FREY RANCH DISTILLERY ORGANIC GIN AND VODKA

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Michael Hepworth

FREY RANCH DISTILLERY IN NEVADA

GIN AND VODKA FROM FOUR GRAINS

Nevada(Spiritsman)2/7/16/–We recently got a chance to try the organic gin and vodka from this stand alone distillery based in Nevada, and can report very good things about the product. Coming in a customized wooden box, the first one tried was the vodka, and maybe it was so good because of the fact it is a marriage of not one but four grains, corn, rye. barley and wheat. The state of the art still has the capacity to produce 10,000 cases of spirits per month.

The distillery malts its own barley, and does not use commercially available enzymes for the conversion of starches to sugars. Everything is done on the estate and the end product is a result of that.

The ranch itself has been in the family since about 1850 even before Nevada was a State, and today farmer Colby Frey and his wife farm wheat, corn, barley, rye, alfalfa and oats.

Corn is the predominate grain, and wheat is the smallest used in the production process and all the grains are produced right on the 1200 acre ranch. which is located in Fallon.

Fallon is a small town famous for being the location of the Naval base where the “Top Gun” pilots are trained, and it is also known as a farming community. Temperatures vary quite a lot with very hot summers and bitter cold winter nights.

The distillery itself is 4.600 square foot and features a still room, tank room, barreling room, tasting room and a malt house. The vodka is 98% ABV as it passes through three separate stills and is bottled at 40% ABV which produces this vodka with a creamy texture.

The vodka cocktail I tried which utilizes a vodka with four types of grain was the Caipiroska which has simple syrup or granulated sugar and four quarters of lime. The mixed grain complements the citrus elements in the drink.

The gin uses rye, barley and corn and the botanicals used are juniper berries and wild sagebrush from the ranch with coriander, Angelica root, cardamom pod, lemon peel and orange peel sourced from across the globe. The gin is bottled at 90 proof, an just like the vodka the final product is very smooth tasting and a real find.

In the immediate future Free Ranch will be launching a premium brandy, and in 2019 look for their range of super premium bourbon and rye whiskies. The brandy has been aged for five years and will be strictly small batch (1500 bottles) with ten acres of vineyards on the estatecontributing to the base wine fo the product.