WHISKEY ACRES The Spirit of DeKalb By: Stephen Haberkorn
When DeKalb farmer, Jamie Walter, looked at expanding his family’s agricultural business a few years ago, whiskey distilling seemed to make the most sense. During his research, Walter discovered that craft distilling was the fastest-growing sector of the alcoholic beverage market. And bourbon, a specialized type of whiskey, was the fastest growing segment of that. Bourbon, by law, has to be made with a minimum of 51% corn.“And what do we grow here in DeKalb County better than almost anywhere in the world? Corn,” said Walter. “That’s what got us interested.” Jamie Walter, his father, Jim, and family friend, Nick Nagele, are now the owners and operators of Whiskey Acres Distilling Company, which was incorporated in August, 2013. After a fairly long licensure process involving federal, state, and county agencies, they were able to distill their first batch of whiskey on December 19, 2014.
Photos taken by: Danielle Guerra • dguerra@ shawmedia.com
10 | 2015 | DeKALB COUNTY MAGAZINE
“DeKalb is known for being innovative when it comes to agriculture. This is the birthplace of barbed wire. It’s the birthplace of hybrid seed corn,” stated Walter. “I’m not grandiose enough to think that a little distillery that we’ve started here is of the same scale, but it’s very much a new thing. It’s something that DeKalb County’s never had before.” While most distilleries buy commodity grains to make their whiskey, Whiskey Acres grows their own corn, wheat, and rye on their property. “All distilleries can make whiskey. We’re the only distillery in Illinois that can grow whiskey,” said Nagele. Because Whiskey Acres Distillery is on a farm, they call themselves an Estate Distillery. They are one of only two farm distilleries in the United States certified by the American Distilling Institute. They grow the grains, harvest them, mash, distill, age and bottle their whiskey all on site – “from seed to spirit,” as their slogan proudly proclaims. “What that allows us to do is to pick the best grains, harvest them at the right time, have total control of the process, and start out with the best ingredients,” explains Nagele. “To build onto that, we’ve got the best equipment that you can have for a craft distillery.”