The First Ryegrass Whiskey in America
The whiskey that was supposed to save the world.. Well, not exactly, but hear the story. In 2006, the founder of Spiritopia helped establish a company called Trillium FiberFuels with the goal of producing ethanol from ryegrass straw for automotive fuel purposes. As many know, alcohol burns quite well if the proof is high enough (anything above 100 proof). The Willamette Valley of Oregon, known as the ryegrass capital of the world, produces over a million tons of straw each year as a fairly low-value co-product. If that straw could be turned into usable fuel at a competitive price, it could power many cars—maybe not save the world, but certainly move toward sustainability. The founder led the Trillium team for about seven years, trying to make cellulosic ethanol a reality. The work was a fascinating challenge, supported by grant money available due to a rare alignment of politics around green fuels and energy independence.
Then came fracking. The new technology created a short-term bubble of cheaper oil and gas. If the people extracting it had to pay the full price for groundwater contamination and methane released, it probably would not seem so cheap. But they weren’t, and this led to an end in research funding for biofuels. Despite making progress, Trillium was still in the development stage. Other teams had built pilot plants that could produce fuel in the $5/gallon range (which looks better all the time). It became clear that after the last grant, it was time to wind down the Trillium effort—a very sad moment.
During the search for what to do next, the founder became intrigued by the discovery that ryegrass had considerable fermentable sugars if cut before the seed harvest. To satisfy curiosity more than anything else, the team fermented some ryegrass. It was possibly the worst beer ever, but that wasn’t the point. Naturally, they distilled it to see what would happen. Even before the run was complete, it was evident that something interesting was developing. When they tasted the raw distillate, the first thought was, "Whoa. This is Oregon distilled!" Well, the Valley anyway. Given the region’s penchant for whiskey, the concept of ryegrass whiskey was born.
As Edison said, invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. And Edison didn’t even have the Federal government’s bureaucracy to deal with! The road to a ryegrass whiskey product was rocky. The founder submitted the formula to the Alcohol Trade and Taxation Bureau (TTB) with naïve optimism. Many months later, a short message was received: “Please submit FDA evidence that ryegrass is allowed in a human food.” The founder's simultaneous thoughts were “uh-oh” and “wtf?” Discussions with FDA officials led to the realization that all food in the USA has to either have historic use or be documented as safe and added to the GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) list. Ryegrass whiskey was truly new and had neither type of history. This meant that the FDA would require long, expensive studies to ensure it was safe to consume. There was neither the time nor money to pursue the studies. Meanwhile, the ginger liqueur, which was the other idea on which Spiritopia was founded, sailed through approval and was already developing a following. Ryegrass whiskey, however, was mired in bureaucratic hell.
A couple of years later, while attending a spirits event in Seattle, a journalist stopped by the Spiritopia booth. “What’s your story?” he asked. After hearing about the ryegrass struggles, he exclaimed, “That is SO COOL!” At the time, those were definitely not the founder's feelings about the situation. The journalist decided to write an article for distillers that was a profile of Spiritopia and a cautionary tale for other distillers using innovative ingredients. It was entitled “The Grass is not GRAS,” which was a groaner pun, but the article was well done. A couple of weeks later, the founder received a phone call. A voice said, “This is just a courtesy call from one chemist to another – we have an anti-allergy medicine made from ryegrass that has been FDA-approved since 1998.” The founder nearly fell over but managed to stammer, “Please send me the data!” The chemist did, and that prior use paved the way for the approval of the first ryegrass whiskey in the United States.