S&B Farms Distillery uses Iowa-grown corn to make craft whiskey and bourbon that's gaining national acclaim.

Sara and Brian Winkleman are turning corn grown on their Kossuth County farm into award-winning spirits at S&B Farms Distillery in Bancroft. 

The beginnings of the venture can be traced back about four years ago when a friend who wanted to use Iowa-grown sweet corn to make a batch of moonshine hooked them up with a distillery in Georgia. Watching the process kicked Sara’s entrepreneurial instincts into overdrive.

“I went down there, and when I saw the process, it was very fascinating and intriguing,” she says. “I decided I wanted to learn how to do this. From that day forward, it was full on.”

After much research, they op­­ened S&B Farms Distillery in 2018. 

Brian, who was born and rais­ed on a farm near Ledyard, says growing corn for whiskey ...