On this week's program, host Phil Tower speaks with Richard Anderson, co-founder and co-owner of Iron Fish Distillery in Thompsonville, MI.
On this week's program, we feature a CEO You Should Know, Richard Anderson, with Iron Fish Distillery.
Iron Fish Distillery was founded in 2016 as Michigan’s first farm distillery. It grows grain, distills spirits, and barrel-finishes sourced whiskey. Richard shared his story of how he and his brothers-in-law became co-owners of the unique distillery located in rural Northwestern, Michigan.
To say that Iron Fish Distillery has had a significant positive economic impact on Benzie County would be an understatement as it has become a true tourism destination for 125,000 guests annually to the agricultural destination, reborn on a long-time abandoned 120-acre farm located in rural Springdale Township in Manistee County.
Richard also shared with us that Iron Fish Distillery was named for the Steelhead that journeys up the nearby Betsie River, every step of the Iron Fish soil-to-spirit process occurs onsite.
Their multistep process of milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, and barrel aging is on display for visitors daily.
Online: Iron Fish Distillery
On this week's program, we feature a CEO You Should Know, Richard Anderson, with Iron Fish Distillery.
Iron Fish Distillery was founded in 2016 as Michigan’s first farm distillery. It grows grain, distills spirits, and barrel-finishes sourced whiskey. Richard shared his story of how he and his brothers-in-law became co-owners of the unique distillery located in rural Northwestern, Michigan.
To say that Iron Fish Distillery has had a significant positive economic impact on Benzie County would be an understatement as it has become a true tourism destination for 125,000 guests annually to the agricultural destination, reborn on a long-time abandoned 120-acre farm located in rural Springdale Township in Manistee County.
Richard also shared with us that Iron Fish Distillery was named for the Steelhead that journeys up the nearby Betsie River, every step of the Iron Fish soil-to-spirit process occurs onsite.
Their multistep process of milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling, and barrel aging is on display for visitors daily.
Online: Iron Fish Distillery
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to win form and enlightened on
a wide range of public policy issues, as well as
news and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Once again, thank you
so much for tuning in. I'm your host, Phil Tower.
In this segment, one of our CEOs You Should Know features,
we spent some time with Richard Anderson, co founder and
partner in the family owned Ironfish Distillery, Michigan's first farm distillery.
They're in Thompsonville, Michigan. I think you'll enjoy my conversation
(00:39):
we recorded on site with Richard Anderson on this edition
of West Michigan Weekend. You grew up in Marquette, so
your up. Guy, loved that about you, automatically.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Great raised our family and Marquette.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It was a long family history with your mom and
I Shad.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
My grandfather immigrated from Sweden just prior to World War One,
made his way from Montana through Canada up to and
found himself ending up in Marquette, Michigan in the early
nineteen twenties to visit his sister who was working for Shyros,
(01:16):
which was a big name back in the day. A
famed photographer and actually kind of going off the deep
end here, but a wildlife photographer who pioneered black and
white photography at night really, and so he came up
to Marquette to visit his sister in the nineteen twenties
and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Went to Northern Michigan University for the first year, but
wanted to became really interested in community development and knew
that the urban planning program at Michigan State University was
where I wanted to end up, and so graduate from MSHUP.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I want to stop right there. Not many young people
go I'm interested in community development? What little fire in you?
What caused you to be curious and want to investigate that?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well? I had a biology teacher in tenth grade who
turned to me and said that if I didn't straighten
up in tenth grade biology, I wouldn't get into college.
And little did they know, but I probably had what
was the equivalent of tension deficit disorder, which doesn't didn't
serve me really well in school. It does serve me
(02:29):
well at Ironfish Distillery, because there's a lot of things
going on that captures my attention. But this teacher, Jim
Lottie from Nigauney, who, of course I think if any
of us have mentors in our lives, we remember it's
a brilliant you know, and distinct memory about their impact.
(02:51):
And he is the one who really helped me really
succeed in high school providing projects as opposed to memorization
of facts and figures that allowed me to really get
experience with making things happen in the community. And after
we were done with that, he suggested that I go
(03:13):
into community development. And the school in Michigan at the
time to get the degree was at Michigan State University.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, so you go into community development, which really, for
lack of a better term, is also known as economic development,
helping place businesses in communities to help them try bring
jobs there, diversify the community. You and I talked earlier
before we started this conversation about our mutual friend burget
(03:42):
Close at the right place. A lot of people. I
don't think there's anybody in business in Michigan or in
the Midwest who doesn't nail burget Close decades of just
superb leadership at the right place, Grand Rapids. But this
is kind of the first economic development for Marquette fair
to say all.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I would say for Northern Michigan UH and I you know,
I think we we developed and founded our nonprofit organizations,
you know, dedicated to really working on the private economy,
but also working in ways through collaboration with government and
agencies UH and the private sector to to build the
(04:21):
economy in Northern Michigan. University was you know, really the
was the real catalyst at the time for the creation
of a company called Northern Initiatives, which was a development
which today is I think a well known development finance
institution in the United States. It's I was the founder
of it, and I think the the the you know,
(04:45):
origins of it relate to my passion around kind of
a central organizing question that's even playing out today here
at Ironfish Distillery, which was I started evolving a curiosity
about how to rural place get control over their own future.
