Whiskey Whereabouts: Frey Ranch’s Grain-to-Glass Innovation (S4 E3)
In this special Whiskey Whereabouts episode, Kerry Moynahan reconnects with Colby and Ashley Frey of Fray Ranch Distillery in Fallon, Nevada. Together, they dive deep into Fray Ranch’s latest release—100% unmalted barley whiskey—as Kerry tastes it live for the first time. The trio explores the significance of grain-forward distilling, the innovation behind smoked whiskeys using homemade peat bricks, and the resilience of Fray Ranch during market downturns.
They also talk about the upcoming “First Harvest” release created in collaboration with blending legend Nancy Fraley, as well as the distillery’s involvement in the Estate Whiskey Alliance spearheaded by the University of Kentucky. From sustainability in crop rotation to pioneering transparency in whiskey terroir, this episode offers an intimate look at how Fray Ranch continues to grow—and distill—with intention.
SAVE THE DATE
Our HARVESTER SERIES: 10th ANNIVERSARY
EDITION is OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE FOR PRESALE
in our ONLINE STORE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30th at 10am PST!
|
With less than 300 bottles available for $249.99 each and a two bottle limit per customer, better make sure those reminders are SET! With such a special product that the whole team has worked so hard on for a long, long time, we’re also going to be running this sale a little differently than the rest in our store. Starting Wednesday, April 30th at 10 AM PST, the Harvester Series will be offered for PRESALE, available for purchase through May 6th (or until they sell out!) Bottles will not ship until mid-to-late May, but the whole team can wholeheartedly vouch it’s worth the wait!
With a tin silo-shaped box just like those that line the Frey Ranch skyline, a gold tractor bottle stopper, and an embossed metal label, this is one that every collector needs on their top shelf. Inside, savor an absolutely delicious whiskey blend, sipped and selected by Colby, Russell, and I with the help of one of the most renowned palates in the biz: master blender Nancy Fraley. |
Topics Covered:
• Fray Ranch’s 100% unmalted barley release
• E-commerce availability and national shipping
• Surviving the spirits industry slowdown
• Creating smoked whiskey with custom peat alternatives
• Collaboration with Nancy Fraley on the First Harvest blend
• Estate Whiskey Alliance & redefining "estate" in American spirits
• Crop rotation, terroir, and regenerative farming
🔗 Visit Fray Ranch Distillery 🎧 Listen to Past Episodes Featuring Fray Ranch on Spirits of Whisk(e)y
Hot off the Press!!!
Coming to the Frey Ranch Tasting Room Saturday, April 26th from Noon to 4pm, the Harvester Series celebrates 170 years of farming tradition and a decade of growing and making award-winning whiskeys from our fifth generation farm in Northern Nevada. So, what is the Harvester Series, you might ask? Colby and Russell are pretty great whiskey blenders (don’t tell them I said that), but to celebrate a decade of distilling we knew we had to go big on this one, so we partnered up with master blender Nancy Fraley to bring you the best of the best of our slow-grown grains that go into our award-winning whiskeys. As one of the most renowned palates in whiskey, together with Nancy we tasted hundreds of samples including 14 different mash bills. And the outcome? An incredible blend that showcases all five grains grown at the Frey Ranch, resulting in a mash bill that’s truly unique (and absolutely delicious!)
At 121.14 proof and featuring whiskey as old as 7.5 years, the Harvester Series: 10th Anniversary Edition is a delightfully balanced sipping whiskey that drinks like a deconstructed s’more.The nose presents hints of butterscotch and oatmeal raisin cookie with cinnamon graham cracker, while on the palate, the entry is soft with a coating of confectioners sugar, which leads to a rich pop of custard and marshmallow that beautifully coats the mouth. The finish is long and lovely, starting with nutty milk chocolate and topping off the tasting experience with sweet and buttery Nevada Pinyon Pine Nut.
We have about 500 bottles total of the Harvester Series: 10th Anniversary Edition, starting with our tasting room release! Saturday, April 26th from Noon to 4pm, around 100 bottles will be available in the tasting room with a two bottle limit per customer at $249.00. Then? Keep an eye on The Dirt in the next couple weeks to see when the Harvester Series: 10th Anniversary Edition is available online, and in select Northern Nevada stores.
Celebrating a DECADE of Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers and five generations of the Frey family farming legacy before us, cheers to the Harvester Series!
Frey Ranch Distillery proudly announced its partnership with the University of Kentucky’s Estate Whiskey Alliance® (EWA) — an initiative to highlight the advantages of local sourcing and sustainable production in the spirits industry. As one of the only true “estate distilleries” in the U.S., Frey Ranch Distillery has single-handedly put Nevada on the map as a serious producer of American Whiskey with its unique farm-to-glass operation.
By joining the alliance, Frey Ranch Distillery is committed to supporting research and education in agriculture, manufacturing, and sustainability to shape the future of estate whiskey production. Estate whiskey refers to a type of whiskey that is produced entirely on the distillery estate using grains sourced from the estate and local to that site.
"The wine world constantly talks about grapes, and the nuances of its growing cycle. However, the whiskey world rarely talks about grains, which have the same impact on whiskey as grapes have on wine,” said Whiskey Farmer and Frey Ranch Co-Founder Colby Frey. “As farmers and distillers, one of our primary objectives is to bring this topic front and center. By joining the Estate Whiskey Alliance, we hope to further educate bartenders, retailers, and consumers on the importance and relevance of U.S. agriculture and locally grown grains to the production of American Whiskey,” Frey continued.
Growing 100 percent of the grains used to create its award-winning portfolio of bourbons, ryes and specialty whiskeys, Frey Ranch oversees all aspects of its production to make the highest quality whiskeys that spotlight each grain. From farming and harvesting grains to malting barley on-site, all the way through distillation and maturation, Frey Ranch Whiskeys don’t leave the property until they are bottled and ready to be enjoyed.
As a new member, Frey Ranch Distillery will have access to expertise from other key industry leaders and a unique support network to build a more sustainable future for the estate whiskey industry.
