RWD26 Christian Myrah - RockFilter Distillery

Christian Myrah comes from deep Spring Grove roots, and while his journey to distilling is anything but typical, his mission in tying together agriculture, community, and business is incredible. Through multiple generations, the Myrah family have been involved in agriculture and the region (just check the Giants of the Earth Heritage Center!). But when Christian returned to Spring Grove in 2006 after several years in the Navy flying fighter jets (and continuing in the Naval Reserves), a new vision appeared for an opportunity in Spring Grove - RockFilter Distillery.

“Planted, Tended, Milled and Distilled” from www.rockfilterdistillery.com

Upon his return, Christian had been working with his family to continue converting their acres to organic certified cropland. Christian also had the curiosity and support to try growing a few things out of the ordinary like open pollinated corn, triticale, barley, and hulless oats.

Map courtesy of www.rockfilterdistillery.com

Along with that, he knew that Schech’s Mill existed near Caledonia (MN’s oldest standing, functioning, water powered grist mill). Combine that with our regions karst topography, which filters groundwater through  limestone, and what you have are the ingredients for making high quality, small batch organic bourbon and whiskey. (There are a - few - other details!)

RockFilter has even forged creative relationships with midwest Artists like Minneapolis based musician and writer Dessa, whom has had a series of bourbons come out in collaboration. 

Join us for this show as we talk about Christian's journey and all that RockFilter is doing - not only in producing incredible bourbon and whiskey, but helping shine a light on Spring Grove, MN. 

This is the fourth show in a mini-series about Spring Grove, MN. Check out the shows below for more - and thanks for listening: 

> Find the first episode featuring Spring Grove's Economic Development Director, Courtney Bergey Swanson here. 

> Find the second episode featuring Bill Fried of Giants of the Earth Heritage Center here. 

 > Find the third episode featuring Pat and Patrick Longmire of Red’s Hometown Market and Fat Pat’s BBQ here. 

"Rhymes With Decorah" is a companion project of Inspire(d) Media.

Original music heard in this podcast performed and recorded by Nick Zielinski of Decorah. Find him on Instagram @indicative_of_drumming