Pine Bluffs Distilling: Crafting Wyoming Spirits from the Ground Up

“Flyover states.” It’s a term often used with a shrug, a dismissive label for the vast swathes of America people pass over on their way from coast to coast. At 30,000 feet, the prairies and plains of the West look like an endless patchwork—too easily overlooked, too quickly forgotten. But to see these states only from the air is to miss their heartbeat entirely.

This past September, my wife and I decided to take the long way from North Carolina to Wyoming for an antelope hunt. Hurricane Helene was chewing up the East Coast as we set out, the rain relentless and the skies heavy. Somewhere in Charleston, West Virginia, crossing the Kanawha River on the Chuck Yeager Bridge, my phone rang.

It was Jim, my best friend from my college days at East Carolina University. After the usual catching up, I told him we were bound for McFadden, Wyoming. He didn’t skip a beat: “If you pass through Cheyenne, you have to stop in Pine Bluffs and meet my buddy Chad. He runs a distillery—bourbon, gin, vodka, the works. You’ll love it.”

A distillery in the middle of Wyoming? My curiosity spiked like a Labrador catching sight of a flock of mallards. Jim promised to give his friend a heads-up. Minutes later, my phone buzzed with a message inviting us to drop in whenever we made it to town.

The Road to Pine Bluffs

Two days later, after a brief stop in Sidney, Nebraska—my wife picking up a sweater at Cabela’s, me admiring the taxidermy—we found ourselves ahead of schedule. The distillery wasn’t due to open until 1:00 p.m., but our host sent back a quick reply: “Come on over. I’ll open up early and give you the grand tour. Oh, and watch the speed limit, the Pine Bluffs Police are serious about it.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. As we crossed the railroad tracks into town, we passed a driver already pulled over for testing the limits of local patience. Moments later, we rolled up to a large metal building that housed Pine Bluffs Distilling. At the door stood the man himself: broad-shouldered, long-bearded, and greeting us with the easy warmth of someone who’s used to making strangers feel like old friends.

From Las Vegas to the High Plains

Chad Brown’s journey to this place began far from Wyoming’s windswept prairies. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, with a business degree, he started his career with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, then worked for the Nevada Gaming Board, and later for IGT International Gaming. But the bright lights of Las Vegas didn’t match the life he envisioned for his young family.

By 2014, with his wife Theresa and their three daughters, he made the move to Wyoming to be closer to extended family and to raise his children in a rural community. Working on his uncle’s farm, he began to imagine a business rooted in the land around him—a place that could showcase the grains of Wyoming in bottles of carefully crafted spirits.

That idea became a business plan, and in 2015, he pitched it to the Wyoming Business Council. The plan won support, leading to a grant through Laramie County. The county built the distillery’s home, and he paid them back through a low-interest loan from the state.

When COVID hit in 2020, a clause in the agreement allowed him to purchase the building outright. The farmers who supplied his grain stepped in to help fund the purchase, underscoring the tight-knit, mutually supportive nature of this rural economy.

Grain to Glass—The Wyoming Way

From the start, Pine Bluffs Distilling was built on the principle of local first. Every kernel of corn, wheat, and rye comes from within Wyoming’s borders. Early on, the team even malted their own barley on site, selling the surplus to local breweries. Production began with wheat bourbon, followed by rye bourbon. All spirits are aged in 53-gallon barrels, giving them the time and space to mature fully before bottling. By 2024, the first four-year bourbons were ready for market, and the real challenge began—getting the word out.

Marketing meant long days on the road, knocking on the doors of bars, restaurants, and liquor stores across Eastern Wyoming, building relationships one handshake at a time. It was slow, deliberate work, the opposite of the quick-hit strategies of big brands. But it matched the ethos of the place.

As demand grew, so did the inventory. By 2023, the distillery had outgrown its storage space, prompting the sale of the malting equipment to make room for more barrels.

The Joe Pickett Bourbon—A Literary Homage

Among the lineup of bourbons, vodkas, and gins, one release stands out as a true collector’s piece: the Joe Pickett Bourbon. Inspired by the beloved novels of Wyoming author C.J. Box, this limited-edition spirit captures both the rugged independence and understated sophistication of the fictional game warden at its heart.

Crafted with the same local grains and attention to detail as the rest of Pine Bluffs’ offerings, it’s more than just a bottle: it’s a tribute to Wyoming storytelling, a nod to the landscapes and characters that define this part of the country. For fans of the series, it’s as close as you can get to sharing a drink with Joe himself.

Both Business and Community Fixture

In addition to retail sales, the distillery has tapped into the corporate gift market, producing custom-labeled bottles and even branded barrels for companies. It’s a unique alternative to the usual promotional swag, and far more likely to be remembered and enjoyed.

The tasting room itself is a study in Wyoming character: bar trim made from reclaimed snow fence wood, a striking skeleton painting that harks back to the distillery’s original logo, and the kind of casual seating that makes you want to linger. During the summer months, the place hums with live music and the smell of food truck fare. Visitors filter in from both sides of the Nebraska-Wyoming line, tourists mix with locals, and conversations flow as easily as the drinks.

The future holds no shortage of experiments. An American single malt—similar to Scotch but without the smoke and peat—will join the lineup soon, along with a bourbon made from oats, an unusual grain in the whiskey world. Two billboards are going up this year to catch the eyes of travelers on nearby highways.

But despite these expansions, the distillery retains its small-batch soul. Each bottle carries with it the story of Wyoming fields, of neighbors working together, and of a family staking their livelihood on the quality of what they produce.

The Take-Home Test

When I asked which bottle I should take back to North Carolina if I could choose only one, the answer came without hesitation: the rye bourbon. We ended up leaving with that, plus a bottle of gin and vodka—our own trifecta of Pine Bluffs spirits. I picked up an extra bottle of rye bourbon for Jim, the friend who started this whole detour.

Back home, each spirit found its way into its perfect cocktail: vodka for a Bloody Mary that rivaled any brunch bar, gin in a crisp gin and tonic made with Fever-Tree, and rye bourbon in an old fashioned that could stand proudly beside any I’ve had in Kentucky.*      

If you ever find yourself near the Nebraska-Wyoming border, skip the “flyover” and touch down for real. Pine Bluffs Distilling isn’t just a place to pick up a bottle—it’s an invitation to slow down, to shake the hand of the person who made your drink, to see exactly where it came from. In an era where most spirits are marketed from glass towers far from the grain, there’s something deeply refreshing about a distillery where the owner still greets you at the door, gives you the tour himself, and means it when he says thank you for stopping by.

By next year, the shelves may hold a five-grain bourbon and a four-grain bourbon alongside the classics. The Joe Pickett Bourbon will likely remain one of the most sought-after bottles in the lineup, a liquid keepsake of Wyoming’s landscapes and lore.

Until then, I’ll be keeping an eye on my dwindling supply, already looking forward to the next trip west. And when that day comes, Pine Bluffs Distilling will be on the itinerary—not as a stopover, but as a destination.