There’s a spring under the farmhouse at Pathfinder Farm Distillery. It’s been feeding a home on that spot since the 1700s, and it’s the reason Nate and Natalie Kraft bought the property in 2019.
“Most importantly, there’s a great-tasting spring that the farmhouse is built over,” says Nate, who is a U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife Natalie, a Pennsylvania Air National Guard veteran. “The base for making whiskey is water and then grain.”
That’s the whole idea in one sentence. Water and grain, both from 42 acres in Keedysville.
Most distilleries buy their corn. Veteran-owned and operated Pathfinder grows it. They raise a heritage, non-GMO variety called Bloody Butcher, and Nate sourced the original seed from an organic farmer in Virginia. Every year since, he’s saved the seed and planted it again. “I decided to grow it on site to control the whole distillery process from the seed to the sip,” Nate says.
The farm itself is a working operation. Nate has a line he likes for describing it: they’re “growing corn, cows, cats and kids.” The cows earn their keep too. When the still finishes a run, the leftover mash goes straight to the beef herd so nothing is wasted.
Nate says you can actually taste where a whiskey comes from. “By growing our own corn and using spring water from the property, we can control the inputs of the whiskey and really give that terroir,” he says. “I learned about estate wineries that grow their own grapes and wanted to bring that to whiskey. That’s terroir, or taste of a region.”
He means it literally. Hand his exact recipe to another distiller, give them the same corn and yeast, and the result still won’t match. The Appalachian spring water and the Maryland soil don’t transfer.
“Our Pathfinder Farm Bloody Butcher Bourbon Whiskey doesn’t taste like anyone else’s because of the way we’re using 100% corn and no other adjunct grains in the mash bill, our pure Appalachian Mountain spring water from the farmhouse spring, a great distiller’s yeast for grain, and the new charred oak barrels.” Bloody Butcher Bourbon Whiskey is used in Pathfinder’s signature cocktail, Blackberry Bourbon Bramble, which won first place in this year’s Maryland’s Best Cocktail Competition.
Nate says if you want to taste the corn most clearly, try their Red Corn Moonshine. It carries a nutty edge that comes straight from the Bloody Butcher grain. The moonshine lineup leans on natural fruit and a little sugar, nothing artificial. The bestsellers are Apple Pie, Blueberry and Orange Cranberry.
That Apple Pie flavor has a Maryland story of its own. The apples come fresh from Smithsburg, mostly from Ivy Hill Farm. When Pathfinder makes rye, the grain comes from Crown Rose Estate in Brunswick.
You can taste Pathfinder’s spirits for yourself at their tasting room and cocktail bar in Boonsboro. Grab a seat, order something crafted from the farm’s grain and spring water, and savor what one small piece of Maryland actually tastes like.
Hungry for more? Read about another veteran-owned farm. Learn more about Maryland’s distilleries.