And I've had a career you know, figuring that out
(05:06):
and having fun talking to other people or trying to
make that happen, and ultimately here at Ironfish Distillery, in
an unzoned township, down a two mile of dirt road
on an abandoned farm. We've got to see how that
plays out here.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
One hundred and let me see eighteen eighty seven, a long,
long time ago. This was the farm that actually had
a connection with distilling alcohol. For what was the original backstory?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, you know, you know, farms really are the origin
of distilling. And just like in Ohio or Kentucky, farms
in Michigan that were growing grain oftentimes had stills to
convert the grain sugars to ethanol and to make moonshine
for trading, you know, for consumption. It was a good
(06:00):
way to use excess grain. And of course, prior to
prohibition there were no regulations, and during Prohibition there was
a lot of demand.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeahous for obvious reasons. And there are I want to
mention and put a plug in for the website Ironfishdistillery
dot com because there are some wonderful articles, just a
whole chronology of articles, interviews, television spots, magazine articles, just
(06:29):
chronicling this really dynamic place which is in September of
twenty twenty five going to celebrate nine years in business.
But I don't want to get ahead of the story here,
so I'm going to fast forward a little bit. After
you were dealing with Northern Initiatives, you retired or you
(06:49):
were retired, and then there was this trip to Scotland
that your wives recommended do you take? How did that
give us the backstory there?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, there was a couple of career stops along the
way from Northern Initiatives to my retirement, all all organized
around community economic development nationally and internationally. But upon or
nearing my retirement, you know, my brother in law and
I shared a deep passion for Scotches, which is really
(07:20):
barley whiskey out of Scotland, and we started talking about
the different profiles of whiskeys, and we're collecting it and
talking about it, which got picked up by both of
our wives as an obvious interest area. But meanwhile, David,
my brother in law, purchased this abandoned farm in Springdale Township,
(07:40):
one hundred and twenty acre farm that was abandoned for
ten years, and so it was really quite a conversation
within the family, what are you going to do with
this farm? But quite separate from that was this celebration
of my sixtieth birthday which ended up the president ended
up being a flight with my two brother in laws
to go to Isla, Scotland. So really, what could go
(08:03):
wrong when three brother in laws without their wives go
to Scotland.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Nothing whatsoever, which is really exciting because you tour some
distilleries and then an idea is born.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well that's true. In fact, actually one of the distilleries
was a farm distillery in the middle of Isla. They
are about eight distilleries on that island.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Pardon the interruption, Help us geographically place Isla of Scotland.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Sure, well, it would be on the northwest northwest coast
of Scotland and it is the location of the world's
finest pet a Scotches. There's a geologic formation there that
really promoted this ecosystem of deep Pete twenty thirty forty
(08:54):
feet in depth. Pete is the precursor to cole. It
was very very organic, moist and actually was the heat
source by the distilleries two three hundred years ago. Interesting
for heating up malted barley which needed to be heated
to stop the malting process. And in the course of
(09:16):
that the peat the grain would get smoky and the
whiskey would take on this smoky iodine, kind of earthy
flavor which was panned and dismissed by the mainlanders in Scotland,
only to find out one hundred years later that it
was prized by everybody around the world.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, of course single malt Scotch. And you talk about
those flavor profiles. It's why a lot of people will
turn their nose up at single malt because it's it
is a harsh taste, but it is I would just
say so for myself, it is one that you learn
to love quite a bit and appreciate the nuances and
the differences, especially with the distilling process and the barrels,
(10:00):
the whole story there. So you tour some distilleries, you
and your three brothers and brother brothers, three.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Of us and told toured farm distillery and okay, so
I would say this was April of twenty fourteen, but
keep in mind we opened in twenty sixteen, and we're
touring around this farm distillery and you know what was
really what really struck me was how familiar this place
(10:30):
actually felt. You know. One, it was about forty five
to fifty degrees in drizzly and rainyant reminded me of
northern Michigan in the spring. And the second thing is
we're on this farm with this wide open landscape, and
so the brother in laws either there, we can't quite
remember if it was there or later at the Port
Charlotte Pub. But along the way we started talking about
(10:54):
the fact that, you know, this is what we should
do with David's farm. We should actually put retirements together
and turn his farm into a farm distillery, which seemed
like a brilliant idea over a couple of rocks glasses
of scotch.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
How did David feel about that? Did he feel like
he was being strong armed into that or he was like, hey,
I didn't have any idea what it was going to
do with this big farm.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
You know, I don't want to go into the whole story.
You should take a tour to learn about this. But
I'm the one who got strong armed, not David. David
actually said that is a hell of an idea and
really really took it forward in a way that I
had to keep up because I was just kidding when
we talked about it. I thought, you know, this'd be
(11:40):
a fun thing to do, but of course it didn't
make any sense at all. We weren't really retired. We
hadn't you know, we didn't live there. Neither of us
lived there, So the whole thing didn't make a lot
of sense to me. And when I got home, I
didn't even tell my wife Sarah. I just said it
was a great trip. So that's the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, I was going to say that couldn't have been
a secret that long, No, before it came out.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Well, yeah, and how we how she how she found
out was David called me about two weeks after the
trip and he said, hey, I think I found the
Uh I've been doing some research and I think I
found the equipment are still and I want to meet
you in Chicago. And I go, what what? What what
are you talking about? And I said, I haven't even
told Sarah, and he said, we'll tell her and meet
(12:25):
me in Chicago. So we, uh, we met a Coval distillery,
which is one of the you know, I think it's
a benchmark for great American craft whiskey. There the North
American reps for a German still company called Kote. And
two weeks later suddenly we were at Kote, or rather
Covalt Distillery looking at equipment, learning that it would be
(12:46):
a two year waiting list before we could actually bring
it on. And we all left there thinking this did
make a lot of sense. But David called me about
a day or two later from the Chicago trip and
for me that he had put down a deposit.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Of course he did, you know, I just I want
to stop here and acknowledge the obvious which not every
brother in law relationship have, and that is you've got
a good friend, a trusted business partner in this guy.
You were stop and think how how unusual that is
for a lot of brother in laws.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Well, Richard, well I'll tell you what I would say
that sometimes, you know, when we're talking internally or our
team's talking, and you look at the you know, the
careers that all four of us had in our careers
that then got applied to the concept of returning this
farm to a real, real economic use, wrapping a distillery
(13:46):
around it in an end destination that now has about
one hundred and fifty thousand people visiting every year. And
I think, and I think actually that it I'm really
glad that we didn't come into this project with less experience,
as we were able to apply our life's careers and experience,
and we actually naturally gravitated to different parts of the business.
(14:10):
David was a maker. He had a vineyard here on
the property. He was a home winemaker and brewery at
a chemistry and biology background. It really helps, it really helps.
His wife is accountant for a major Michigan accounting firm,
but ran the business consulting division for that firm. And
of course we call her the cro the chief reality officer.
(14:32):
And my wife was very involved in the hospitality industry.
She was a young woman chamber director at macn Island,
but we call her the chamber director for Iron Review.
I know that about Sarah, Yeah, And then of course
I've been very involved in community economic development. It's really
quite comfortable with, you know, sort of the connecting this,
(14:55):
this this venture to the community and to the wider marketplace.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
We're speaking with Richard Anderson, the co founder and for
this podcast and broadcast CEO Ironfish Distillery, Ironfishdistillery dot Com
in beautiful Thompsonville, Michigan. As you heard Richard say, one
hundred and fifty thousand visitors every year nine years. A
(15:20):
pure Michigan business success story in the making over nine
years and continuing to grow, taking a pretty big swath
of land, Richard. Here in what is the township.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Again, Springdale Township, unincorporated. It is an unzoned.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
And unzoned interesting but I have to imagine they love
you around here. You mentioned something earlier that I want
to go back to. There is this thing in so
many rural parts of the country where the old guard
doesn't want change. Did you worry about that as this
place grew?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Well, I would say that really the mindset that we
you know, we're not from this area, right, David and
David and Heidi are here because Heidi and Sarah's mom
and aunt grew up in Beulah as girls places and
and so this was a vacation experience for us, four
(16:17):
seasoned vacation experience, but not our hometown. And what we
didn't really realize about our hometown, but it is. It
is something that's quite common in many rural locations. Is
that I had employees' parents come to me and say, Richard,
if you had been from here, you wouldn't have had
the confidence to do it. And so that I think
(16:41):
encapsulates how mindset can actually cast an anchor and slow
down momentum. And of course we were actually not focused
on bringing back the region. We were actually focused on
a vision that was going to really inspire us, which was,
how do we bring this abandoned farm back to life.
(17:03):
That's actually what was really interesting to us. And then
the rest all came as a result of that passion.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
But in Thompsonville, Michigan, did you lay awake in bed
some nights going why are we doing this out in
the middle of nowhere?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I was too big of a risk. I mean, you
talked about not wanting to even start with the distillery idea.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, I would, you know, I would. I mean the
reality of the situation was that it was it was
a risky and kind of a foolish, foolhardy decision going
into retirement to sell everything and and go into this.
But and there's nothing like you're at the time, our
twenty six year old older son calling me and going,
(17:46):
what are you doing? You've you know, you've sold everything.
You're living in the middle of nore, which was interesting
for a kid from Marquette, And you know, he said, Dad,
who's going to make this? You're not going to make this.
You know, Uncle David's not going to make it. Like
who's going to make this And was July before we opened,
and I had to admit to my young son, you
have a fair point. You know this is a that's true,
(18:08):
you know, suspending reality for a bit. What was really
interesting about putting our vision out That vision was a
calling card for people who had experience and passion around
the idea, who actually came here and said we can
help you make this happen. And I can't tell you
the number of countless people who came here and applied
(18:29):
and brought skills from outside the region or came here
from the region with skills and joined our team to
make it what it is today.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Well, they get to work with you though. That's not
a bad thing. There's a culture here. There's a culture,
and there's a feel. It feels like family, feels very welcoming.
We get to spend some time with Jeff Eddington, who
is the guy back in the distillery, chief operating officer,
wonderful guy, just just of cohesion and unity here and
(19:03):
just and family. I was telling Jeff earlier that the
people here you have that are a part of this
that I mean, this is no small thing. The economic
development happening in this township. This is a really great thing.
But I just I go back to the fact that
(19:23):
you put this here, and it really is a if
you build it, they will come story. It really is.
The vision is important, Richard, But it's a little more
than vision. That's a powerful thing.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, it's a it's a it's a you know, I
think you know when you really put the puzzle together.
David's passion for the quality of the spirit, our combined family,
passion for bringing back that this farm to life, the
unexpected location of where we are, because of course we
(19:59):
had never purchased the farm with the idea that we'd
create a distillery. That unexpectedness, and then the combination of
the experience that you can have here in any of
the four seasons, and the fact that we firmly believe
that people will make purchases based on their values, and
(20:22):
we try to make sure that people understand what our
values are in terms of our commitment to our employees
and to the community in which they live. And if
you're from ann Arbor or Detroit or Grand Rapids or
the tri Cities and you visit us, you might just
think of all of that when you see a maple
(20:43):
bourbon on the shelf and remember how great that tasted.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
And it does taste pretty good. We're going to talk
about the products. We've got some time remaining with Richard Anderson,
co founder, co owner of Ironfish Distillery, iron Fish Distillery
dot com. There is before the success part of every
small business story. The letter A comes before that, and
(21:09):
that is adversity, and it came in a big way
in twenty twenty in March. So many CEOs I've spoken
with on this CEOs you should know podcasts. They've told
really interesting, very different stories about how covid was obviously
an incredibly challenging thing but taught them things. You pivoted
(21:31):
and made hand sanitizer, which was a smart thing. What
did you and your team learn from covid As you
persevere during that time period you're what three and a
half years into starting this place up, it kind of
has to be, oh, my goodness, what are we going
to do now? Kind of just take a moment and
walk us through that period. How you guys face that
(21:52):
and came.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Through it well, just like a lot of the on
premise accounts where we provide and sell iron Fish spirits,
and we all felt it immediately at our end destination
and our retail operation where people came. The weekend that
the weekend was, which was our last weekend before closing,
was one of our busiest in our history. And you
(22:16):
felt that this was an impending sense of doom that
was upon us. And of course, for us, the doom
had a lot to do with having a lot of
you know, investment in capital that was you know, sort
of at risk. But we made We sat down and
we did a couple of things. One we did learn,
(22:37):
We did understand that we had an opportunity to contribute,
which gave us a sense of purpose. Two, we've always
had Ironfish had a view of I think kind of
a rule here is embrace and transcend. How do we
actually all right, what's our role here? How do we
do it? Three is never lose what the core of
who we are is in this crisis. So we continued
(23:00):
making whiskey and we know that and that's a big
decision because you know, six years later you want to
have whiskey, and if you stop making whiskey because you're
concerned or don't have the economics or the money to
do it, you're going to impact your business long term,
so we kept making whiskey. We were the only buyer
of barrows from Michigan's only cooper at the time. Everyone
(23:22):
else had stopped their order, so we understood that our
continuation was really impacting other and helping other firms. And
then we gave away hand sanitizer on the subsequent weekend
and noticed that most of the people it looked like
a There was probably thirty to forty cars on Zubank
(23:44):
Road waiting to get in here at ten in the
morning to drive through to get bringing in their own
containers that we would fill with hand sanitizer, and I
would say three out of five of the cars were
mothers and employees of months in hospital, mothers of employees
and others who were first responders throughout the fire Department's
(24:06):
police ems, and they kept telling us the same story
that they were fearful at the time, especially for their
kids who were first responders. And we were contacted by
a variety of companies statewide, but decided to work with
(24:27):
munths in hospital as well as communities like mac And
Island and Marquette where we have connections to make sure
that they had all this hand sanitizer that they needed.
Which we were uniquely in other distillery were uniquely capable
of doing so. It gave us a good sense of
purpose and it's a time that caused us to change
(24:49):
our business model. When we were open, we had fourteen
basically mountain style tents that you can stand up in
that were heated and living room style. We allowed six
people pertent we'd fill those up. And you know, prior
to COVID, we couldn't get people to go outside in
the winter, and now our tents are filled and reserved
(25:11):
and people tell us just don't stop doing that. So
if you pull up to Ironfish in the winter time,
you'll see the tents that we use during COVID and
their reserve all day long, all week and long.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
They are. They're quite a thing. I'm looking at one
right now behind us here as we record this conversation,
the stillroom at Ironfish Distillery, which needs to be on
your list of must visit places in Michigan. Quite a portfolio.
Before we run out of time, I just want to
talk about how you challenge yourself, how you challenge your
(25:46):
staff for that next thing. You've had immense success one
hundred and fifty thousand visitors what's the next thing? What
are some of the goals down the line? And I
don't picture you retiring, young man, but I know chronologically
you're not an old man. And there's a lot of
gas left in the tank, if you will, a lot
(26:07):
of product left in the still. What's down the road?
Look in the crystal ball? What are some things that
you're hoping to challenging yourself to Richard Anderson.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, you know, if you like, we have decided to
build a distillery primarily around excellent spirits, and of course
our Michiganan Legin, which is not an age spirit, is
really a flagship for us on the clear spirit side.
But primarily we are committed to making whiskeys. And when
(26:40):
you say you know what's down the line, what's really
interesting about this business is that product planning today is
for six to ten years from now. Are we are
producing fifteen barrel fifty two gallon barrels of whisky a week.
