Dr. Patrick “Pat” Heist

“The Fermentation Doctor”

Dr. Patrick Heist is the Co-Founder, Co-Owner, and Chief Scientific Officer of both Ferm Solutions and Wilderness Trail Distillery. He studied microbiology in college, then moved into plant pathology in field crops, earning B.S., M.S., and Ph. D. degrees at the University of Kentucky. He then spent 6 years at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine as a Medical Microbiology Professor.

In 2006, he founded Ferm Solutions along with business partner and friend Shane Baker, with whom he was in a rock-and-roll band in the late 1990s. Ferm Solutions 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 over 200 distilleries around the world, offering lab services focused on fermentation and microbiological testing for yeast health, bacterial analysis, pH, and yeast and bacterial molecular identification. In addition, Ferm Solutions provides training for the entire process of distillation and offers consulting services as well.

In 2013, Dr. Heist, once again partnering with Shane Baker, founded Wilderness Trail Distillery, which has now become one of the fastest-growing bourbon distilleries in the world. Wilderness Trail produces several bourbons, including both high rye and wheated bourbons, as well as rye whiskey using their own proprietary yeast strains. They also utilize a proprietary infusion mashing process, which is where they are able to determine the ideal temperatures high enough to gelatinize starches, but not so high as to degrade the quality of the grain. The pair believes that this results in a softer and more flavorful distillate. Wilderness Trail also uses a sweet mash process, unlike the usual sour mash that most distilleries use. It claims to be the first distillery to solely use sweet mashing in Kentucky, believing that not acidifying the mash provides a more flavor-forward product with a softer finish.

Dr. Heist and Shane initially aged and bottled everything made by Wilderness Trail in Danville, Kentucky, using a 250-gallon Vendome Pot Hybrid Still. As the operation grew, it became necessary to add a 40-foot-tall, 18-inch diameter Vendome Column Still with a 250 gallon doubler. With the continued growth, they then added an additional 40-foot-tall, 36-inch diameter 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. They can currently fill a 20,000-barrel warehouse in about 100 days.

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

Dr. Heist is now an Adjunct Professor at James B. Beam Institute in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky and has given a TEDTalk on the process of making bourbon, starting with the aging process, types of grain required to produce a bourbon, and what happens inside the barrel warehouses before it is bottled. In addition, Dr. Heist has published or contributed to numerous research articles.

In November of 2022, Campari Group based in Milan Italy, owners of the Wild Turkey distillery, agreed to purchase a 70% share of the Wilderness Trail Distillery for $420 million, given 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 earlier purchase of Grand Marnier..