DRIGGS — Many are familiar with the proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and the well-known saying is definitely fitting for the family who launched the Grand Teton Distillery in Driggs over a decade ago.

Founders Lea and Bill Beckett never imagined they’d be in the business of making vodka from Idaho potatoes, and had the Great Recession of 2008 never struck, chances are high that the distillery at 1755 North Highway 33 in Driggs would be a luxury hotel instead.

“Grand Teton Distillery was established in 2011, but you have to go back a little further to fully understand its origin,” said Andrew Boczar, Lea’s son and the company’s vice president of strategic planning. “My parents first bought the land in 2007 with the intent to build a hotel there in the summer of 2008. Then the market crashed and the bank they were getting the loan from went under and that squashed all of their ideas to build a hotel.”

As Lea and Bill pondered their options while sipping a cocktail on the back porch of their Tetonia home, they couldn’t help but notice they were surrounded by thousands of acres of Idaho russet potatoes. They thought to themselves, "Isn’t vodka made from potatoes?" The couple quickly realized that alcohol is a product that sells well in both good times and bad. And so, out of the ashes of one of the country's worst financial crises, a premier spirit producer was born.

“My parents called up my brother John who had been a bartender for the last 15 years and he jumped at the opportunity to become our head distiller,” Boczar said. “He moved out to Driggs and helped build the building. Interestingly, the head contractor decided during the build that he no longer wanted to do construction anymore so he quit and actually became my brother’s right-hand-man.”

The distillery opened in 2011 and the very first batch of Grand Teton potato vodka was launched in 2012. Over the past 10 years, it’s secured a gold ranking from the Beverage Tasting Unit in six consecutive years beginning in 2012, a double gold ranking from San Francisco World Spirits Competition in both 2013 and 2014 and scored a 92 of 100 possible points in the 2014 Ultimate Spirits Challenge.

“To win a double gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, every single judge in a blind taste test has to award the spirit a gold medal, so it’s actually very difficult to do,” Boczar said.

To make its vodka, Grand Teton Distillery starts by rehydrating dehydrated potato flakes with pure glacier water from the Teton mountain range. 

“About 80 percent of a potato’s weight is just water and we don’t need any of that, we only need the starch out of it,” Boczar said. “We are basically making very bland instant mash potatoes every single day. It’s just water, potato flakes and enzymes, which are needed to break down the starches into simple sugars. Yeast will then eat the sugars to turn it into alcohol.”

Grand Teton Distillery secures its potato flakes from Idaho Pacific Holdings Inc., which is headquartered in Ririe and was established in 1987. 

During the fermentation process, Grand Teton Distillery uses a yeast strain that is normally used for whiskey instead of one that is typically used for vodka, Boczar said.

“Our goal is to make a very flavorful and full-bodied vodka,” Boczar said. “Less than 5 percent of vodkas are made from potatoes, a majority of them are made from corn or wheat. Potato vodkas on their own tend to have a stronger flavor and aroma and so we wanted to lean into that a little bit.”

The vodka is distilled the equivalent of 20 times in small batches with every step carefully monitored, said Boczar, adding that it’s then freeze-filtered six times through charcoal and garnet crystal to provide the cleanest, softest and highest quality spirit possible.

In addition to its regular vodka, Grand Teton also makes a huckleberry vodka and cherry vodka, both of which are infused with real fruit sourced in the Northwest as opposed to synthetic chemical flavorings. The seasonal cherry vodka, which was inspired by a recipe Lea picked up while traveling Eastern Europe, launched in late March. It’s infused with cherries from Willamette Valley, Oregon, for about 20 weeks before being bottled, said Boczar, adding that the huckleberry vodka is infused for about 12 weeks. The Idaho State Journal sampled the cherry vodka for this story and can attest the spirit has a near perfect marriage of sweetness and tartness that was delicious served chilled on its own.

Bottling is done on site, and the vodka is distributed primarily throughout the West, with Idaho, Montana and Wyoming being the three biggest markets for the product, Boczar said. Grand Teton does distribute to about eight or nine other states on a less regular basis.

The residual liquid or mash from the fermenters and stills is given to local ranchers and farmers for animal feed and fertilizer.

“The potato took all those nutrients out of the soil, then we get the potato and remove the starch from it and the rest of the nutrients are returned to the soil, essentially,” Boczar said.

Though it’s vodka that put Grand Teton Distillery on the map, the plant doesn’t skimp out on the effort put into making its award-winning whiskeys.

“The whiskey product that we distill is 100 percent Idaho malted barley,” Boczar said. “Many people know that Idaho is the No. 1 producer of potatoes,  but not too many people know that it’s also the No. 1 producer of barley and the No.3 producer in hops.”

Boczar said Grand Teton secures its barley from Mountain Malt in Idaho Falls, which is a family farm that has been selling to Anheuser-Busch for the past 50 years.

“The son came back and took over the farm and opened the first new malting plant in Idaho in the past 20 years,” Boczar said. “We were actually the very first distillery to buy malt from them.”

For instance, the Grand Teton Malt Whiskey is double distilled in a hybrid copper pot still, matured in the ex-bourbon barrels of Grand Teton’s double gold medal-winning Colter's Run Bourbon, and double barrel finished in Jackson Hole Winery red wine barrels. The taste is complex, rich, fruity and smooth.

Grand Teton Distillery is considered in the top 10 percent of distilleries in the country in terms of volume, but 90 percent of distilleries produce less than 5,000 9-liter cases, or 12 bottles that are 750 milliliters. Boczar said sales were a little down in 2020 amid the pandemic, mostly because those who turned to alcohol did so in the largest possible quantities in that they were purchasing 1.75 liters, which is a size that Grand Teton does not produce. However, when the country began to open back up in 2021, sales exploded, said Boczar, and a primary driving force for that was the influx of people visiting national parks.

“People still couldn't travel overseas still in 2021, so I think many people hopped in their car and came to visit all the national parks,” Boczar said. “We’re considered on the scenic route and are only 1.5 hours from the West Yellowstone entrance and are expecting 2022 to be just as busy as last year.”

One area where the company is feeling it a little more in the pocket books is distribution. While consumers in America are experiencing about a 7 to 8 percent increase with the current inflation, Grand Teton Distillery has encountered a 200 to 300 percent increase in some freight costs.

“Normally a container to go across the sea is about $3,000; last year, we paid as high as $15,000,” Boczar said. “And even in-state shipping has gone up. Normally, shipping freight from Seattle or California to here was about $3,000 to $4,000, but now it's about $6,000 or $7,000.”

Another milestone on the horizon for Grand Teton Distillery is a massive expansion to its tasting room. As of now, Boczar said the tasting room is big enough to comfortably seat about six people at one point. To celebrate 10 years in East Idaho, the distillery is working with Driggs architect Rene Lusser of Better By Design to construct a new 8,000-square-foot building, of which 2,000 square feet will be dedicated to a new tasting room. The new tasting room will be able to accommodate up to 50 guests, a more than eight-fold increase.

As more and more people make the destination out West, Boczar said that Grand Teton Distillery is committed to providing consumers with both the highest quality spirits and an exceptional experience that they won’t soon forget.

“Our expansion and new tasting room is definitely the most exciting thing we are looking forward to,” Boczar said. “We want Grand Teton to be a destination distillery for not just those who are visiting the many regional national parks, but for anyone who enjoys a top-notch, high-quality spirit."