(27:01):
That involves one acre of grain per barrel. We're working
with seven farms to procure grains from across Michigan that
go into whiskeys that will not be sold until six
to ten years from now. So this year we in
(27:22):
twenty twenty five, we'll be releasing our estate whiskies that
are six years old or older. So that was twenty
nineteen twenty, right around the time of COVID, you know,
the dawn of COVID or prior to COVID is the
product that we're releasing today, right and so we're already
(27:44):
in the future. We are thinking about where is the
market going, what is the position this distillery is going
to have in the whiskey market nationally, and so we
have a bit of an aircraft carrier situation, you know,
turning the aircraft carrier, but also getting it to really
getting the product line to really reflect what our current
(28:07):
passions are for a marketplace that won't actually unfold for
a dozen years or half a dozen years.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And ask my conversation with Richard Anderson, co founder and
partner of the family owned Ironfish Distillery in Thompsonville, Michigan,
our guest for the full segment of West Michigan Weekend,
one of our recent CEOs You should know features as
a podcast as well. Thank you for joining us. That's
our program this week. We'll do it again next week
right here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
This is iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan Weekend is
a weekly programmed designed to win form and enlightened on
a wide range of public policy issues, as well as
news and current events. Now here's your host, Phil Tower.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's West Michigan Weekend from iHeartRadio. Once again, thank you
so much for tuning in. I'm your host, Phil Tower.
In this segment, one of our CEOs You Should Know features,
we spent some time with Richard Anderson, co founder and
partner in the family owned Ironfish Distillery, Michigan's first farm distillery.
They're in Thompsonville, Michigan. I think you'll enjoy my conversation
(00:39):
we recorded on site with Richard Anderson on this edition
of West Michigan Weekend. You grew up in Marquette, so
your up. Guy, loved that about you, automatically.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Great raised our family and Marquette.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It was a long family history with your mom and
I Shad.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
My grandfather immigrated from Sweden just prior to World War One,
made his way from Montana through Canada up to and
found himself ending up in Marquette, Michigan in the early
nineteen twenties to visit his sister who was working for Shyros,
(01:16):
which was a big name back in the day. A
famed photographer and actually kind of going off the deep
end here, but a wildlife photographer who pioneered black and
white photography at night really, and so he came up
to Marquette to visit his sister in the nineteen twenties
and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Went to Northern Michigan University for the first year, but
wanted to became really interested in community development and knew
that the urban planning program at Michigan State University was
where I wanted to end up, and so graduate from MSHUP.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I want to stop right there. Not many young people
go I'm interested in community development? What little fire in you?
What caused you to be curious and want to investigate that?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well? I had a biology teacher in tenth grade who
turned to me and said that if I didn't straighten
up in tenth grade biology, I wouldn't get into college.
And little did they know, but I probably had what
was the equivalent of tension deficit disorder, which doesn't didn't
serve me really well in school. It does serve me
(02:29):
well at Ironfish Distillery, because there's a lot of things
going on that captures my attention. But this teacher, Jim
Lottie from Nigauney, who, of course I think if any
of us have mentors in our lives, we remember it's
a brilliant you know, and distinct memory about their impact.
(02:51):
And he is the one who really helped me really
succeed in high school providing projects as opposed to memorization
of facts and figures that allowed me to really get
experience with making things happen in the community. And after
we were done with that, he suggested that I go
(03:13):
into community development. And the school in Michigan at the
time to get the degree was at Michigan State University.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, so you go into community development, which really, for
lack of a better term, is also known as economic development,
helping place businesses in communities to help them try bring
jobs there, diversify the community. You and I talked earlier
before we started this conversation about our mutual friend burget
(03:42):
Close at the right place. A lot of people. I
don't think there's anybody in business in Michigan or in
the Midwest who doesn't nail burget Close decades of just
superb leadership at the right place, Grand Rapids. But this
is kind of the first economic development for Marquette fair
to say all.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I would say for Northern Michigan UH and I you know,
I think we we developed and founded our nonprofit organizations,
you know, dedicated to really working on the private economy,
but also working in ways through collaboration with government and
agencies UH and the private sector to to build the
(04:21):
economy in Northern Michigan. University was you know, really the
was the real catalyst at the time for the creation
of a company called Northern Initiatives, which was a development
which today is I think a well known development finance
institution in the United States. It's I was the founder
of it, and I think the the the you know,
(04:45):
origins of it relate to my passion around kind of
a central organizing question that's even playing out today here
at Ironfish Distillery, which was I started evolving a curiosity
about how to rural place get control over their own future.
And I've had a career you know, figuring that out
(05:06):
and having fun talking to other people or trying to
make that happen, and ultimately here at Ironfish Distillery, in
an unzoned township, down a two mile of dirt road
on an abandoned farm. We've got to see how that
plays out here.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
One hundred and let me see eighteen eighty seven, a long,
long time ago. This was the farm that actually had
a connection with distilling alcohol. For what was the original backstory?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, you know, you know, farms really are the origin
of distilling. And just like in Ohio or Kentucky, farms
in Michigan that were growing grain oftentimes had stills to
convert the grain sugars to ethanol and to make moonshine
for trading, you know, for consumption. It was a good
(06:00):
way to use excess grain. And of course, prior to
prohibition there were no regulations, and during Prohibition there was
a lot of demand.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeahous for obvious reasons. And there are I want to
mention and put a plug in for the website Ironfishdistillery
dot com because there are some wonderful articles, just a
whole chronology of articles, interviews, television spots, magazine articles, just
(06:29):
chronicling this really dynamic place which is in September of
twenty twenty five going to celebrate nine years in business.
