[Vision2020] Palouse Farmer Branching Out Into Whiskey

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (June 17, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Palouse farmer branching out into whiskey
Will use Spokane distillery

Colfax farmer Tim Danaher made wine in his bedroom closet when he was a
teenager. Now the 59-year-old has plans to launch a second career selling
his own whiskey.

Danaher and his wife run a wheat and barley farm of nearly 1,900 acres in
the Palouse. After taking a class last year at Spokane’s Dry Fly
Distilling Inc., Danaher is ready for the next step in the three-year
whiskey-making process.

His blend will be called a “Hibernian” whiskey, using a recipe – or “mash
bill” – Danaher got from an Irish book. Since the blend won’t be bottled
in Ireland, Danaher said he can’t call it an Irish whiskey.

Danaher will use his own barley and wheat, then add a gelatinized oat
mixture to the mash.

He’s the first local grower to arrange and pay for distilling at Spokane’s
Dry Fly, which became Washington’s first boutique distillery in 2007.

Dry Fly makes its own wheat whiskey from grains grown in Eastern
Washington. The privately owned distillery gained approval in the last
legislative session to provide contract distilling – making alcohol that
others will bottle and sell on their own.

Under Danaher’s arrangement, he brings ingredients to Dry Fly and pays the
Spokane company an undisclosed distilling fee, based on the number of
barrels.

The goal is to distill about six barrels of wheat whiskey this year,
Danaher said. Next year he hopes to boost it to 12 barrels.

The whiskey will be aged for three years before it’s ready to sell.

Most whiskey is distilled twice; Danaher will triple-distill this batch to
make it smoother, he said – “It won’t burn when it goes down.”

Dry Fly will store his first batch of wheat whiskey, though Danaher is
also applying for a federal distilling license. The license will allow
Danaher to bottle and store whiskey on his own property, said Dry Fly
co-owner Don Poffenroth.

Danaher expects to sell the whiskey for roughly $40 per fifth. “This is
not whiskey you’ll be adding 7-Up to. It’s custom-blended,” he said.

Poffenroth said Dry Fly is talking to other area farmers about similar
deals, but Danaher Farms is the only contract job arranged so far.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown