Bainbridge Organic Distillers
By Meghan Swanson, 6/8/2021
Keith Barnes never once used the word ‘terroir’ in our long and fruitful conversation about Bainbridge Organic Distillers. Perhaps he didn’t want to trigger the hotly contested debate over the use of the word in spirits, but once he got going, it was all we could think about; the briny touch of the sea brushing over every drop of organic whiskey carefully wrung from the distillery’s windswept island location. Bainbridge Island, a misty, forested city-island sitting just across the Puget Sound from Seattle, is perhaps most famously known for inspiring the fictional San Piedro Island of David Guterson’s novel Snow Falling On Cedars. You need a ferry, float plane, or boat to get there, but that doesn’t intimidate Keith. He’s used to getting where he wants to go--by any means necessary.
Bainbridge Organic Distillers is dedicated to producing only 100% USDA certified organic whiskey, a claim few others can match. You could be forgiven for thinking that making organic whiskey is somehow easier than the standard process. Just don’t add chemicals, right? Not exactly; there’s so much more to it than that. From the seeds that grow the grain to the way it has to be distilled, it’s a far more exacting process when you’re a purist. Keith is that kind of purist, and the world can now taste the benefits of his hard work and dedication to his all-organic craft.
“I didn’t need to add my drop to the ocean unless I’m doing something really different.”
Keith has a decades-long history in the beverage marketing business. Keith started out as a cel animator at a small marketing group in Seattle. Lending his artistic skills to old-school stop-motion ads was fun and satisfied his creative side, but a higher paycheck lured him into the sales side of the marketing business. In 2003, he and a business partner founded Motive Marketing Group, a ‘one-stop shop’ marketing agency specializing in spirits and the beverage industry. With an inherited interest in liquor from his family (Keith’s grandfather was a bootlegger during Prohibition) and extensive alcohol marketing experience, it seems natural that he was eventually led to try his hand at making his own. An illuminating experience working with an organic soup and broth “genius” sparked Keith’s interest in making his whiskey fully organic. He knew there were plenty of brands out there making great whiskey; he specifically wanted to make great organic whiskey.
In 2005, Keith took the first steps on the path that would eventually lead him to a stable of award-winning organic whiskeys. He started to experiment with different grain bills and yeasts; and then fortunately, in 2008 Washington state changed a law that made small-scale craft distilling legal. Keith pounced on the opportunity and filed for a license that same year; thanks to his considerable experience, he knew exactly how to put together a perfect application for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). It was approved startlingly quickly, and the clerk who processed his application called him up on a Friday to congratulate him; she confessed she kept the application and has it on a corner of her desk as an example to share with other hopeful applicants.
Starting a distillery is an expensive endeavor. A hurdle that has tripped up many aspiring distillers, but Keith was able to clear that hurdle with relative ease, being able to fully self-fund his project. He rented the space for Bainbridge Organic Distillers in 2009. Getting started was smooth sailing, but he didn’t yet see the rough seas ahead.
“If we hadn’t been able to bring it off organically, I probably wouldn’t be doing it.”
Bainbridge Organic Distillers’ first and most important founding tenet is the idea of being organic. In 2008, organic products were skyrocketing in popularity, but Keith knew the sad truth that plenty of people who would rather be consuming organic sometimes went for conventional products anyway because of the perception that organic products just didn’t taste the same. He believes that “anything you’re going to consume, you should be able to make it organically at least as good, if not better than the other stuff that’s out there.” When it comes to whiskey, he’s absolutely right.
Keith knew that he’d be operating in Washington state, and it was important to him to capture the spirit of its wild, lonely, salt-sprayed coast. He wanted his whiskey to be close to saltwater and to mature in a maritime environment. He was inspired by Scotland’s practice of regional distilling. “The flavor and aesthetic should be local to where you are,” Keith says. He places great importance on using only local ingredients that were organically produced. It was all in service to “having this environment put its fingerprints on the whiskey.” he explains.
Part of their deep commitment to locally sourced, organically produced ingredients is a near-fanatical interest in the grain that makes up their mash. Keith sources strains of organic grain that were originally developed by the state’s agricultural college, Washington State University. The university has been developing grain seed specifically for Washington state’s unique climate areas since the 1920s. He calls the soft white wheat grown by Washington farmers “world-class”, and puts emphasis on the older, ‘heirloom’ types. “The difference between these old strains of grain and today’s commodity grain is like night and day,” he claims.
“Nobody was really trying to do it. Turns out, it’s really hard to do it.”
