Ep. 12: Great Lakes Distillery and Ross Salchow

Episode 12! Welcome to the Whiskey Ring Podcast where we’re bringing you the people who make whiskey interesting. New tagline – let me know what you think of it.

Today, we’re going across the Great Lakes to visit Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m joined by Ross Salchow, a longtime employee whose title would never cover the range of work he does.  

Great Lakes was the first distillery I ever visited in person. Picture it: Milwaukee, 2016. I was on a business trip for the American Jesuit Colleges conference and had some free time to explore. I’d never been to Milwaukee, let alone Wisconsin, and with the Brewers out of town I decided to take an Uber over to this distillery.

Great Lakes is the first distillery in Wisconsin since Prohibition. When I visited five years ago, there were one or two whiskies, a few brandies from local products (including cherry), a regular gin and a barrel-aged gin. This was before I started doing tasting notes or had a collection of any kind, but I brought back bottles of the barrel-aged gin and cherry brandy because they were so damn good.

Since then, they’ve done nothing but grow. Absinthes, bourbons, single malts, gins, nothing is off limits for this team. As much product as possible is sourced from Wisconsin to keep the local flavor, and to their credit, when something can’t be sourced from WI (barley, for example, doesn’t take well to WI winters), they’re transparent about it coming from somewhere else.

Ross was probably there the day I visited. Hell, for all I can remember, he could’ve been my tour guide. He’s been there for many years now and knows the ins and outs of the place better than anyone. We chat about successes and failures, why their bottled-in-bond gin couldn’t be called that until last year, so many nitty gritty topics you won’t find anywhere else. I’m the first to say that I like craft, but not every craft distillery is ready. Count me in for saying that Great Lakes is here to stay and deserves a try.

I can’t wait to get back there and try more of their new products. In the meantime, you can visit them at greatlakesdistillery.com, @greatlakesdistillery on social media, and keep an eye out for their products as distribution grows. 

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Thank you for listening and for supporting, and please enjoy my chat with Ross Salchow from Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.