{"id":95147,"date":"2019-03-12T23:50:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T05:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grain-to-glass-towaoc-corn-is-foundation-of-popular-new-bourbon\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T23:50:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T05:50:35","slug":"grain-to-glass-towaoc-corn-is-foundation-of-popular-new-bourbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/grain-to-glass-towaoc-corn-is-foundation-of-popular-new-bourbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Grain to glass: Towaoc corn is foundation of popular new bourbon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

Judging by the medals sitting behind Durango Craft Spirits\u2019 bar, the distillery\u2019s Cinder Dick bourbon is a clean and smooth quality spirit. The caramely, slightly sweet two-year bourbon has been recognized by the American Distilling Institute, the Denver International Spirits Competition, North American Bourbon and Whiskey Competition and other notable entities. Their numbers reflect the spirit\u2019s flavor; DCS\u2019s tasting room sales are up 25 percent from 2017 and distribution sales are up 20 percent, which prompted a 1,500-foot expansion to double bourbon production from two barrels a month to four.<\/p>\n

Craft distilleries grew 15.5 percent in 2018<\/a>, making a drinker\u2019s choice of bourbons as diverse as grocery store pasta sauce, but Cinder Dick has been able to stand out in the competitive market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be like a distillery would have been 100 years ago,\u201d said Durango Craft Spirits<\/a> co-owner and distiller Michael McCardell. \u201c I wanted to use all regional grains. I wanted to go grain to glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

That strategy has helped McCardell\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\"Michael
Michael McCardell, co-owner of Durango Craft Spirits, produces Cinder Dick Bourbon, Soiled Doves Vodka and Mayday Moonshine at his location at 1120 Main Ave.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI take a very common sense approach to this whole industry, and I do things that are sometimes different than other people, but I don\u2019t care because it works for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bourbon gains a lot of flavor from the char of the inside of the barrels that are burned with flames and then doused with water. McCardell uses a char four (most major brands use char three) from a cooperage in Kentucky. But quality regional grains also set Cinder Dick hooch apart from other grain liquors. Those grains come from Towaoc\u2019s Bow & Arrow Foods and Alamosa\u2019s Colorado Malting Co.<\/p>\n

Great grains<\/div>\n

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch<\/a> sprawls across 7,700 acres on tribal lands and grows corn and alfalfa and raises cattle. Pastel Shiprock can be seen framed between the farm\u2019s massive grain bins that hold 500 semi truck loads or 500,000 bushels. Bow & Arrow Foods is on the same site as the farm and mills Ute Mountain Ute Corn that eventually finds its way into Durango Craft Spirits\u2019 old-fashioneds.<\/p>\n

\"Simon
Simon Martinez, operations manager at Bow & Arrow Foods in Towaoc, shows off crops grown on the Ute Mountain Ute farm. Four years ago, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe added a mill to the site to grind its grains.<\/span>Jessie O\u2019Brien\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Simon Martinez has been the operations manager for the farm for the past 29 years. Martinez said the mill was added four years ago. The farm sets aside 120,000 bushels of corn for the mill each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur customer base deals in whole corn, corn mill, cornflower and cracked corn for animal feed,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cYou have to have a 52 percent corn base for your bourbon and vodka. That is where Durango Craft comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cinder Dick Bourbon is 65 percent corn. McCardell purchases two 2,500 pound pallets of pre-milled white corn per month from Bow & Arrow, which he said has always been consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a really high sugar content and it works great for my spirits,\u201d McCardell said. \u201cAnd they are so great to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez said Bow & Arrow typically keeps McCardell\u2019s corn mill ready to go on the floor. He was the first distillery to purchase from Bow & Arrow, but selling to distilleries has become a business strategy for the high-tech mill. Because it is competing against Iowa and Nebraska and established brands like Bob\u2019s Red Mill, it is finding more luck with those interested in craft and the story behind Ute Mountain rather than battling to be in major grocery chains, Martinez said. Its products can be found in other distilleries, including Fairplay\u2019s Snitching Lady\u2019s blue corn bourbon and Raquelitas Tortillas\u2019 chips out of Denver.<\/p>\n

\"Bins
Bins store the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch\u2019s grain as Shiprock stands in the distant background.<\/span>Jessie O\u2019Brien\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe can do 24 different granulations for distilleries alone,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Honeyville and Zia Taqueria also use Bow & Arrow products, and the company\u2019s cornmeal is sold at Nature\u2019s Oasis.<\/p>\n

Taste the terroir<\/div>\n

Durango Craft Spirits was the first distiller to purchase from Bow & Arrow brand, and the very last customer to get on with Colorado Malting Co.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are geniuses. They are all Ph. D.s,\u201d McCardell said.<\/p>\n

Jason Cody is one of the family operators. Cody\u2019s great grandparents homesteaded the land that eventually became a barley farm. Because the farm had been around for so long, Colorado Malting Co.<\/a> was one of the first to be involved in the craft beer scene. Their products have been used in New Belgium, Left Hand, Avery, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada and other, smaller breweries and some distilleries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are producing about 78 different malts right now,\u201d Cody said.<\/p>\n

This may seem like an overwhelming amount of options, but the Cody family\u2019s knowledge and connection to agriculture can pay off in spades for craft distillers and brewers. They\u2019ve even planted special crops for customers who are willing to pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is picking the stuff he likes. It\u2019s part of what made our brand successful \u2013 since we\u2019ve been in the game so long we know how to do a lot of things,\u201d Cody said.<\/p>\n

For McCardell\u2019s bourbon, he purchases 2 tons of wheat, rye, barley, malted wheat and malted two-row barley pre-milled from Colorado Malting Co. each month.<\/p>\n

Like Ute Mountain Ute and Bow & Arrow, everything is done on the same site at Colorado Malting Co. (It recently opened its own brewery on the property.) The soil and climate in Alamosa are not the friendliest to crops, but Cody said that creates a better product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are growing grapes for wine, they don\u2019t want it in the best soil. It produces more yield but not the best flavor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Using crops from Colorado creates a terroir, or taste based on the climate and environment, that influences the flavor of the bourbon.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are buying the raw materials from all over the country, so you are not tasting the area,\u201d Cody said.<\/p>\n

So what is McCardell\u2019s serving suggestion on the best way to taste Cinder Dick\u2019s flavors of the region?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what I really like to mix with my bourbon?\u201d he said. \u201cMore bourbon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Distiller Michael McCardell makes a point to source regional ingredients<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[281,924,338,2490,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-agriculture","tag-alcohol","tag-business-enterprises","tag-distiller-and-brewer","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95147"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}