TEMPLETON, Ia. — Templeton Rye’s new $35 million Iowa distillery signals a homecoming for the company, which traces its roots to Carroll County's bootleg era, when making rye whiskey in the tiny farming community was an open secret.

“This completes us,” co-founder Keith Kerkhoff said Monday during a tour of the facility. “We’re all home now.”

For years, Templeton Rye purchased its whiskey from an Indiana distillery and bottled it in Templeton.

When critics called out the company for promoting the liquor as "made in Iowa," owners began crafting plans to bring production to the Hawkeye state.

“This was always in our long-term plan,” said Kerkhoff, whose grandfather Alphonse Kerkhoff created the recipe used to make the premium rye whiskey. 

Read the full article on the Des Moines Register website.