the local area. But he says their local zoning restrictions have continued to present challenges to their rapid growth.

THE FARM: More than 6,000 visitors have come to the farm to see how Whiskey is made from corn — and see the corn itself.

“We need more space — that’s our biggest problem. We don’t want to be considered retail here on the farm. We need some level of flexibility,” he explains.

New flavors

Summer harvest brought a bumper crop of wheat and rye for the distillery.

“We just finished an eight-week rye whiskey manufacturing campaign that went very well, and have just dumped some aged barrels of previously made rye as we prepare to bottle our first finished, aged rye whiskey for release in mid-October,” Walter reports.

“It is really good and is already garnering a great deal of anticipation by both customers and ‘experts’ in the industry,” he adds.

Their biggest challenge today is keeping up with bourbon demand. It’s a short-term problem, as they’ll release more when it’s mature and at peak flavor and aroma, likely in a few more weeks. The downside is that they can’t maintain supply in as many locations as they’d like.

New this fall: the Whiskey Acres Artisan Series Bourbons. Walter says these products will be released on Black Friday (Friday after Thanksgiving) in their tasting room. Each is made from different flavors of specialty corn, including blue popcorn, sweet corn and Oaxacan green corn. They’re also using heirloom varieties like Bloody Butcher and Glass Gem.

“Even within the No. 2 yellow dent class, people don’t think of corn as having different flavors because typically as commodity producers, we don’t worry about flavor,” Walter says. “But there are actually different flavors from different varieties.

“We keep those close to our chest! It’s our competitive advantage,” he adds.

Watch more

Watch a special video report on what’s happening at Whiskey Acres, and take a look at the corn that’s making award-winning whiskey.