The EWA organization is open to all varieties of members including whiskey producers, farmers, suppliers, academic institutions and other related organizations.
The alliance will provide a first of its kind licensing program this year to authenticate Estate Whiskey Certified™ products with a consumer recognizable mark.
Only the specific whiskey products proved to meet sourcing and production requirements can display the prestigious Estate Whiskey Certified™ logo on their qualifying bottles.
UK and UK Innovate — UK’s innovation, entrepreneurship and economic enterprise for University of Kentucky Research — established the EWA organization in 2023 with support of Seth DeBolt, director of the UK James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits.
You can find more information about the alliance on their website: estatewhiskey.org
Become a member of the Barrel Room Parlor by clicking on Become a Member from the navigation bar or go straight to our Kofi site at www.ko-fi.com/BRC and click on the membership link. Barrel Room Chronicles is a production of 1st Reel Entertainment and can be seen or heard on, Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Breaker, Public Radio and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
00:01.42
Kerry
Hello, good afternoon, guys. I have a very special Whiskey Whereabouts today. I'm back with Colby and Ashley, who I've had on the show several times, love visited their distillery. um So if you haven't caught that episode, you should do so because we get a little tour. It's really great.
00:15.40
Kerry
um But here today, we are about to talk about Many things, but including what I'm excited about is the new single grain 100% barley, which I have not yet tasted.
00:26.18
Kerry
So I'm going to taste that with with Ashley and Colby coming up here in a second. But first, I wanted to say hello and welcome.
00:34.11
Colby + Ashley Frey
Hi, thanks yeah for having us again.
00:35.92
Kerry
Of course.
00:36.03
Colby + Ashley Frey
Thank you. Good to see you.
00:37.63
Kerry
It's good to see you too. So tell me, so I, it's been maybe three years since I was up at the ranch and I feel like that might've been season one of Barrel Room Chronicles and we're, we're now in season four.
00:51.49
Colby + Ashley Frey
I think it was. I remember that. Yeah.
00:53.80
Kerry
Yeah.
00:54.45
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
00:54.85
Kerry
So things have changed a lot. Season two, we did an entire tour of Ireland on location.
00:58.94
Colby + Ashley Frey
Wow.
00:59.20
Kerry
It was pretty great. ah Season three was all over the place. I did things everywhere. And now we are in the beginning of season four. And I have you back. So that's good because you should be on every season.
01:11.06
Kerry
And we need to fix that.
01:11.26
Colby + Ashley Frey
Oh, thank you.
01:11.90
Kerry
Make sure that happens. So um last time I was there, we you were talking to me about all the different single grain series. And um I do have one from before, which is the Oat, 100% Oat, which I'm excited about too.
01:22.17
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yes. Yes.
01:24.64
Kerry
um But then when we were off air, you told me that these that used to be distillery only now are online. You want to tell me a little bit about that?
01:31.99
Colby + Ashley Frey
Sure. Yeah, I'll jump in. So we've got a um robust e-commerce site, shop.frayranch.com. and we do some fun whiskey drops where we're dropping our innovation and releasing some of these distillery only releases to our online subscribers and fans. We ship to 30 states. So it's been so much fun to be able to get, you know, that 100% barley or even wheat um out to to customers across the country
02:02.36
Kerry
That's awesome.
02:03.15
Colby + Ashley Frey
yeah
02:03.23
Kerry
um So I don't know about you, which I'm going to ask. um For me, I've noticed the spirits shopping downturn, um which has affected my business and I'm assuming has affected yours.
02:14.22
Colby + Ashley Frey
who
02:15.73
Kerry
um So let's talk about that a little bit. How do you how have you guys been surviving this spirits all in general kind of downturn in the shopping world?
02:25.80
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah, it's interesting um what's going on with the industry app right now. For us, um you know, everybody is affected, like you mentioned. We've been super strategic with our distribution approach and we've never wanted to be everywhere and saturate the market.
02:42.07
Colby + Ashley Frey
We want to be in the right bars and restaurants, the right retail stores. And we don't really ever flood, you know, a store with these like huge incentives and huge like, you know, I guess racks and stacks.
02:55.44
Colby + Ashley Frey
We're not just trying to sell whiskey. We want to build a brand the right way from the beginning.
02:58.48
Kerry
Right. Right.
02:59.34
Colby + Ashley Frey
Right. You know, and so for us, it's um it's just been ah been about being in the right places.
02:59.84
Kerry
right
03:04.88
Colby + Ashley Frey
um with the right accounts and really making sure that we tell our story. And one thing that a lot of retailers have told me, because we just did just launch in like Florida, for example, and one retailer said, you know what, you guys are different. I have 200 whiskeys on the shelf right now, but I don't have any that grow 100% of their grains, malt their own barley, like have total control over the entire process.
03:28.08
Colby + Ashley Frey
And they kind of, he joked around, he looked at the shelf and he says, I probably do have 30 or 40 bottles over there that are literally the same juice, same whiskey with different labels on it, but I don't have anything different.
03:28.61
Kerry
Nice.
03:38.17
Colby + Ashley Frey
So I will take you, but I have it. I told myself, that this guy said, I told myself at the beginning of this year, I am not going to take ah any new whiskeys and I'm going to actually start thinning out my shelves, you know?
03:49.45
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so it was, it was kind of a good compliment.
03:49.48
Kerry
nice
03:51.72
Colby + Ashley Frey
I think that that's why Um, you know, we're not, we we would like to be a little bit further or sell a little bit more than we are right now, but, but we're really aren't as, um, what's the word?
04:03.06
Colby + Ashley Frey
We're not, we haven't gotten hit as bad as the the market in as a whole.
04:05.89
Kerry
A lot of them.
04:06.86
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. yeah
04:07.53
Kerry
Well, that's good. That's good. And I have noticed um I do see you in more and more places, especially in Nevada when I go Nevada. I also saw you in Denver recently.
04:16.75
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
04:17.02
Kerry
um
04:17.39
Colby + Ashley Frey
ah Yeah.
