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Empty-nesters celebrate four years as owners of micro-brewery

Plank Road Distillery is recognized nationally for having the second-best rum in the country, best new craft distillery

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July 11, 2023

PLYMOUTH – What do you do when your kids leave home, but it’s not yet time to retire?

For Jarin and Michele Gelhar, the answer was to start a small, specialty-craft distillery.

“We’re at that stage in our lives where we recognize there’s a finite amount of time between empty-nesters and retirement,” Jarin said. “So, we wanted to start a small business.”

Looking around the area, Jarin said there were plenty of restaurants, good breweries and wineries, but there was no distillery at the time.

“Because craft- and micro-breweries have been trending for several years now, we decided to try our hands at a distillery,” he said.

Practical experience
With each of them working in mid-level management positions in industries for 20-25 years prior to starting their own business, Jarin said they felt comfortable with their practical experience in areas of budgeting, personnel, marketing and so forth.

However, Jarin said they knew nothing about creating a business plan.

To remedy that, the couple took some courses in Sheboygan through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay as part of the Sheboygan County SCEDC (Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation) on how to create and develop a successful business plan. 

“Before I quit my job (as a mechanical engineer), I spent a couple of weeks of vacation time and counter-intuitively spent time working at a couple of other distilleries,” Jarin said. “That was the final phase of the business plan.”

And Plank Road Distillery was born.

Open for business 
The Gelhars welcomed their first customers in June 2019 – launching with three spirits – vodka, gin and rum, what are known as clear spirits.

Jarin said the response was off the charts.

The couple also began making dark spirits – whiskeys and bourbons – right away as well, but there’s a time delay in releasing those spirits as they age.

With the stills located in the shop, Jarin Gelhar said customers can witness the distilling process first-hand. Photo Courtesy of Plank Road Distillery

“You have to make really clear spirits and get enough interest and gain enough traction to cover your overhead while investing in making dark spirits and building inventory until those are aged and ready to be released,” Jarin said.

He said they released three batches of bourbon a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and completely sold out of all three batches within minutes.

“We literally had a line of people outside waiting for us to open the doors,” he said. “When we did, they were lined up through the shop, out to the sidewalk, down the sidewalk, around the corner and down the street,” he said. “We sold out so quickly we had to send some people home empty-handed.”

Their second batch was released in January 2020, which sold out in 15 minutes.

“People were again lined up outside in the cold,” Jarin said. “My wife was there helping, so we were more efficient, but we didn’t have enough to keep going, mainly because we didn’t know what the demand was going to be and we undershot the demand and curve.”

When the distillery released its third batch in February, Jarin said it was quite cold out and snow had blanketed the ground – however, that didn’t stop folks.

“People were lined up in lawn chairs and on foot,” he said. “One guy brought a 20-pound propane tank (for his heater) – it was unreal. They were lined up an hour ahead of time and we sold out in 25 minutes again. Then the pandemic hit and everything stopped and changed.” 

Jarin said the pandemic temporarily shifted the way Plank Road did business, and Jarin said they were forced to make some changes.

“We were fortunate enough we had a good enough following and enough traction that we were able to persevere and make it through the pandemic,” he said. “In Wisconsin, alcohol manufacturing is considered an essential business, so we were able to keep manufacturing. We couldn’t have anyone in the shop (bar), though.”

Jarin said they set up a type of “to go” program, converting the distillery’s driveway into a drive-up “facility” – taking and filling orders in a make-shift drive-thru.

Once businesses could start opening again to the public, Jarin said Plank Road’s in-house business resumed, but at a slightly reduced capacity. 

“Not everybody came back right away,” he said. “Just like any other place that was allowed to open at the time, you had to reduce capacity and practice social distancing – we had to take some chairs out, and things like that. It’s funny because we spent a lot of time and effort on a business plan that got us nine months deep into it and then we pretty much threw it away and innovated from there.”

But, Jarin said everybody was “pretty much in the same boat.”

“Nobody had a pandemic on their SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis,” he said. “You just have to do what you can – so we did.”

