COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s population is growing and so is its spirits.
Columbus’ own Middle West Spirits launched in 2008. Since then, Ryan Lang, the CEO and head distiller at Middle West Spirits has been creating an expansive line of craft alcohol, all highlighting the unique flavors of the Midwest.
“We’re Ohio born and bred,” Lang said. “We buy all of our agriculture here. We buy the majority of our barrels from Ohio.”
A new 75,000 sq. ft. distillery in East Columbus makes Middle West Spirits the largest distillery in Ohio and one of the largest in the nation. It’s an addition to their smaller distillery and restaurant called Service Bar located at 1230 Courtland Ave. in the Short North. The larger distillery is located at 1165 Alum Creek Drive on a lot that also hosts a grain recycling center and a packaging and bottling plant.
“This plant primarily has whiskeys,” Lang said. “The other plant can make all of our other stuff so vodkas, gins, brandies, all the other things that we would normally want to make.”
Lang said the addition has increased the distillery’s production capabilities tenfold. The company currently makes 15 branded products and distills for other clients. But they have even bigger goals for future development.
“Eventually this will get developed more into a hospitality site, more like an actual whiskey campus,” Lang said. “So you can come here, you can eat here, you can work at the bar here, there are barrel selections that’ll happen here, there’ll be events here. So yeah, there’s a lot planned for our future here.”
As central Ohio continues to grow with Intel and other businesses calling it home, Lang hopes to grow with it and increase Ohio’s tourism.
“Similar to what you have in California for very large wineries or similar to what you have in Kentucky for large distilleries, we’re going to have something here that people can enjoy year-round, and hopefully have a spot to go to on a regular basis,” Lang said.
By expanding his business, Lang also aims to continue contributing to the agricultural vitality of the region.
“We buy our grains primarily from the state of Ohio,” Lang said. “What we can get here, but it’s the vast majority. Then that material goes through our distillery, it goes through our recycling plant, it’s outside. And then we take the recycled material, which is spent grain, and we send it back to the farms that we bought the grain from where they have cattle and hog. Now our hope is to bring that material back here to the site for people to eat. So yeah, that’s the full circle we’re working on right now.”
He said he wants to give people opportunities to come to Ohio, play here and stay here as he believes in his products and he believes in the state.
“We’re still telling our story in the state of Ohio for people to know who we are and we hope to get a little louder with that over the next, you know, five, ten years and hopefully we have a destination for people to come to help with that.”
For more information on Middle West Distillery, visit here.