04:17.99
Kerry
So, ah yeah, I mean, I keep going places. I'm like, oh, there they are again. There they are again. um
04:23.11
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
04:23.38
Kerry
Of course, um and none of them had the single... ah barley 100% barley so tell me a little bit about this expression um if you can tell me the age great if you can't great ah but tell me like was this part I can't remember I mean it's been as we said like a few few years since I was there was this one of the original single grains that you guys did or no or did this one new because I don't remember seeing this one before
04:29.80
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
04:46.09
Colby + Ashley Frey
No. So that one's new. And what this one is, is you know, our goal as farmers is to really like highlight the grains. And so we did make a hundred percent, this is a hundred percent unmalted barley.
05:00.40
Colby + Ashley Frey
So traditionally you'd see a single malt or a American single malt or some, you know, malted type of barley, but we really wanted to taste what barley tastes like unmalted and, and particularly our barley.
05:01.12
Kerry
Wow.
05:11.75
Colby + Ashley Frey
And we also didn't want to have any outside flavor influences by having some other type of grain in there. And so just like our other single grain series, um, It's 100% unmalted barley. We also have coming up like 100% unmalted corn, 100% unmalted rye, which is actually our flagship rye is 100%.
05:32.93
Colby + Ashley Frey
The mash doles 100% rye.
05:33.14
Kerry
Right.
05:34.72
Colby + Ashley Frey
And then we also have 100% wheat. And so it's kind of neat because you can taste what each different grain tastes like without any outside you know flavor influence.
05:43.54
Kerry
Right. So because it's unmalted barley, and I haven't tasted it yet, do you think that it kind of tastes closer to like an Irish ah copper pot, single pot still?
05:55.11
Colby + Ashley Frey
Probably. Yeah. And it it is. It's kind of like it's an easy drinker. It's it's really good. And obviously it obviously doesn't have any. so We do have another one. It's a American single malt smoked.
06:06.96
Colby + Ashley Frey
And that one's our malted barley, but it actually has a little bit of smoke in it.
06:07.85
Kerry
Ooh.
06:09.68
Colby + Ashley Frey
Totally different.
06:10.02
Kerry
Nice.
06:10.36
Colby + Ashley Frey
Totally different. Yeah, totally different. That's why it's funny because they're both made literally the same grain from the same fields, but one's been malted and smoked and the other one hasn't. And they're completely different whiskeys.
06:21.24
Kerry
And what do you smoke it with?
06:23.06
Colby + Ashley Frey
We have a, so we, we, we actually import a little bit of, of peat from Scotland.
06:27.64
Kerry
Okay.
06:27.96
Colby + Ashley Frey
It actually blocks the peat, but we also do, uh, like decomposed plant matter. So Pete is essentially decomposed plant matter over thousands of years.
06:34.84
Kerry
Great.
06:35.98
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so we actually composted some corn stalks and then we mixed it together. We, we, we got it really broken down, really, really fine. Then we put it in these bread pans and we mixed it with, um, like a flour that comes off the mill and we got that wet and pressed it really hard in the hydraulic press and made these bricks and then we put them in a dehydrator and dehydrated them and made our own made our own homemade peat basically and then we made our own um smoker because we have total control so we grow 100 of the grains right here we have a malt house where we malt all the barley and uh and so we made our own
06:49.82
Kerry
right
06:53.14
Kerry
To make your own bricks.
06:58.17
Kerry
Wow.
07:09.36
Kerry
Right. which Which y'all could see if you go back to the episode where we took the tour.
07:13.72
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Then, uh, so, so anyways, then we also made a a smoker where we, it's literally just a big silo, um, holds about 25 tons of, of grain and it has a wood burning snow stove right outside.
07:26.17
Colby + Ashley Frey
And we actually piped it in the top of the silo and put a little fan at the bottom. It's a real small variable speed fan where we could suck that smoke from the wood burning stove from the top down through the bottom and out the bottom.
07:39.96
Colby + Ashley Frey
And it really does a good job smoking.
07:39.91
Kerry
Wow.
07:41.40
Colby + Ashley Frey
And what the reason why we did that out of the top and not the bottom is because if we did in the bottom, we'd actually get a lot of heat and it might change the different parts of the silo and the the physical properties of the barley.
07:51.26
Kerry
Right.
07:53.83
Colby + Ashley Frey
So we actually, yeah, we piped it in from the top and it works really well.
07:58.34
Kerry
That's really cool. I'll have to check that out next time I'm up there.
08:01.25
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
08:01.34
Kerry
So do you guys have a bottle this nearby to taste with me?
08:04.70
Colby + Ashley Frey
do oh We do. We have a lot of bottles all over the place. But sometimes some disappear a little bit faster than others.
08:11.75
Kerry
Alright.
08:15.11
Kerry
Gee, I wonder why that would be. i mean, you know.
08:17.49
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
08:17.69
Kerry
Alright, I'm going to pause this while he grabs it.
08:18.58
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
08:20.31
Kerry
um Alright, I'm going to open up mine here. I like to do my my pop.
08:24.65
Colby + Ashley Frey
What
08:25.99
Kerry
Oh, it didn't pop very well.
08:28.11
Colby + Ashley Frey
the heck?
08:28.30
Kerry
Oh, well, that's right. Oh, but I dropped it and that was loud. Okay.
08:31.94
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's got some weight.
08:32.88
Kerry
Yeah. I do love, I mean, I've always said I love your i love the shapes of your bottles and your tops are amazing.
08:39.81
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. They're amazing.
08:42.85
Kerry
And for those of you at home who want to know the story about the bottles, revisit our past episode because we have a whole bunch of about that. All right. Let me take a smell here. Ooh.
08:55.16
Colby + Ashley Frey
lot of grain on the nose, which is what I love from this 100% un-malted barley.
08:57.50
Kerry
Yeah. But it does it does resemble Irish on the nose, I think, a little bit.
09:08.33
Kerry
Wow, and it's got some good some good legs. Fantastic color. Look at that. Can you guys see that at home?
09:14.70
Colby + Ashley Frey
Oh yeah.
09:18.65
Kerry
All right, here we go.
