PARKCITYLIFE / Faces
BRENDAN COYLE DISTILLING THE ESSENCE / BY TONY GILL
BEFORE BRENDAN COYLE was High West’s lead distiller, he chose to live in Utah so he could go mountain biking while in college. His his true passion chose him. “I started home brewing when a neighbor gave me a kit,” Coyle says. “I got really into the science behind it.” Coyle’s expertise began with an apprenticeship at Red Rock Brewing Company in 2003. He went on to get a master’s in brewing and distilling from the prestigious Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, before meeting David Perkins, owner of High West. Since Coyle joined in 2008, High West has grown by 50 percent each year. They originally mashed, distilled and fermented in a Salt Lake City warehouse until the facility on Park Avenue was ready, and they’ve now expanded to a new distilling location and event space at Blue Sky Ranch in Coalville. PARKCITYLIFE SEP/OCT 2015
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