Michele has continued working at her job as a comptroller for a local manufacturing company, while Jarin primarily runs the business.

Setting itself apart
Jarin said there are several ways Plank Road is different from other distilleries. 

First, he said, Plank Road is “very small scale and makes super small batches” of spirits.

“We did that purposely,” he said. “We wanted to be similar to how micro-breweries were 20 or 25 years ago, where everybody was super small, local and not real big.”

Michele and Jarin Gelhar opened Plank Road Distillery in 2019. Photo Courtesy of Plank Road Distillery

?Another differing aspect, Jarin said, is that everything’s made in the shop.

“People can see the stills – it’s all right there,” he said. “We’re pretty much an open book.”

Jarin said Plank Road does spirits tastings, but also offers cocktails.

“For example, we do a plank of four cocktails for $15, and we change (part of) the menu every couple of weeks,” he said. “That keeps people engaged because they don’t know what’s going to be on the menu. We’ll take some favorites away and add some new favorites. It’s a revolving experience for people.”

For the distillery’s specialty cocktails, Jarin said they combine their base spirits with local ingredients.  

For example, they currently are offering a Strawberry Basil-infused Vodka Lemonade.

Jarin said Plank Road has also created its own version of a Bloody Mary, as well as its own version of an old-fashioned. 

“There is a local family whose parents had an old-fashioned recipe they created when they had a supper club back in the day,” he said. “Today, that family has an old-fashioned mix we use. It’s sold throughout the state. It’s a great local product, and we use it for the mix, along with our corn whiskey and some sour soda. That’s our version of what I’ll call a classic Wisconsin Supper Club Old-Fashioned. It’s one of our better sellers, obviously, being in Wisconsin.”

There are other specialty drinks on Plank Road’s menu, as well as special seasonal releases.

“We’ll work with local maple syrup and honey producers and do, for example, a barrel-aged maple syrup, and then fill that barrel back up with a whiskey or something like that,” Jarin said. “We share barrels with a meadery in Kaukauna and do some unique things with them back and forth.” 

One of those offerings, he said, is a fermented honey – like a honey wine – they barrel-age in whiskey barrels.

Long-term success
Jarin said he describes their business model as being “somewhat counter-intuitive,” adding that only time will tell how successful they’ll be long-term. 

“It’ll be a retrospective look to see if we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “We’re not in distribution – so we’re not in liquor stores, or bars or restaurants. People can currently only purchase our spirits at our shop. We don’t compete outside of the greater Sheboygan County area much.”

That said, Jarin said Plank Road customers have come from all over the world.

Plank Road’s award-winning rum – which is twice-distilled from “Sugar in the Raw and Black-strap Molasses” – earned the Gelhars the distinction of having the second-best craft rum distillery in the country in USA TODAY’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards competition in 2022 and 2023.

That’s not the only award Plank Road Distillery has won.

Just two short years after opening, Jarin said Plank Road was named the fourth-best new craft distillery in the country in USA TODAY’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards 2021 competition.

Jarin said business has continued to grow organically and mostly through social media and word-of-mouth.

Earlier this year, he said, they doubled their production capacity by purchasing, commissioning and installing a second still.
Though, by most Wisconsin distillery standards, Jarin said Plank Road remains small.

“We feel there are good regional distilleries around the state, like in Milwaukee, so we don’t feel like we need to compete in those markets,” he said. “We love being local, and we encourage people to come in with their friends, see the distilling process from the bar and experience the sights and smells of the distilling process. And we encourage people to ask questions. We’ll tell them everything about the distilling process.”

Historic location
Believed to be the oldest building in Plymouth, the building that is home to Plank Road Distillery at 601 Eastern Ave., Jarin said has had many lives.  

Built in 1846, it was originally a stagecoach inn.

In approximately 1848 it became a blacksmith shop and remained so until the 1980s.

Sometime after that, Jarin said, it was a church.

There are some items remaining from the blacksmith shop days that Jarin said he is happy to share with customers.
“We embrace the history and when people ask, we share it,” he said. “It’s kind of cool.”

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