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A relationship to the land also influences what the Droge family is doing in Bozeman, Montana, at Dry Hills Distillery, which gets its name from where the family’s great-great-grandfather homesteaded in 1905. Jacob Droge chose the land for its rich soil, despite the area’s meager average rainfall of 20 inches per year. Between two farms – the Droge Farm and London Hills Farm – the fifth generation of the family cultivates about 8,000 acres of potatoes and cereal grain, distilling under the motto, “If we don’t grow it, we don’t make it.”
“We truly believe that the intimate, detail-oriented relationship that we have with our crops and, thus, our product ingredients educates a large part of the decisions that we make in the distillery,” says Jeff Droge, who manages the distillery with his wife, Erica. “Without a doubt, I believe this area and the specific quality of grains that we raise affect all of the products that we make.”
Due to the low-humidity environment, Droge sees a great amount of oak interaction quite quickly during spirit maturation and also a pretty drastic degree of ‘angel’s share’: “[This] drives the proof up much higher, much quicker than what you would see in mid-west or southern regions with consistent humidity.”
Read the full article at WhiskyMag.com.