It takes more than world-class organic wheat and a perfect TTB application to make a great organic whiskey, as Keith soon found out. It took him two years to hammer out a process that would yield a fully organic whiskey that he was happy with; the first batch Bainbridge Organic ever sold was only about 13 months old, but they were the first distillery in Washington to make 100% USDA certified organic whiskey.
Bainbridge Organic takes pride in doing each step in the distilling process onsite with their own hands, and that means forgoing some modern conveniences in order to keep tight control over their ingredients and practices. They do not use malted grains, being unable to ensure that the big malting houses practice the same exacting devotion to organic methods as they do. Unmalted grains require enzymes to convert the starches into sugar; Keith had to work to find enzymes compatible with the organic process. Aspergillus niger, an enzyme discovered for use in food and drink around the time of World War I, is an enzyme Bainbridge uses now. “Some of the stuff that we’re using, people have been using it for a long time, just not to make alcohol.” Keith explains.
The next obstacle Keith had to clear was finding yeast. “The vast majority of all the yeasts that are out there are made to ferment wine, and to a lesser degree, to ferment beer. There is a lot less yeast available that’s specifically designed for spirits.” he tells us. He tested 26 different cuts while developing their flagship Battle Point Organic Wheat whiskey until they found the right combination and type of yeast. They use two separate yeasts, one developed for Irish Whiskey and one developed for Scotch. They pitch each yeast in separate mashes before blending them together before the stripping run.
He also had to learn how to work through failed experiments. The first time he tried to distill an organic rye whiskey, it took around 12 hours to get up to vapor and only ever made it to 8% alcohol by volume. Bainbridge Organic still doesn’t make a rye whiskey; while they eventually did figure out a way to make it fully organically in the old-fashioned style, the process is so exacting it’s simply not cost-effective. As Keith says, “If you can’t do it the right way, then don’t do it.” He would rather not make a product at all than make any compromises on their founding principles.
“It’s about showcasing the grain. We’re the stewards of it. We’re just trying to not screw it up throughout the process.”
Bainbridge Organic’s process doesn’t begin with the mash; it begins way before that famous Washington soft white wheat (or any other grain) is ever even milled. Everything they ‘build’ begins with a plan; they have a vision for what each product should taste like, how it should perform and who its intended audience is. Otherwise, Keith says, “You’re just throwing shit against the wall to see if it sticks.” He has a very specific vision of what success looks like for each product he sets out to make--a skill held over from his marketing days--and everything afterward is aimed at producing that vision in real life.
Drawing inspiration from his forebears, he sought solutions in the old ways. “It’s like turning the page back to distilling in the 30s and 40s.” he says. Forgoing some modern innovations that would have computers dictating the production process, Keith prefers to do things by hand and by feel. He learned to make cuts by hand from a former Scottish Distillery Manager from Bunnahabhain on the island of Islay named John MacLellan.
He began distilling with a 250 gallon Vendome still and 10-15 gallon barrels from Gibbs Brothers Cooperage out of Arkansas; Bainbridge Organic upgraded to a 500 gallon Vendome still and 53 gallon barrels in time. Beginning with ‘tiny’ barrels helped inform his process; a doubting whiskey critic once told Keith you can’t make great whiskey in a small barrel. Keith scoffed; he knew that you absolutely can make great whiskey in a small barrel. You just have to change your perspective on the situation. He knew this myth about small barrels persisted because people believed whiskey can’t be aged in them for long enough. His solution was to take the burden off the barrels themselves; by distilling to 175-180 proof and making very tight cuts, he eliminated any potential ‘off’ flavors by removing them from the whiskey instead of relying on the wood to help scrub those flavors out (as is traditional). When the wood isn’t used to filter out undesired flavor, all it has to be is a vessel for the whiskey to mature in.
Like that other great American craft, barbecue, Keith believes in a low and slow approach to distilling his whiskey. “What matters is how you got it to that high proof.” he explains. Rushing quickly to 180 proof will cut out flavor, but rising to it slowly and carefully will help retain the desired flavors. Keith is patient, respecting the delicate nature of the fragile molecular bonds that form between ethanol and flavor components during fermentation. He reminds himself to let the yeast and the grain do its part, and not to get greedy with cuts. “You can always re-distill,” he advises. “Heads and tails have a lot of ethanol in them. It’s not like you have to take them on the first pass.”
Unlike other distilleries who find a yeast they like and use it across their entire product line, Bainbridge uses different yeasts for all their products; this helps keep the products differentiated and makes it so they don’t all taste the same. This careful handling helps them achieve an important goal: highlighting that very special grain they go to so much trouble to source properly.
