“I realized you could get local beer, but there were no local spirits.”

Guy Rehorst is the founder and CEO of Great Lakes Distillery in Walkers Point, Milwaukee, WI. In what started as a hobby, Rehorst has now grown a successful business for over 20 years by experimenting and crafting fine spirits for all to enjoy. With focus on maintaining local and choosing to use local ingredients, Rehorst has created a delicious brand that supports the community and promotes the taste of Wisconsin.

Jen: What compelled you to open a distillery?

Guy: I realized you could get local beer; you could even get Wisconsin wine when you went out, but there were no local spirits. Everything on the back shelf was either from Kentucky or Europe. So thought maybe there was room for a local distillery.

Jen: What does the Great Lakes Distillery bring to the Milwaukee community?

Guy: We like to use local ingredients; we sell to local customers. My staff is local, so they’re spending their money at our customers places. You can’t say that [about other big brands], the owner of Grey Goose isn’t going to show up in a Milwaukee restaurant anytime soon and drink his product. I think the fact that we can support local in everything from ingredients to actually visiting our customers and having a good time with them.

Jen: I heard you guys just expanded to Chicago, could you tell me a bit more about it?

Guy: Yeah, we are starting to sell in the Chicago market. It’s always difficult to try and sell your product in a market that you’re not currently active in because if you don’t have somebody in the market pushing your product on a regular basis, it can be really hard to get any attraction.

Jen: Are all the ingredients local for the most part then?

Guy: Yeah, as much as possible. Our orange liqueur we couldn’t find oranges growing in Wisconsin, but everything else. The grain is grown in East Troy, Wisconsin, a lot of the fruit is grown locally that we use in brandies, we use ginseng in our gin, we use Wisconsin cranberries from central Wisconsin in our cranberry liqueur, Door County cherry liqueur uses Door County cherries. We try to keep it local.

Jen: How would you describe the atmosphere in the tasting room and distillery?

Guy: Hopefully friendly. We have a great staff; all our bartenders are also trained in doing the tours so they get very knowledgeable about the products. They can help people on the tours, but they can help people behind the bar if someone has a question about the product. They can tell them about how it’s made, they can make suggestions on how to serve it and how to use it. We have a great staff that everybody tries to become as knowledgeable as they can about the products.

Jen: Why should people visit Great Lakes Distillery?

Guy: Hopefully they are looking for something really tasty, a good spirit, a good cocktail and they appreciate the fact we are local and support other local businesses as well.