“I think a lot of people think way too hard about stuff.” Chris Barlow has never been particularly interested in multi-step plans. It is an approach that has served him remarkably well at Beehive Distilling, the company he founded with longtime friends Erik Ostling and Matt Aller. None of the three had backgrounds in distilling. They simply liked good spirits, had spent years working together in Salt Lake’s creative community and, one evening in 2012, decided they might as well try making some themselves.

“Out of deference to the well driller who was shot on this porch, and how important the well is for us, we changed our name to Dented Brick Distillery.” Marc Christiansen revealed this standing a few feet from the barrel room where the air carries warm notes of wood and spice. He had just finished pointing out the original bricks - kept from the old house that once stood on this South Salt Lake property.

“It is all about what you have in your own backyard.” And that backyard for James Fowler is Salt Lake City where he has run Sugar House Distillery since 2013.