But I don't want to get ahead of the story here,
so I'm going to fast forward a little bit. After
you were dealing with Northern Initiatives, you retired or you
(06:49):
were retired, and then there was this trip to Scotland
that your wives recommended do you take? How did that
give us the backstory there?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, there was a couple of career stops along the
way from Northern Initiatives to my retirement, all all organized
around community economic development nationally and internationally. But upon or
nearing my retirement, you know, my brother in law and
I shared a deep passion for Scotches, which is really
(07:20):
barley whiskey out of Scotland, and we started talking about
the different profiles of whiskeys, and we're collecting it and
talking about it, which got picked up by both of
our wives as an obvious interest area. But meanwhile, David,
my brother in law, purchased this abandoned farm in Springdale Township,
(07:40):
one hundred and twenty acre farm that was abandoned for
ten years, and so it was really quite a conversation
within the family, what are you going to do with
this farm? But quite separate from that was this celebration
of my sixtieth birthday which ended up the president ended
up being a flight with my two brother in laws
to go to Isla, Scotland. So really, what could go
(08:03):
wrong when three brother in laws without their wives go
to Scotland.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Nothing whatsoever, which is really exciting because you tour some
distilleries and then an idea is born.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well that's true. In fact, actually one of the distilleries
was a farm distillery in the middle of Isla. They
are about eight distilleries on that island.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Pardon the interruption, Help us geographically place Isla of Scotland.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Sure, well, it would be on the northwest northwest coast
of Scotland and it is the location of the world's
finest pet a Scotches. There's a geologic formation there that
really promoted this ecosystem of deep Pete twenty thirty forty
(08:54):
feet in depth. Pete is the precursor to cole. It
was very very organic, moist and actually was the heat
source by the distilleries two three hundred years ago. Interesting
for heating up malted barley which needed to be heated
to stop the malting process. And in the course of
(09:16):
that the peat the grain would get smoky and the
whiskey would take on this smoky iodine, kind of earthy
flavor which was panned and dismissed by the mainlanders in Scotland,
only to find out one hundred years later that it
was prized by everybody around the world.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, of course single malt Scotch. And you talk about
those flavor profiles. It's why a lot of people will
turn their nose up at single malt because it's it
is a harsh taste, but it is I would just
say so for myself, it is one that you learn
to love quite a bit and appreciate the nuances and
the differences, especially with the distilling process and the barrels,
(10:00):
the whole story there. So you tour some distilleries, you
and your three brothers and brother brothers, three.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Of us and told toured farm distillery and okay, so
I would say this was April of twenty fourteen, but
keep in mind we opened in twenty sixteen, and we're
touring around this farm distillery and you know what was
really what really struck me was how familiar this place
(10:30):
actually felt. You know. One, it was about forty five
to fifty degrees in drizzly and rainyant reminded me of
northern Michigan in the spring. And the second thing is
we're on this farm with this wide open landscape, and
so the brother in laws either there, we can't quite
remember if it was there or later at the Port
Charlotte Pub. But along the way we started talking about
(10:54):
the fact that, you know, this is what we should
do with David's farm. We should actually put retirements together
and turn his farm into a farm distillery, which seemed
like a brilliant idea over a couple of rocks glasses
of scotch.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
How did David feel about that? Did he feel like
he was being strong armed into that or he was like, hey,
I didn't have any idea what it was going to
do with this big farm.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
You know, I don't want to go into the whole story.
You should take a tour to learn about this. But
I'm the one who got strong armed, not David. David
actually said that is a hell of an idea and
really really took it forward in a way that I
had to keep up because I was just kidding when
we talked about it. I thought, you know, this'd be
(11:40):
a fun thing to do, but of course it didn't
make any sense at all. We weren't really retired. We
hadn't you know, we didn't live there. Neither of us
lived there, So the whole thing didn't make a lot
of sense to me. And when I got home, I
didn't even tell my wife Sarah. I just said it
was a great trip. So that's the honest truth.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, I was going to say that couldn't have been
a secret that long, No, before it came out.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Well, yeah, and how we how she how she found
out was David called me about two weeks after the
trip and he said, hey, I think I found the
Uh I've been doing some research and I think I
found the equipment are still and I want to meet
you in Chicago. And I go, what what? What what
are you talking about? And I said, I haven't even
told Sarah, and he said, we'll tell her and meet
(12:25):
me in Chicago. So we, uh, we met a Coval distillery,
which is one of the you know, I think it's
a benchmark for great American craft whiskey. There the North
American reps for a German still company called Kote. And
two weeks later suddenly we were at Kote, or rather
Covalt Distillery looking at equipment, learning that it would be
(12:46):
a two year waiting list before we could actually bring
it on. And we all left there thinking this did
make a lot of sense. But David called me about
a day or two later from the Chicago trip and
for me that he had put down a deposit.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Of course he did, you know, I just I want
to stop here and acknowledge the obvious which not every
brother in law relationship have, and that is you've got
a good friend, a trusted business partner in this guy.
