Shane Baker

“The Fermentation and Distillation Expert”

Shane Baker is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of Ferm Solutions and Wilderness Trail distillery, as well as the Master Distiller for Wilderness Trail. The son of James and Linda Baker, Shane was born in November of 1970 in Danville, Kentucky.

Baker has a lineage within the distilling industry, starting in the 1940s when his future grandparents, Doris and Hubert Ballard, met at the Kentucky River Distillery at the young ages of 14 and 16. Doris later retired from the famed Stitzel-Weller distillery after more than 50 years in the bourbon industry. Shane’s father worked at Canada Dry Distillery, which later became the Old Fitzgerald Distillery at Camp Nelson, Kentucky. The rick houses there today are the famous Camp Nelson rick houses made famous by Wild Turkey.

Baker and Dr. Pat Heist were friends for many years and were in a rock-and-roll band together in the late 1990s. The duo later founded Ferm Solutions in December 2006. The company offers numerous services and products to brewers and distillers, including research, engineering, product development, and technical services, including process optimization for both the fuel and beverage alcohol industries. They work with around 200 spirits producers all over the world. They also offer lab services, focusing on fermentation, including microbiological testing for yeast health, bacterial analysis, pH, and yeast and bacteria molecular identification. In addition, they also provide training for the entire process of distillation and offer consulting services.

In February 2013, the duo founded Wilderness Trail Distillery, which has become one of the fastest-growing bourbon distilleries in the world. Wilderness Trail distillery produces numerous bourbons, including both high-rye and wheated bourbons, and rye whiskey using their own proprietary yeast strains. They use an infusion mashing process that is also proprietary to Wilderness Trail, where they manipulate the temperature to gelatinize starches, yet not degrade the quality of the grain. The partners believe that this results in a soft and flavorful distillate.

Wilderness Trail uses a sweet mash process instead of the usual sour mash, which most distilleries use. It claims to be the first to sole user of sweet mash in Kentucky, believing that not acidifying the mash provides a more flavor-forward product with a softer finish.

Wilderness Trail distills, ages, and bottles all its products in Danville, Kentucky. Distilling was originally done using a 250-gallon Vendome Pot Hybrid Still; however, as they grew, it was necessary to add a 40-foot-tall, 18-inch-diameter Vendome column still with a 250-gallon doubler. With the continued growth, they added an additional Vendome Column Still and a 500-gallon doubler, allowing them to have flexible systems ranging from smaller-scale production to large-scale production with up to 216 barrels per day, running 24 hours a day. The result is that they currently fill a 20,000-barrel warehouse in about 100 days.

Wilderness Trail uses Independent Stave Company barrels with a #4 char. The whiskey is barreled at 110 proof for bourbon and 100 proof for rye whisky. Their rick houses are onsite and the whiskey is aged to a minimum of 4 years, but have since released 6- and 8-year age-stated bourbons.

In early November 2022, Campari Group based in Milan Italy, and owners of the Wild Turkey distillery, agreed to purchase a 70% share of the Wilderness Trail Distillery for $420 million, with a distillery valuation of $600 million, with an option to purchase the remaining 30% in 2031 for $180 million. At the time, this was the second largest purchase by the Campari Group, second only to their purchase of Grand Marnier.