09:26.36
Kerry
yeah. That's fantastic.
09:29.68
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's really nice.
09:29.69
Kerry
I think this is my first 100% unmalted. That is really good.
09:35.73
Colby + Ashley Frey
it's it's It's like, yeah why don't people do unmalted barley more often? Like it's honestly, it's a single malts are really good too. Don't get me wrong, but like,
09:42.62
Kerry
Of course.
09:43.65
Colby + Ashley Frey
Unmalted barley is delicious also, and it's so much easier to not have to malt the barley.
09:47.18
Kerry
Yeah, you get a ski skip a step.
09:49.60
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. I just, when um we were tasting through this and kind of crafting the tasting notes, our whole team was like, Honey Nut Cheerios.
09:51.16
Kerry
so
09:57.92
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's got that grain, and it's got the honey, and um yeah.
09:59.50
Kerry
Yes.
10:01.51
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
10:02.69
Kerry
Absolutely. That is totally. Man, look at these legs. They're just fantastic. um Yeah, no, it totally I totally get the honey nut Cheerios and now I want honey nut Cheerios.
10:12.95
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
10:14.84
Kerry
So how many um in the single grain series have you done now? Which which grains have you done and which ones are you done with and don't have any more of and aren't going to make any or are you going to keep making them?
10:25.27
Colby + Ashley Frey
um We pretty much have a pipeline of all of them, but the ones that we've released already are wheat, 100% wheat, 100% oat, and now 100% barley are only, think those are the only two that we've done so far.
10:39.27
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah, I mean, Ben, you also have our flagship bottled and bond rye, which is 100% rye.
10:44.45
Kerry
Yep. Right.
10:45.08
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's not in our single grain series, but it is one of our whiskeys that is one single grain. And that was our goal from the beginning.
10:50.86
Kerry
right
10:52.36
Colby + Ashley Frey
As farmers, we wanted to do something a little bit different where most of the stories don't really... emphasize or really talk about the grains a whole lot, you know, and our goal from the beginning was to really start talking about the grains and bring them front and center.
11:09.34
Colby + Ashley Frey
And it's, it's really ironic to me because in the wine world, everybody talks about the grapes and how they're grown and where they're grown and all these little nuances of the grapes and their, their specifics.
11:13.91
Kerry
The grapes, right.
11:19.57
Colby + Ashley Frey
And in the whiskey world, nobody really does that. And I don't really understand why, because grain is to whiskey, what grapes are to wine.
11:26.54
Kerry
Right.
11:26.80
Colby + Ashley Frey
So, um, yeah, yeah.
11:27.37
Kerry
And that's always about the terroir. And then there's the argument is the terroir is terroir actually in whiskey, which I feel there is some people feel there's not.
11:34.97
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
11:34.99
Kerry
But I think you guys have a very specific terroir because you do everything on your farm. And I think you've you've you're I think everything that I've tasted from you guys is definitely all very unique, no matter what kind of whiskey it is.
11:49.14
Kerry
But it's all delicious. Like there's not anything that I would have said, hmm, No, thanks. Like it's all, it's all, it kind of like, I'll say, okay, I'm in a Odie mood today.
11:54.25
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
11:58.78
Kerry
So i'm going to get the Ode I'm in a wheat mood or I'm in a bourbon mood. um So I think you guys do a fantastic job, especially with your, with your single grain series.
12:06.94
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah, and that's fun about it is the taste of different grains. like like Like we said, by themselves. And I've had even like some big-time master distillers in Kentucky say, oh, mash bills don't really matter. Just throw in some corn, barley, and wheat or corn, barley, and rye, and it'll be fine. It's good.
12:23.86
Colby + Ashley Frey
But if you taste all of our whiskeys by themselves, wheat, rye, barley, and eventually we'll have our 100% corn come out. We've tasted it, and it's really good. Also, like by itself, the 100% corn.
12:35.15
Colby + Ashley Frey
You can't tell me that it doesn't make a difference on your your mash bill, I mean, when you taste the difference in each different grain.
12:37.26
Kerry
Oh, it totally does.
12:41.14
Kerry
Yeah. So how soon is the 100% corn coming?
12:43.91
Colby + Ashley Frey
yeah I don't think we have a release date yet. I think it's just turning four years old right now, it probably won't be. It might be little over four. It'll probably be year. We'd like to release everything around five at least or close to it.
12:53.00
Kerry
Yeah.
12:55.84
Kerry
Okay. So besides the 100% corn, what else do you have in the pipeline coming out that you haven't had out yet?
13:04.07
Colby + Ashley Frey
Um, so we have a smoked oat and rye.
13:05.39
Kerry
That you can tell us about?
13:08.14
Colby + Ashley Frey
Um, we have a, and we we haven't released any of our five grain bourbons yet, huh? No, not yet. We have five grain bourbons with oat as a fifth grain.
13:14.81
Kerry
Five grain. Oh, what are the other four grains?
13:17.99
Colby + Ashley Frey
it's the same as our wheat, rye, barley, and corn, you know, it's basically our our normal mash bill, but then we reduced each one a little bit and added oats to do it.
13:22.04
Kerry
OK.
13:26.67
Colby + Ashley Frey
And, um, it really,
13:27.04
Kerry
OK, and the bourbon is still, um I mean, the bourbon, the ah the corn is still that the 50, 51% of it.
13:31.80
Colby + Ashley Frey
Sure.
13:32.43
Kerry
Right, yeah.
13:32.75
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Yeah.
13:33.32
Kerry
yeah
13:33.78
Colby + Ashley Frey
So it's mostly corn. Yeah. The bourbon has to be 51% or more corn.
13:37.19
Kerry
but
13:38.56
Colby + Ashley Frey
Um, and then we have, what other ones have we not released yet, Ash? Well, we've got our big harvester that's going to be coming out. So in 2024, we celebrated 10 years of distilling and we worked with Nancy Fraley, who a lot of people know and love Nancy.
13:51.44
Kerry
I love Nancy.