You were stop and think how how unusual that is
for a lot of brother in laws.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Well, Richard, well I'll tell you what I would say
that sometimes, you know, when we're talking internally or our
team's talking, and you look at the you know, the
careers that all four of us had in our careers
that then got applied to the concept of returning this
farm to a real, real economic use, wrapping a distillery
(13:46):
around it in an end destination that now has about
one hundred and fifty thousand people visiting every year. And
I think, and I think actually that it I'm really
glad that we didn't come into this project with less experience,
as we were able to apply our life's careers and experience,
and we actually naturally gravitated to different parts of the business.
(14:10):
David was a maker. He had a vineyard here on
the property. He was a home winemaker and brewery at
a chemistry and biology background. It really helps, it really helps.
His wife is accountant for a major Michigan accounting firm,
but ran the business consulting division for that firm. And
of course we call her the cro the chief reality officer.
(14:32):
And my wife was very involved in the hospitality industry.
She was a young woman chamber director at macn Island,
but we call her the chamber director for Iron Review.
I know that about Sarah, Yeah, And then of course
I've been very involved in community economic development. It's really
quite comfortable with, you know, sort of the connecting this,
(14:55):
this this venture to the community and to the wider marketplace.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
We're speaking with Richard Anderson, the co founder and for
this podcast and broadcast CEO Ironfish Distillery, Ironfishdistillery dot Com
in beautiful Thompsonville, Michigan. As you heard Richard say, one
hundred and fifty thousand visitors every year nine years. A
(15:20):
pure Michigan business success story in the making over nine
years and continuing to grow, taking a pretty big swath
of land, Richard. Here in what is the township.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Again, Springdale Township, unincorporated. It is an unzoned.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
And unzoned interesting but I have to imagine they love
you around here. You mentioned something earlier that I want
to go back to. There is this thing in so
many rural parts of the country where the old guard
doesn't want change. Did you worry about that as this
place grew?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Well, I would say that really the mindset that we
you know, we're not from this area, right, David and
David and Heidi are here because Heidi and Sarah's mom
and aunt grew up in Beulah as girls places and
and so this was a vacation experience for us, four
(16:17):
seasoned vacation experience, but not our hometown. And what we
didn't really realize about our hometown, but it is. It
is something that's quite common in many rural locations. Is
that I had employees' parents come to me and say, Richard,
if you had been from here, you wouldn't have had
the confidence to do it. And so that I think
(16:41):
encapsulates how mindset can actually cast an anchor and slow
down momentum. And of course we were actually not focused
on bringing back the region. We were actually focused on
a vision that was going to really inspire us, which was,
how do we bring this abandoned farm back to life.
(17:03):
That's actually what was really interesting to us. And then
the rest all came as a result of that passion.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
But in Thompsonville, Michigan, did you lay awake in bed
some nights going why are we doing this out in
the middle of nowhere?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I was too big of a risk. I mean, you
talked about not wanting to even start with the distillery idea.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, I would, you know, I would. I mean the
reality of the situation was that it was it was
a risky and kind of a foolish, foolhardy decision going
into retirement to sell everything and and go into this.
But and there's nothing like you're at the time, our
twenty six year old older son calling me and going,
(17:46):
what are you doing? You've you know, you've sold everything.
You're living in the middle of nore, which was interesting
for a kid from Marquette, And you know, he said, Dad,
who's going to make this? You're not going to make this.
You know, Uncle David's not going to make it. Like
who's going to make this And was July before we opened,
and I had to admit to my young son, you
have a fair point. You know this is a that's true,
(18:08):
you know, suspending reality for a bit. What was really
interesting about putting our vision out That vision was a
calling card for people who had experience and passion around
the idea, who actually came here and said we can
help you make this happen. And I can't tell you
the number of countless people who came here and applied
(18:29):
and brought skills from outside the region or came here
from the region with skills and joined our team to
make it what it is today.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Well, they get to work with you though. That's not
a bad thing. There's a culture here. There's a culture,
and there's a feel. It feels like family, feels very welcoming.
We get to spend some time with Jeff Eddington, who
is the guy back in the distillery, chief operating officer,
wonderful guy, just just of cohesion and unity here and
(19:03):
just and family. I was telling Jeff earlier that the
people here you have that are a part of this
that I mean, this is no small thing. The economic
development happening in this township. This is a really great thing.
But I just I go back to the fact that
(19:23):
you put this here, and it really is a if
you build it, they will come story. It really is.
The vision is important, Richard, But it's a little more
than vision. That's a powerful thing.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, it's a it's a it's a you know, I
think you know when you really put the puzzle together.