Keith’s methods have led Bainbridge Organic to color outside the lines a bit when it comes to their Battle Point Wheat whiskey. Using a combination of two different yeasts is a unique move that contributes to its distinctive, highly lauded flavor. It is also distilled at a higher proof which requires it to be referred to as an American whiskey made with wheat. Bainbridge Organic is not concerned that their whiskey is, legally, an ‘American whiskey made with wheat’ rather than an ‘American Wheat Whiskey’; it consistently brings home top prizes in international spirit competitions in the wheat whiskey category no matter what you call it.
“We just want people to fall in love with it the way we fell in love with it.”
As seriously as Bainbridge Organic takes their whiskey, they’re not cold or exclusive with their craft. Keith sees it as a privilege to work in the whiskey business; he says most of the people he ends up working with are fun people who care about what they’re doing. This open-handed spirit shows through in the highly-awarded Two Islands series of whiskeys. Ever-inquisitive and always reaching for new flavors, Bainbridge Organic started to borrow casks from other places to drive new and different tastes in their whiskey. To keep it in line with their love of local flavor and production, they decided to borrow exclusively from other islands. To date, they’ve finished their Battle Point whiskey in single malt whiskey casks from the island of Islay in Scotland, Mizunara oak casks from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, and rum casks from the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados. We can’t wait to see what Keith and the team come up with next in this creative series.
Bainbridge Island itself has a special relationship with Japan and its descendants, one that Bainbridge Organic hasn’t ignored. Their highly awarded, extremely unique Yama Mizunara Cask whiskey is the only whiskey outside of Japan to be aged in virgin, ultra-rare Mizunara oak casks. The name ‘Yama’ is a tribute to Bainbridge Island’s historic Yama Village, once a thriving community of Japanese immigrants in the 1880s. Japanese immigrant families initially flocked to the highly successful timber mill, but once the mill closed in the 1920s the village was gradually abandoned.
In the mid-2000s, the island’s Parks department wanted to add some equestrian and motorized bike trails through the former Yama Village site; local historians and descendants of the village’s residents objected strenuously. “We have a lot of Japanese people who, when they were tiny kids were growing up there or their parents were from there.” Keith explains. “So the Parks department backed off, but they were looking for ways to stabilize the site.” That’s where Bainbridge Organic decided to lend their aid to the new archaeological project. “We wanted to build a whiskey that we could use as a fundraiser to support that effort...we wanted to do an American whiskey made with grain that’s from here, in the American way, and we want to age it in these Mizunara barrels that made the same journey that these people made when they came here back in the 1880s.”
Finding that Mizunara oak was not easy; Bainbridge Organic searched for three years before even finding a lead on it. All efforts to import the rare oak met with total shutdown, and they thought they may never get their hands on any. Finally, a friend of the family heard about the fruitless search and called her mom back in Japan, who just happened to know a former high school classmate that used to have a barrel factory on the island of Hokkaido. The man had closed his factory down a few years before, but had a small stockpile left he was willing to sell to friends of a friend.
Keith seized the opportunity and bought the whole load, paying exorbitant costs to get it out of Japan and to his cooperage in Arkansas to be fashioned into barrels. When he finally received the finished barrels, he knew it was all going to be worth it. “It doesn’t smell like any wood that I’ve ever smelled. It smells like a cross between, like, sandalwood, and the inside of a Japanese temple. It was like perfume.” he reminisces. The Yama Mizunara Cask whiskey was a smashing success, selling at over $500 per bottle and bringing home the Craft Whiskey of the Year award from Whiskey Advocate and America’s Best Grain Whiskey Award from the World Whiskies Awards. Bainbridge Organic donated the proceeds to the Yama Village project, helping to ensure the historical site was preserved.
It’s clear that Keith’s craft comes from the bottom of his heart, and from a deep well of pride in what they’re cooking up at Bainbridge Organic. Judged solely by the amount of prestigious awards their products have been given, the pride is well-placed. He works hard on the history and the story of production, and sees it as carrying a baton in a long line of producers of whiskey stretching back to the 1700s. “Don’t be afraid to tell your story,” he advises. Bainbridge Organic Distillers’ story is one of perseverance, bold decisions, and a certain humility before the power of grain and vapor that will sit well in your glass; that is, for as long as you can resist taking a sip.
TASTING NOTES
Battle Point Whiskey Distilled from Organic Washington Wheat (43% ABV)
Nose: Vanilla, Brown Sugar, Peach Cobbler, Rolled Oats
Palate: The mouthfeel is exceptionally soft and coating. Apples play a strong role throughout the palate, especially up front, mixing with honey in the mid palate. Subtle spices of clove and cardamom creep in on the finish with a hint of oak that reminds you that the barrel is there without it playing too heavy a hand.