13:53.36
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so she helped us put together a blend, um, That we'll be releasing. it's our We're calling it our first harvest. And we want to do this annual blend with her. We're actually already working on our second one, even though we haven't released our first one.
14:05.01
Kerry
Oh, great.
14:06.04
Colby + Ashley Frey
But it's going to have some um ah really, really high-end packaging. It's going to come in a silo box. um and won't I won't share too much, but there's been a lot of packaging delays, but I can promise you it's worth it.
14:13.31
Kerry
Oh, cool.
14:19.72
Colby + Ashley Frey
and And just like our normal packaging, there's a lot of thought that goes into the packaging. And yeah just like Ashley said, there's a silo box and really like were we're farmers and we're storing our grains, which is our whiskey in these little silos, you know, and it kind of fits back to us.
14:31.16
Kerry
Yeah.
14:34.62
Colby + Ashley Frey
But when we did um make the, you know, the ah blend with Nancy, we kind of gave her a blank palette or blank slate and said, look, we want to just make the best whiskey we can out of what we got here. And We gave her probably hundreds of, or a hundred, hundreds, I don't know, a lot of single barrel bourbons, ryes.
14:58.57
Colby + Ashley Frey
But then we gave her the the quad malts and the smoked malts and the oats and everything. It said, there's a blank palette.
15:04.54
Kerry
Wow.
15:05.16
Colby + Ashley Frey
Like, I think she tasted like 16 different mash bills and hundreds of single barrels and things like that.
15:09.21
Kerry
Wow.
15:11.19
Colby + Ashley Frey
Came up with an amazing blend.
15:13.35
Kerry
So how many bottles are going to be in the first harvest release?
15:13.92
Colby + Ashley Frey
She's over 500.
15:17.19
Colby + Ashley Frey
five hundred
15:18.32
Kerry
Wow.
15:19.05
Colby + Ashley Frey
i set the
15:19.11
Kerry
And do you have a price point for those yet?
15:21.90
Colby + Ashley Frey
It'll be $249. Yeah.
15:23.77
Kerry
$249. Are you out of your mind?
15:24.48
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
15:25.55
Kerry
No, I'm just kidding. ah No, that's a good, that's a good, that's that. And and then $500 and there's only going to be, yeah, no, that's good. That's good pricing. And then um when is that coming out?
15:35.58
Colby + Ashley Frey
So that's the question. And it's kind of it' like on yeah are like an ongoing job with the team.
15:38.96
Kerry
but That's November.
15:40.57
Colby + Ashley Frey
No, honestly, you know, we didn't want to release it until the packaging was right. And we were working with this company that's doing this fun silo box for us. And it's taken a little bit longer and full transparency than we thought.
15:52.26
Kerry
So basically as soon as, as soon as it's all ready, it's ready.
15:54.31
Colby + Ashley Frey
So when when they land, yeah, we we didn't want to rush it. But so that's what we've done from the beginning. Like when we started the distillery, we said we don't care if it takes a little bit more time, if it takes a little bit more money.
16:05.97
Colby + Ashley Frey
we want to do it the right way. You only get one first impression. And so we got to have our first release.
16:08.73
Kerry
Yeah.
16:09.73
Colby + Ashley Frey
We got to have it dialed in and right. and We can't settle for something that's not not perfect.
16:11.36
Kerry
Yeah.
16:13.81
Colby + Ashley Frey
we don't want to We don't want to let our customers down. It's really important to us.
16:17.38
Kerry
Well, that's the thing with whiskey. Like if you're a fan of whiskey, you know, whiskey, whiskey equals time. Like that's it. Like you, if you want it to be, you know, anything that's decent, it's, I mean, first of all, legally it has to be x amount of time.
16:30.20
Kerry
Right. But I mean, you know, it we're not moonshiners.
16:33.36
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yep. if we were If we were extremely impatient, we wouldn't have a distillery or a whiskey distillery, at least. We'd probably be making vodka or gin or something boring like that.
16:40.28
Kerry
Right.
16:43.82
Kerry
I don't know. Gin can be, I've kind of gotten into gin.
16:45.51
Colby + Ashley Frey
ah You're right.
16:46.76
Kerry
Gin can be kind of exciting. I i didn't think so much of, i mean, I kind of thought of gin, um but until I went to Ireland and visited Glendalot, which is South of Dublin.
16:57.68
Kerry
And I met their forager. Like she goes foraging in the woods seasonally and picks seasonal ah botanicals.
17:07.86
Kerry
And they have in Ireland only, they have four season plants. that you can buy there but they they can only make so much of it so you can only get in Ireland and then they have their two other gins but like she blew my mind like there was just all these different and then she was having me taste these botanicals that I've never even heard of some of them aren't in this country least in California one of them was a green leaf and it tasted like a lemon and I was like what is this so like it's I think you can have a lot of fun with gin but still whiskey is where it's at man
17:20.01
Colby + Ashley Frey
cool.
17:31.04
Colby + Ashley Frey
Wow.
17:38.64
Colby + Ashley Frey
That's it. Every once in a while, I don't mind a gin and tonic, but like, it's like I get tired of them and I i go back to whiskey all the time.
17:44.70
Kerry
Exactly. Exactly.
17:45.78
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yep.
17:46.16
Kerry
I'll have a gin, a gin drink of some sort, like, You know, if I'm going out and they don't have a good whiskey selection, then I'll be like, all right, what do you have for gin? And if they have a good gin selection, then I'll do something gin. But it's always, it's always whiskey.
17:58.87
Kerry
Okay. So, um, what have we not covered that we should tell everybody what's happening? So you guys still offer people to come. You have a store there, a little shop. It's got great stuff.
18:08.93
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Yep.
18:10.24
Kerry
Fantastic candles. For those of you who can get out there, like they're out of the recycled bottles, but not the little ones are out of the big ones.
18:12.07
Colby + Ashley Frey
second
18:16.76
Colby + Ashley Frey
yeah both Yeah.
