Middle West Spirits

Ryan Lang co-founded Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio in 2008. It is now the largest distillery in the state, running Ohio grown grain through a Vendome column still.

The house was built on dark pumpernickel rye, a grain rarely used in American whiskey. Michelone Reserve puts it into a wheated bourbon: 68% corn, 16% Ohio soft red winter wheat, 11% pumpernickel rye, 5% malted barley. Four years minimum, 95 proof. The wheat rounds the middle while the dark rye brings caraway and cocoa in place of the mint and dill a standard rye gives you. Most wheated bourbons carry no rye at all.