David's passion for the quality of the spirit, our combined family,
passion for bringing back that this farm to life, the
unexpected location of where we are, because of course we
(19:59):
had never purchased the farm with the idea that we'd
create a distillery. That unexpectedness, and then the combination of
the experience that you can have here in any of
the four seasons, and the fact that we firmly believe
that people will make purchases based on their values, and
(20:22):
we try to make sure that people understand what our
values are in terms of our commitment to our employees
and to the community in which they live. And if
you're from ann Arbor or Detroit or Grand Rapids or
the tri Cities and you visit us, you might just
think of all of that when you see a maple
(20:43):
bourbon on the shelf and remember how great that tasted.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
And it does taste pretty good. We're going to talk
about the products. We've got some time remaining with Richard Anderson,
co founder, co owner of Ironfish Distillery, iron Fish Distillery
dot com. There is before the success part of every
small business story. The letter A comes before that, and
(21:09):
that is adversity, and it came in a big way
in twenty twenty in March. So many CEOs I've spoken
with on this CEOs you should know podcasts. They've told
really interesting, very different stories about how covid was obviously
an incredibly challenging thing but taught them things. You pivoted
(21:31):
and made hand sanitizer, which was a smart thing. What
did you and your team learn from covid As you
persevere during that time period you're what three and a
half years into starting this place up, it kind of
has to be, oh, my goodness, what are we going
to do now? Kind of just take a moment and
walk us through that period. How you guys face that
(21:52):
and came.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Through it well, just like a lot of the on
premise accounts where we provide and sell iron Fish spirits,
and we all felt it immediately at our end destination
and our retail operation where people came. The weekend that
the weekend was, which was our last weekend before closing,
was one of our busiest in our history. And you
(22:16):
felt that this was an impending sense of doom that
was upon us. And of course, for us, the doom
had a lot to do with having a lot of
you know, investment in capital that was you know, sort
of at risk. But we made We sat down and
we did a couple of things. One we did learn,
(22:37):
We did understand that we had an opportunity to contribute,
which gave us a sense of purpose. Two, we've always
had Ironfish had a view of I think kind of
a rule here is embrace and transcend. How do we
actually all right, what's our role here? How do we
do it? Three is never lose what the core of
who we are is in this crisis. So we continued
(23:00):
making whiskey and we know that and that's a big
decision because you know, six years later you want to
have whiskey, and if you stop making whiskey because you're
concerned or don't have the economics or the money to
do it, you're going to impact your business long term,
so we kept making whiskey. We were the only buyer
of barrows from Michigan's only cooper at the time. Everyone
(23:22):
else had stopped their order, so we understood that our
continuation was really impacting other and helping other firms. And
then we gave away hand sanitizer on the subsequent weekend
and noticed that most of the people it looked like
a There was probably thirty to forty cars on Zubank
(23:44):
Road waiting to get in here at ten in the
morning to drive through to get bringing in their own
containers that we would fill with hand sanitizer, and I
would say three out of five of the cars were
mothers and employees of months in hospital, mothers of employees
and others who were first responders throughout the fire Department's
(24:06):
police ems, and they kept telling us the same story
that they were fearful at the time, especially for their
kids who were first responders. And we were contacted by
a variety of companies statewide, but decided to work with
(24:27):
munths in hospital as well as communities like mac And
Island and Marquette where we have connections to make sure
that they had all this hand sanitizer that they needed.
Which we were uniquely in other distillery were uniquely capable
of doing so. It gave us a good sense of
purpose and it's a time that caused us to change
(24:49):
our business model. When we were open, we had fourteen
basically mountain style tents that you can stand up in
that were heated and living room style. We allowed six
people pertent we'd fill those up. And you know, prior
to COVID, we couldn't get people to go outside in
the winter, and now our tents are filled and reserved
(25:11):
and people tell us just don't stop doing that. So
if you pull up to Ironfish in the winter time,
you'll see the tents that we use during COVID and
their reserve all day long, all week and long.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
They are. They're quite a thing. I'm looking at one
right now behind us here as we record this conversation,
the stillroom at Ironfish Distillery, which needs to be on
your list of must visit places in Michigan. Quite a portfolio.
Before we run out of time, I just want to
talk about how you challenge yourself, how you challenge your
(25:46):
staff for that next thing. You've had immense success one
hundred and fifty thousand visitors what's the next thing? What
are some of the goals down the line? And I
don't picture you retiring, young man, but I know chronologically
you're not an old man. And there's a lot of
gas left in the tank, if you will, a lot
(26:07):
of product left in the still. What's down the road?
Look in the crystal ball? What are some things that
you're hoping to challenging yourself to Richard Anderson.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, you know, if you like, we have decided to
build a distillery primarily around excellent spirits, and of course
our Michiganan Legin, which is not an age spirit, is
really a flagship for us on the clear spirit side.
But primarily we are committed to making whiskeys. And when
(26:40):
you say you know what's down the line, what's really
interesting about this business is that product planning today is
for six to ten years from now. Are we are
producing fifteen barrel fifty two gallon barrels of whisky a week.
(27:01):
That involves one acre of grain per barrel. We're working
with seven farms to procure grains from across Michigan that
go into whiskeys that will not be sold until six
to ten years from now. So this year we in
(27:22):
twenty twenty five, we'll be releasing our estate whiskies that
are six years old or older. So that was twenty
nineteen twenty, right around the time of COVID, you know,
the dawn of COVID or prior to COVID is the
product that we're releasing today, right and so we're already
(27:44):
in the future. We are thinking about where is the
market going, what is the position this distillery is going
to have in the whiskey market nationally, and so we
have a bit of an aircraft carrier situation, you know,
turning the aircraft carrier, but also getting it to really
getting the product line to really reflect what our current
(28:07):
passions are for a marketplace that won't actually unfold for
a dozen years or half a dozen years.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
And ask my conversation with Richard Anderson, co founder and
partner of the family owned Ironfish Distillery in Thompsonville, Michigan,
our guest for the full segment of West Michigan Weekend,
one of our recent CEOs You should know features as
a podcast as well. Thank you for joining us. That's
our program this week. We'll do it again next week
right here on this iHeartRadio station.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
You've been listening to iHeartRadio's West Michigan Weekend. West Michigan
Weekend is a production of Wood Radio and iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.