18:17.05
Kerry
And,
18:17.68
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
18:17.85
Kerry
um
18:17.96
Colby + Ashley Frey
We upcycle all the glass and anything that we poured in the tasting room or, we, we actually have customers that bring us bottles back. We don't refill them. We get that request a lot, but we put them into our candle program and upcycle them. Um,
18:33.66
Colby + Ashley Frey
We've got, I think, like seven or eight different really fun scents. But if you want to, if you find yourself in northern Nevada, we're open every Saturday and we do complimentary tours and tastings.
18:44.91
Colby + Ashley Frey
um Right now, I think we're sampling about eight or nine different whiskeys, including some really fun single barrels.
18:48.56
Kerry
Oh, wow.
18:50.90
Colby + Ashley Frey
um And of course, all of these single grain that, you know, we tasted and talked about today.
18:56.20
Kerry
Yeah.
18:56.64
Colby + Ashley Frey
And it's all complimentary.
18:56.74
Kerry
And I'm, I don't, I don't, I don't foresee this lasting very long.
19:01.27
Colby + Ashley Frey
not Not very long, no.
19:01.87
Kerry
It's, a I've been, I've been holding on to, I, by the way, I don't know if I said this while we were on air, but I, I do have like an, bottle and a half of the oat, which I've been savoring, um which I really like.
19:02.91
Colby + Ashley Frey
We got plenty more where that came from.
19:12.33
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
19:15.78
Kerry
no um barley is my love and this is so good so good yeah okay so um you've got the so now have you already worked with nancy on the second harvest one are you gonna that's coming up soon okay
19:18.37
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Yeah. We've had a lot of fun with it.
19:29.55
Colby + Ashley Frey
We're right in the middle of it right now. yeah So she's got a bunch of samples right now. I think she actually said that she she's pretty hopeful of a prototype, whatever, that we'll take.
19:40.41
Colby + Ashley Frey
We hop on Zoom.
19:41.06
Kerry
nice
19:41.13
Colby + Ashley Frey
We taste it together. We do the tasty notes. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, she's amazing. are we really appreciate her.
19:45.56
Kerry
She is great.
19:45.89
Colby + Ashley Frey
Enjoy working with her.
19:46.05
Kerry
i needs I need to get her on the show.
19:48.67
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah, you
19:48.90
Kerry
ah This Saturday, I have ah the opportunity to talk to ah Dr. Rachel Berry in person.
19:55.88
Colby + Ashley Frey
Cool.
19:56.10
Kerry
So I'm very excited about that too. Like these ah these are the some of the women of the industry that I'm just...
19:57.97
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
20:01.23
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
20:01.76
Kerry
Like, you know, my heart.
20:03.67
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. The rock stars. Yeah.
20:04.89
Kerry
Yeah, rock stars. And I love that there's women rock stars, like you, Ashley.
20:08.79
Colby + Ashley Frey
Oh, well, thank you.
20:10.66
Kerry
OK, so what else do you want to tell us about that's coming up or is currently available or anything else?
20:18.35
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. I was, let's see, we just joined the estate whiskey Alliance, which we're really excited about that.
20:23.53
Kerry
Yes, all right. I was supposed to bring that up.
20:24.71
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Yeah.
20:25.61
Kerry
I'm so sorry. Yes, let's talk about that for a little bit.
20:27.81
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah, so um we're really excited.
20:28.08
Kerry
so
20:30.47
Colby + Ashley Frey
The University of Kentucky has started what they're calling the Estate Whiskey Alliance. They spent years honestly crafting the language for it. um I worked with them really early on because there's not a lot of people who are growing 100% of their grains and they really wanted to honor um us who we are growing 100% of the grains, but then also just get the conversation going up about using local grains and growing grains and using them in distilling. So they've got um ah a wide variety of distilleries that have joined. And i if you go to their website, they've got everybody from Heaven Hill who's interested in growing grains and they just want to learn more to us who grows 100% of the grains. And then even like our friends at Whiskey Acres, they grow, i think they grow 100%. They're out of Illinois and they're putting out some fantastic whiskeys and bourbons.
21:22.40
Colby + Ashley Frey
from the grains grown on their family farm. wonderful to- another way to like Maker's Mark, who has little farm right on their site there.
21:29.11
Kerry
Oh, I did not know that Maker's Mark had their own little...
21:31.85
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. but And I don't know how much though that goes into their actual whiskeys, but I think they're trying to, it's kind of what it is to us is it's kind of almost like a reassurance that we're on the right track.
21:42.49
Kerry
Oh, yeah.
21:42.58
Colby + Ashley Frey
When these, the big guys like Maker's Mark, Heaven Hill, and
21:45.41
Kerry
did you Did you run out to ah to the school and see their new distillery?
21:49.56
Colby + Ashley Frey
We have not, but I heard all about it from the folks with the whiskey lines.
21:50.61
Kerry
no Oh, it's so good. It's so pretty. It's so state of the art.
21:53.68
Colby + Ashley Frey
I heard, yeah. Great things.
21:55.88
Kerry
love it. um I went there, which as of right now, that episode has not aired yet, but I went there actually because I won the Women of Whiskey Award for podcasting over the summer.
22:05.78
Colby + Ashley Frey
Amazing, yeah.
22:06.66
Kerry
So they invited me out for that. And then everyone's like, you need to come back for the ah the bourbon festival. And I was like,
22:13.66
Colby + Ashley Frey
Mm-hmm.
22:14.91
Kerry
okay. And then, so a month later I went back, but in the meantime, um one of the professors won an award and we became friends and she said, would you come out and talk to my class?
22:16.16
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
22:24.71
Kerry
And I was like, of course. So, um, I talked to class and then she interviewed me for this project they're doing for the school. And I interviewed her for the show, which is again, coming out soon. If it's, it may come out before your episode, I'm not sure.
22:35.80
Kerry
So people pay attention and you'll find out if it's before after.
22:36.30
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
22:38.70
Kerry
Uh, but then I got to take a tour of the, of the, uh, distillery at the school, which was, I mean, um I almost wanted to just move there so I could work at it.
22:48.16
Colby + Ashley Frey
okay
22:48.69
Kerry
So it's small, but it's like state of the art and it's beautiful and their rickhouse is great.
