“What is the single most important element of whiskey production? People always assume it’s the age or the mash bill. To me, it’s the people who make the product. All the way down to the part-time employees. everyone is incredibly involved in the whiskey production. At the end of the day, it’s a group of people working together to make a product as a team. If the people don’t gel well, your product won’t either.—Murphy Quint.”
Distiller: MURPHY QUINT, Founder and Head Distiller at Cedar Ridge Spirits in Swisher, Iowa.
What whiskey first made you say ‘fuck yeah’?
Not my first whiskey, but it was a Glenfarclas. Sorry. It was Scotch. Stranahan’s Snowflake. I spent some time working there and it was life-changing. Before working there I was interested but it wasn’t my career. Stranahan’s was a game-changer.
If you weren’t making whiskey, you’d probably be . . .
Working on a grounds crew for a baseball team. When I’m old and washed up, I wouldn’t mind just maintaining the property at Cedar Ridge.
What’s a fucked up way you drink whiskey you probably wouldn’t tell anyone if you weren’t filling out this questionnaire?
I have probably 200 bottles at home. I like to drink my whiskey neat. I’ll pick a bottle and try a dram neat. Then I’ll take another dram and mix it with a different whiskey. I found single malts finished in brandy casks are fun to blend with. I like to get whack. I’ll take some Balvenie 15-year sherry cask and blend it with an American brandy cask single malt.
What’s a fucked up way someone you know drinks whiskey that makes you want to throw them off a cliff and seriously, Jesus Hashtag Christ, why, Darryll? Why?
Every now or then I’ll catch a friend taking a shot of good whiskey. We’re not cowboys, it’s not the wild west. Take a second to really, really enjoy.
What song will get you onto the floor no matter what?
I don’t know if I have . . . if I have a belly full of whiskey pretty much any song will get me onto the dance floor. I’m an enormous Ferris Beuhler’s Day off, because of that I’ll have to go with “Twist and Shout”.
Give a quote from a movie you obsess over.
I speak in movie quotes. “If we play like the Yankees in here, we’ll lose to the Yankees out there. ” We’re an underdog. If we run our distillery like Buffalo Trace we’ll lose to Buffalo Trace.
Besides making whiskey, what do you do right?
Smoking meats. I just like to try new things and go rogue. I don’t follow the recipe perfectly but I learn from my mistakes. I’m good at pork loins. I’m working on ribs.
Sum up the essence of great whiskey with a single word.
Depth. A good whiskey doesn’t have to be bold. But I don’t want it to be flat. I want it to spark creativity in my mind.
Whiskey with an e or whiskey without an e?
With an e. When it’s pluralized, I’ll even do “eys”
What moment during distillation strikes you as perfect?
This one is kind of romantic the second you hammer the bung into the barrel. Because the second you do that, you seal it as a time capsule. I like to think as I’m hammering one in that my kids will be X years old when I open this again. Some employees won’t be here anymore. I think about that.
List three whiskies you love that aren’t yours.
- Lost Lantern
- Balvenie 14 caribbean rum cask
- Stranahan’s
- (honorable mention to any American Single Malt)
Name the single most underrated or overlooked distillery in your state.
Honestly, all of them. We do not have many distilleries in the state of Iowa. Here we only have like 12 and they’re all fairly new and they all have different strategies. I would really recommend checking them out.
Name a whiskey you think our readers never heard of.
Lost Lantern. Every whiskey they release is going to be of the highest quality because they travel the country producing these things. I can’t speak highly enough of Lost Lantern.
What was your most embarrassing mistake as a new distiller?
When I was going to work at Stranahan’s. I was trying to get a job there. It was my dream job. Landed an interview. Spent a lot of time talking to my wife—should I wear a tie? I decided to do so because you might as well be overdressed. The first thing the hiring manager said was “you didn’t have to wear a tie.” And it was a working interview so I’m working with these really cool guys with beards and tats and learned later they all secretly judged me for wearing a tie on the distillery floor and it did hurt my chances. But I got the job and I’m still here.
What’s a moment in your life that made you realize life is goddam beautiful?
The second became a father. I love being a father. The first time I ever held my daughter Jayla everything changed. I’ve always been a goofy guy who didn’t take things seriously but the second I became a father my role became clear to me for the first time.
Who would you like to complete this questionnaire?
My Mentor, Rob Dietrich, Master Blender at Blackened.