This is a beautiful whiskey. Very easy to drink with excellent balance and flavor. It is easy to see why so many people have awarded this spirit top marks as it is one of the better wheat whiskies we have ever tasted. Perfect as both an easy sipper to drink neat or as a foundation to build a cocktail, the versatility of this whiskey makes it very appealing.
Battle Point Two Islands Barbados Cask (43% ABV)
Nose: Mushroom, Leather, Cocoa Powder, Molasses
Palate: The mouthfeel is still soft, but builds hotter towards the back. Very sweet and a little earthy up front. We still pick up apple notes mixed with sugar cane and slightly vegetal flavors building toward spicy notes in the back with lingering hints of rum and tobacco on the finish.
We absolutely love this whiskey. It is so interesting and unique. As soon as the spirit hits your tongue you could be forgiven if you were certain that you were drinking a rum, but then it evolves and changes on your palate into a whiskey on the finish. The push and pull between the flavors and characteristics of these two spirits creates a wonderfully enjoyable experience for the taste buds. This may be one of the best examples of a cask finished whiskey that is out there.
Battle Point Two Islands Islay Cask (43% ABV)
Nose: Vanilla, Peat Smoke, Salt Water
Palate: The mouthfeel is similar to the Barbados cask finish starting soft and building hotter towards the back. The front of the palate is fruity and sweet with apples and cream creating a delicate opening for the smoke to come. Once the smoke arrives it builds without overpowering the sweetness and brings along with it subtle notes of roasted nuts on the finish.
It is really interesting how the sweet notes compliment the smoke. They have their own place and time to shine through the palate and work well with each other. If you like peaty/smoky whiskey then you will love drinking this neat, but this would also be great in a Manhattan/Rob Roy riff or in a highball.
Battle Point Two Islands Islay Cask (54%ABV)
Nose: Vanilla, Peat Smoke, Salt Water
Palate: The mouthfeel is more warming and drying. Again, there is the same apples and cream sweetness upfront with just a hint of citrus. The peat plays a bit stronger here, balanced more with oak and vanilla on the finish.
This is a very approachable barrel proof whiskey. It brings the heat without frying your palate, and it still gives you everything that you want in a barrel proof. It’s bigger. It’s bolder. A lot of the aroma and flavor notes are the same but they sing a little bit louder here. You can tell that this is what Keith fell in love with while he was tasting it out of the barrel. It’s very flavor-forward.
Battle Point Two Islands Hokkaido Mizunara (43% ABV)
Nose: Bananas, Honey, Oolong Tea
Palate: The mouthfeel is still soft if not slightly sharper than the traditional Battle Point. There is more confectioners sugar and vanilla icing up front. The same apple note persists here with similar soft spice notes blending in towards the midpalate, this time cloves and pepper. It is pure vanilla bean on the back with a bit more influence from the wood lending more tannic qualities on the finish with a hint of toasted coconut.
Flavor wise this whiskey shares a lot of similarities to the classic Battle Point. The Hokkaido Mizunara cask is lending some additional sweetness and woody notes to the whiskey, but it is subtle. This is still a very nice whiskey, but when compared to the classic Battle Point or the other Two Island cask finishes this is not our favorite.
Yama American Single Grain Whiskey (45% ABV)
Nose: Sandalwood, Leather, Mango, Prunes, Vanilla
Palate: The mouthfeel is soft and silky. It’s fruity sweet up front with pure sugar and banana. That sweetness persists throughout the palate but is complemented by soft spices towards the middle back settling with subtle notes of wood, raw almonds and vanilla on the finish.
This is quite an elegant whiskey. Beautifully sweet but well balanced. Unique is a word that gets tossed around a lot, but this truly is a unique spirit. If this was put in a blind tasting with other whiskies I think it would confuse a lot of people, because it doesn’t taste exactly like anything else. It has American influences but it’s not a traditional American whiskey. It has Japanese or even Scottish influences but it doesn’t taste like those whiskies either. It really is in a league of its own and lives up to the special purpose it was created for.
Whiskey Forty Saloon Bourbon (50%)
Nose: Grass, Moss, Overripe Banana, Subtle Vanilla
Palate: The mouthfeel is mildly spicy and drying with rich dulche de leche up front. A peppery mix of charred bell peppers and black pepper dominate the mid palate leading to oak and char on the finish with lingering sweet notes of caramel and licorice.
This bourbon has a little bit of funk to it. If you’re into super traditional Kentucky bourbon it may not be for you, but if you like bourbon that has a little spunk and personality then give this a try. Could work wonderfully in cocktails where that personality can lend new flavors to classic cocktails.