22:53.57
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
22:55.74
Kerry
It's got the rolling racks and it's very Kentucky.
22:59.61
Colby + Ashley Frey
Right.
23:00.12
Kerry
So, yeah. So if you get a chance to go, would check it out.
23:03.70
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's definitely on our list and we actually are going to be hosting the folks from the State Whiskey Alliance from the University of Kentucky um out here at the ranch. So we'll we'll have to swap and go see them.
23:12.78
Kerry
so Okay. Okay.
23:14.38
Colby + Ashley Frey
What I like about it is they they come in and check and make sure that you're not just a distillery growing or whatever your grains.
23:22.80
Kerry
Yeah.
23:22.99
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so I'm going to put them to work here on the farm. Yeah, tell them to wear their boots. Get their boots out and they can ride a tractor and all that stuff. Yeah.
23:29.42
Kerry
I love that. So right now I know that you guys also, um was it alfalfa that you use to, to reef something to rotate?
23:37.86
Colby + Ashley Frey
to to rotate the crops yeah so we yeah yeah we grow a lot alfalfa as a rotational crop yeah and uh
23:39.32
Kerry
Yeah. Was it alfalfa? Okay.
23:44.46
Kerry
And is that still, you still sell that to other places to help?
23:48.08
Colby + Ashley Frey
yeah what's what's great is all of our alfalfa goes to China Dubai Japan and Taiwan and it gets exported around the world and actually comes I think closest to where you are goes to Long Beach and gets put on a boat goes around the world and and so um
23:52.87
Kerry
That's right.
23:59.24
Kerry
Yeah, that's close. Yeah.
24:03.02
Colby + Ashley Frey
What's neat about that is it' it's the opposite of the distillery. Like if you think about the grains in the distillery, they never leave our possession. Like from when we plant the seed and grow the crop and harvest it and store it, we mill it, mash it, ferment it, distill it, age it, everything, you know, bottle it. Everything happens right here.
24:21.05
Colby + Ashley Frey
Well, the alfalfa, like once we harvest it, we put it on a and a box truck and it goes goes around the world, which is kind of neat as a farmer to think about, like your crops going around the world, but it's just not as fulfilling as like,
24:30.70
Kerry
Yeah. Right. right
24:32.75
Colby + Ashley Frey
actually having a final product like the whiskey and being able to share it with people and and drink it with you. And it's really fun for me as a farmer to do that, but it's really important for the the fields to rotate your crops. You don't want to grow the same crop in the same field year after year after year. So we plant alfalfa to legume. It has, it,
24:52.60
Colby + Ashley Frey
produces its own nitrogen and it puts it back into the soil rather than depleting it from the soil like grain crops do. It also ah has deep tap roots that go down deep into the soil and as those roots, as you take out the alfalfa and you plant something else, the organic matter, the the roots decompose um and create water percolation and food and nutrients for the other next plant ah to feed off of.
25:13.67
Kerry
Oh, wow.
25:18.14
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so it's really important and it's really good
25:18.88
Kerry
So is it every other every other planting season or is it like X amount of numbers?
25:23.50
Colby + Ashley Frey
so So what's good about alfalfa too is it we we only have to plant it once every five years. um And it allows the soil to rejuvenate. So we don't we're not working it up or messing with the soil. The microbes can get really strong in the soil and everything else.
25:41.34
Colby + Ashley Frey
So we're also not work overworking our ground. Then once the alfalfa gets towards the end of its lifespan, then we plant wheat, rye, barley, and corn for two to three years and then back to alfalfa.
25:52.04
Kerry
That's so great. I'm sure you have lots of spreadsheets and maps and things showing the rotation schedule.
25:59.57
Colby + Ashley Frey
It's a lot. Yeah. Trying to keep track of everything. And yeah. And that's the one thing about farming is there's, there's not a lot of do-overs, you know, there's, there's one time you plant corn per year. There's one time you plant wheat, rye and barley. And if you miss it or mess it up, you don't, you don't have another chance to do it again until next year.
26:15.19
Colby + Ashley Frey
So you really got to pay attention all that stuff and have everything written down.
26:15.15
Kerry
Yeah. So let me ask you about the weather, because I know down here in Los Angeles, ah we had a lot of rain last year. And this year we've rained like twice.
26:26.39
Kerry
So what has the weather been for you guys this year compared to last year?
26:26.53
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
26:30.59
Kerry
And how has that affected your farming?
26:32.85
Colby + Ashley Frey
it's been really dry. So the crops, I mean, they're not, they're not really hurting right now, but they're getting close. So we do need a little moisture. it looks like it's going rain this weekend, probably.
26:42.09
Kerry
Yeah, same.
26:43.04
Colby + Ashley Frey
But what's really fortunate for us is we don't get a lot of rain anyways. And so like our annual rainfall is only a few inches a year.
26:51.51
Kerry
Yeah.
26:52.28
Colby + Ashley Frey
And we get all of our water from the Sierra Nevada mountains. So from both sides of Lake Tahoe, um and it it flows down the trucking the carson rivers to a reservoir where we hold it till we need and so luckily last year we had such a beautiful winter the year before this one um and a great summer last year that we had a a lot of carryover water from our reservoir so um even if we have a bad year this year up in the mountains we'll still be okay on the farm because we have that extra water from saved over from last year it'll be next year that if we get another bad winter next winter
27:26.29
Colby + Ashley Frey
that will be depleted.
27:26.91
Kerry
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
27:28.37
Colby + Ashley Frey
so Yeah, we'll start the the year with that reservoir empty.
27:28.49
Kerry
yeah
27:31.33
Colby + Ashley Frey
But anyways, so we're really fortunate to be where we're at. This Fallon is the oasis in Nevada. And so if you go any direction, five or 10 miles, you see nothing but desert. But we're right here in the lush, beautiful green farmland.
27:45.79
Kerry
Okay, so ah one last question about um this this coalition with with the school. um What do you see, how do how do you see that helping with, is it awareness? is it what's What's the main goal of joining this with you guys?
