STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATE DALY
You no longer have to be a bachelor or bachelorette to book a special tour and tasting at Warfield Distillery & Brewery--starting in August anyone can sign up.
To date only party guests have toured and tasted at Ketchum’s only distillery. But, with the ongoing expansion plans, things are changing.
A little more than a year after the Warfield expanded next door into approximately 12,000 square feet of new space on Ketchum’s Main Street, the business is launching public tours of the facility, with optional tastings. Warfield is also branching out to distribute its line of organic beers and spirits to other states.
The new construction enabled the brewhouse to grow from a 10-barrel system to a 30-barrel system, “so we tripled the run,” explained co-founder Alex Buck on a recent private tour.
A U.S. barrel holds 31 gallons. Warfield’s annual production now amounts to thousands more gallons of beer and spirits made on much of the same equipment.
“The most important thing to do is to keep things clean,” he said. So, yes, a lot of cleaning is involved in between brewing.
To keep up with the demand of customers in the adjoining Warfield restaurant and bar, Buck’s team usually brews two to three times a week. Come August customers may go online to www.drinkwarfield.com to sign up for a tour to see how the whole process works.
During a walk-through Buck talked about how a batch of beer needs a day to start, then typically spends 10 to 15 days in a fermenter, followed by a couple of days in a brite tank to adjust the carbonation level.
Canning and kegging take place on site. “Within 21 days you could have something in the can or keg,” Buck says.
His Buck’s father grew hops in Bakersfield, Calif., so Buck is particular about the hops he buys – only organic whole leaf primarily grown in eastern Washington and western Idaho.
His farming roots revealed themselves at one point in the tour. Buck described how--after the grain is crushed and mixed with water--the “grain soup” is steeped at 150 degrees Fahrenheit to break down the starch and sugar. The liquid is piped off to the next step of the process whereas the spent grains are collected and shipped to farmers in Carey and Fairfield to feed their pigs.
Gareth Small, a visitor from Seattle, took the tour and said he liked learning various facts, such as how making whiskey basically uses the same process as beer, except without hops, and how fermentation is shorter, just three to five days. Another difference is the whiskey is then piped into another room filled with two enormous copper stills imported from Scotland. After going through distillation twice, the whiskey is placed in used bourbon barrels to age for three years.
“The color and flavor come from the barrel,” Buck said. “Three years is the minimum requirement for Scotch-style whiskey.”
One decision Buck is grappling with is whether there’s enough inventory on hand so he can afford to set aside some whiskey to age longer.
Warfield celebrated its sixth anniversary in June and is still building the brand. Aside from making more than a dozen different fresh beers and seasonal releases, the team makes award-winning whiskey and gin plus vodka.
Tastings will be offered after the tours and include flights of beers and spirits for $55.
The tours will be offered at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, and cost $25. A VIP tour with Buck will cost more and involve tasting off the tanks and barrels.
Merchandise is available on the website, and distribution is widening. Warfield spirits are now available in Idaho and Oregon, and beer is sold in Idaho and California, with Utah being added soon.