It is often said that big operations have small or humble beginnings. It’s hard to imagine some of the biggest brands in the liquor and spirits business starting small, but that’s true of most companies. Of course, since many started closer to a century ago, we never witnessed those origins (probably because most of us weren’t even alive then). So, it’s quite a treat when we get to see the start of something great, much like we’re seeing with craft distilleries, such as Ironclad Distillery.
To talk shop and learn about its humble origins, Dan Gaul sat down with Owen King, the co-founder and head distiller of Ironclad Distillery. While we’re not exactly present at the point of its creation — the distillery actually started ten years ago — we are diving in right when things are getting interesting. The Virginia-based distillery operates from the S.W. Holt & Co. warehouse built in 1913. Inspired by the Battle of the Ironclads in the American Civil War, the warehouse is located on the James River with a view of the battlegrounds.
Even with its impressive roots, King can’t believe it’s been ten years. “It’s crazy to think about how quickly time has passed,” he muses. But in that time, the distillery has made a name for itself, producing home-grown small batches and straight bourbons using Virginia wheat, corn, and rye.
“Trial and error is the greatest learning tool in the distilling world.”
“Every single bottle of bourbon, if you’ve ever tried any Ironclad, has been made by me. We’ve never sourced a drop,” he says. Humble origins, indeed. “My whole job is to make sure the stuff in the bottle tastes good.
“That’s the fun part of the job,” he adds. “Trying to find something new that no one else has done.” King goes on to clarify how much he loves what he does. “It’s the best part of my job.”
Let’s crack open that bottle and get into it.
An interview with Owen King from Ironclad Distillery
Dan Gaul: “You mentioned you never sourced a drop. That is really interesting. How were you able to do that?”
“I don’t recommend starting a business this way. It definitely made it harder,” King says, noting they didn’t take the easy road, but it has paid off. “It’s a cool little feather in our cap that we get to say every single drop has been made by us.
“We started very, very small, and — you know this is another mistake we made — so we started with six 26-gallon stills,” he explains. “Essentially, we had a 125-gallon still. You know, for even a craft distillery that’s still very, very small. And so we were running those stills, and we were just kind of hoping the first stuff that would come off, and age would be good. We were prepared to wait a year to fifteen months for the first batches to be ready. We weren’t one of those distilleries that wanted to release a clear. So we waited, and we waited, and we waited, and while we were waiting, we were laying down more and more whiskey. As it progressed, we were tasting it along the way, and I think that first barrel was maybe half as full as it should have been by the time it was done. Not just the angels were thirsty, but also the Kings were thirsty.”
As you may know, distilling takes quite some time as a complete process. Even after the whiskey or bourbon is brewed, it has to age. For many spirit-makers, that can be a stressful waiting game. You never really know if it will come out as a palatable beverage. “We were just very lucky when it first came out; it tasted good,” he says. “We were very proud of it, so we bottled it up and sent it off, and people liked it.”
Gaul mentions some of the mistakes they’ve made and learned from, like starting with a small operation, and King expands on that idea.
“Trial and error is the greatest learning tool in the distilling world,” he says.
Dan Gaul: “How did you become a distiller? How did you learn, and was this something you’d been doing for a while before Ironclad, or is it something you dropped into?”
King starts with a little tidbit. “So, the distillery itself was a drunken idea,” he admits.
“Okay, great, we’re bootleggers now.”
“When I was in college I just happened to take a Gen-Ed course that was a chemistry class,” King explains. “It was Chemistry 101. For the first half of the semester we had to learn general chemistry, you know, periodic tables, all the other [basic] parts of chemistry. But in the second part of the chemistry class, the class got to pick what lessons we wanted to learn. The three things our class chose were brewing, distilling, and breadmaking.”
All three disciplines are similar. “All of that has to do with fermentation. It was very rudimentary information, but it was something I learned,” he says. Interestingly, King posits that fermentation has everything to do with his daily work. It may be years later, but those formative teachings influenced his current path.
King jumps to the story’s culmination later on. While sitting around with his dad in an empty warehouse, they tried to brainstorm ideas for what to do with the space. Eventually, someone posed the question: “How hard could it be to make bourbon?” He recalled his chemistry coursework and felt that he already knew how to do it or at least where to start.
The idea was shelved until “One day, I walked into work. It was a Monday morning. [My dad said] ‘Hey, by the way, I bought a still.’” Enthusiastically, or maybe sarcastically, King realized, “Okay, great. We’re bootleggers now.”
Obtaining all the appropriate licensing took about a year, and then they were off to the races — or the mashing, as they say.
Sharing the local history
Gaul and King also discuss the distillery’s local area, Fredericksburg and Virginia, which is teeming with American history.
King explains that the local history is a core element of the distillery, especially with Ironclad Inn and the Tasting Room. “That’s the whole goal. We want to tell the history of Fredericksburg, as well. That ties in,” he says. “The bed and breakfast that we have was built in 1793. That alone tells a story. It was inherited by George Washington’s sister, and when it was built, George Washington was in his second term as President. It was hit by cannon fire during the battle of Fredericksburg. Even when you’re just walking in, you’re walking into history.”
He further quips that American history may be comparatively young compared to the rest of the world: “Our history in America is much younger than Europe, but 1793 is still old in America.” It’s a fitting image for a brand that “goes down with history,” as the distillery’s tagline boldly proclaims.
It’s perhaps one of the most intriguing pairings we’ve seen thus far: Bourbon and whiskey in a classic distillery environment, yet also presented within an iconic building of yore — Ironclad Inn, the first B&B&B or Bed and Breakfast and Bourbon tasting room.
A tasting and more
Throughout the rest of the interview, Gaul and King cover many bourbon and whiskey-related topics, including a tasting of Ironclad’s delicious offerings. As always, I highly recommend watching the interview in full. However, the one thing that everyone should take away from this is that Ironclad offers some pretty unique spirits, like its Vessel Craft Coffee Cask or Missouri Toasted Oak Cask, which provides a hint of cookie dough on the nose.
More poignantly, the team, including King, distilled every bottle locally. Nothing is outsourced, and all ingredients are local, which is impressive. That says a lot about the brand’s integrity, and that’s before you factor in the historic setting of Ironcladd Inn and the warehouse they operate out of.