28:03.74
Colby + Ashley Frey
I think it solidifies our original goal, which is to really like showcase the grains that we grow here on the farm. And what it does is it it kind of gets the conversation started with other people and other distilleries and the university. and And hopefully it kind of snowballs into, you know, something something bigger along those lines. Yeah, it gets people talking about where the grains come from.
28:28.74
Colby + Ashley Frey
And, you know, the farmer behind, you know, growing the grains. And that's really what we're all about. you know And one of the interesting things is it's the Estate Whiskey Alliance. And we actually started using the word estate, Fray Ranch Estate Distillery when we started.
28:42.61
Colby + Ashley Frey
But in the whiskey world, it didn't mean anything. There's there's absolutely licks vodka has single estate vodka on it.
28:45.42
Kerry
Right.
28:49.98
Colby + Ashley Frey
Well, it's because they bought the ah wheat in that vodka whatever it is. from the one farm down the road, not a co-op of a hundred farms, but it didn't mean they grew it.
28:57.07
Kerry
Right.
28:58.31
Colby + Ashley Frey
And then you got other distilleries using estate in their name. Cause they're like a family estate or whatever, but it didn't mean what it means in the wine world.
29:03.87
Kerry
Right.
29:06.91
Colby + Ashley Frey
And so we actually changed and we went fray ranch farmers plus distillers because it was, there was no awareness. And that's what this estate whiskey and that alliance is going to do is it's going to create awareness for, you know, the estate term in the whiskey world.
29:21.74
Kerry
Well, hopefully um we can get that as an official government term one day.
29:26.94
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. day. Seems it could be pretty easy just cross out wine and put spirits or whiskey or whatever.
29:28.25
Kerry
um
29:33.78
Kerry
You think things will be easy, but government things are never easy.
29:35.40
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Yeah, it never is. You're right.
29:37.72
Kerry
um
29:38.05
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah.
29:38.62
Kerry
But, you know, we did finally just get our are official single malt for America, which took a little bit, but not.
29:42.39
Colby + Ashley Frey
Right? Yeah. It's
29:47.90
Kerry
I don't know. how much How long was it? Five or ten years? i don't know. was kind of yeah was a lot.
29:51.08
Colby + Ashley Frey
been a long time, yeah.
29:52.36
Kerry
i was a lot yeah so you know Anyway, well, great. I'm so glad I had you guys come back on the show today. and It was great to see you. will have to keep you posted next time I head.
30:04.02
Kerry
If there's a big snowfall, then I might head to Tahoe soon and then head over. um
30:09.12
Colby + Ashley Frey
Perfect. We'll see you then. Yeah.
30:10.40
Kerry
yeah because ah you know i always got to make it I got to get everybody on my route when I drive up stop here stop there um anyway it's great to see you thank you so much for being on the show again today and um ah good luck with the everything with ah all of the new things and the oh and please do let us know when your harvest release is ready because we would love to and is that going to be available online or just at the yes okay great
30:19.30
Colby + Ashley Frey
Yeah. Thank you for having us.
30:26.50
Colby + Ashley Frey
and so Thank you. Thank you.
30:33.12
Colby + Ashley Frey
We will. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes.
30:38.43
Kerry
Okay. Thanks, guys.
30:40.10
Colby + Ashley Frey
Thank you. Thank you. We're crossing our fingers for some snow and seeing you soon.
Colby Frey
Farmer + Distiller
Tucked away in Northern Nevada’s Lake Tahoe Watershed, Frey Ranch Distillery is proud to be the state’s first and only whiskey producer to grow 100% of its grains on-site. The Frey family has a long legacy of farming in this region dating back to 1854, which continues today with Frey Ranch CEO, Co-founder, and self-proclaimed “Whiskey Farmer,” Colby Frey, who started the distillery in 2006 with his wife and Co-founder, Ashley.
Colby is a fifth-generation farmer who grew up working on his family’s 1,500-acre ranch, where he was involved in planting, growing, and harvesting crops like alfalfa, wheat, and barley alongside his father, from whom he inherited his passion for all things agriculture. The Frey family values a common-sense approach to sustainable farming, with Colby’s inspiration to build a distillery born from a desire to create a distinctive, long-lasting product from the quality grains his family has been growing and perfecting for generations. The family has long abided by the motto, “Be good to the land and the land will be good to you,” which is engraved on the bottom of each bottle of Frey Ranch whiskey.
From farming and harvesting grains to malting barley on-site, all the way through distillation and maturation, the Frey Ranch team is dedicated to crafting the highest quality whiskey, which doesn’t leave the ranch until it’s bottled and ready to be enjoyed. With its flagship Straight Bourbon
Whiskey, Frey Ranch is pleased to produce a whiskey that embodies the Frey family’s passion for farming and pride in their home state of Nevada, and a select…
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Ashely Frey
Co-Founder
While Ashley Frey may not have grown up on a farm, today it’s where she feels most at home. Hailing from the small town of Gardnerville, Nevada, Ashley comes from a close-knit family who taught her from an early age that there are multiple routes to success. It was this foundation that inspired Ashley, alongside her husband Colby, to forge a career in the world of whiskey and in 2006 establish Frey Ranch Distillery in Fallon, Nevada.
Ashley enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2001 to pursue a degree in Public Relations and it was here that she met her husband, Colby Frey, a fifth-generation farmer whose agricultural ambitions could not have been more different from her own. Despite this, the two hit it off and the Freys welcomed Ashley into their family – and eventually, the family business – where she got her first taste of what was to come by lending a hand with bookkeeping for the ranch.
After spending several years working in casino marketing and legal services, Ashley took a leap of faith when she and Colby founded Frey Ranch Distillery on his family’s 1,500-acre farm in the spring of 2006. While the early days were often long and exhausting – with Ashley stepping in to help wherever she was needed, including on the bottling line – she takes pride in the hard work that made Frey Ranch Distillery what it is today, and has leveraged her PR and marketing background to help grow the company over the years.
In addition to having a hand in day-to-day business operations, Ashley is closely involved in the branding process and recently oversaw the redesi…
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