Middle West Spirits

So a couple of years have passed since my last review — and you know what? These guys haven’t changed one bit. They are the NICEST people and STILL love their jobs. I was on the hunt for their bourbon barrel maple syrup, and they went out of their way so I could get it.
I haven’t tasted it yet, but I’m sure it’ll be just as wonderful as their other products.

Hands down, the boys at Middle West do what it do baby! The OYO brand is one of a kind. I literally have a bottle at my house at all times. The Vanilla Honey Bean is my absolutely favorite and is very fun to use when mixing cocktails or just straight up in a glass, resting softly in my hand.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting both Brady and Ryan and they’re super cool. If you’re into learning more about the spirit making process, you’ll fall in love with their tours. *Side Note* at the end of the tour, you get to sample their full line up. Yum!

Took the Distillery Tour last night. Loved it. Great facility, The staff was remarkable, and the product, well that speaks for itself.
Erik was the name of our our guide and he knew his stuff! I walked in thinking I knew a thing or two about bourbon whiskey but after leaving you could have called me John Snow because I knew nothing.
My favorite spirit was the OYO Whiskey, with a honorable mention to the OYO Barrel-​Finished Honey Vanilla Bean Vodka.
Do yourself a favor and take the tour. You will never look at vodka’s or whiskey’s the same. *The only reason I gave it 4 and not 5 stars because they do not have a liqueur license yet so I couldn’t partake in near the quantity I would have liked. But I will revise to 5 stars once the city issues there license. Which will hopefully be soon.

Perhaps something died in the batch of OYO Vodka I sampled… «fermented gym socks»

My Favorite Whiskey in the market is made by OYO Middle West Spirits
extremely flavorful, at the same time strong. It’s really a fantastic addition to any liquor cabinet. I’ve never been on any of the tours, however I hear its a good time.
I strongly suggest trying it out if you haven’t already.
So far I’ve gotten a bottle of their liquor for:
My birthday
Valentines day
and last Christmas
and every time Its the best gift hahaha

I’ve done the distillery tour with tasting twice here now and it’s always a lot of fun. On our tour today was a photographer from the Wall Street Journal who’s apparently doing an article on the place. These guys are the real deal.
Ryan (the owner/​tour guide) is knowledgeable, engaging, and entertaining. The free samples of their vodkas and whiskies don’t hurt either!

Came here recently for a tasting event at the distillery. All I can say is wow. I was very impressed with everything about this place. The owners are incredibly nice and the tasting was very informative. They have an amazing attention to detail and quality. They have an impressive set of equipment and in addition to the tasting, they gave us a bit of a tour and explained how they make the spirits.
The building is very neat.
The tasting was amazing. Their dedication to quality is evident when you taste their products.
Imagine my surprise when we went to buy a bottle and found that they are only roughly 32 – 35 $. I have paid two to three times this much for something with a quarter of the flavor and quality that Middle West Spirits delivers.
I’ve never had a favorite distillery, but now I do.

I’ve been obsessed with OYO Stone Fruit for quite some time, but today cemented my belief that Middle West is one of Columbus’s true treasures.
I spent the day gift shopping and swung by Middle West to pick up a bottle not realizing that they were not open on the weekend. One of the owners, Brady, happened to be putting something in his car and offered to help me without me even having to ask. Unfortunately they were out of the regular vodka and the gift recipient I was buying for is a martini drinker. Brady not only let me know where I could find it in stock but gave me a gift bag and ribbon free of charge.
Fantastic vodka and top notch service that goes above and beyond expectations? Middle West may be my new favorite local company.

OK now I’ve taken the «whiskey class» which the distiller educates you about the industry, while somehow getting us to pay to do his manual labor!!! Worth it! Got to start a batch of whiskey while tasting a bunch of different whiskeys and learning why they taste different.
All in all, this place is awesome, the owners are fully invested in the product and its all Ohio sourced and made. Frequent this place and buy their products! You can’t go wrong.

Not only do the spirits offer interesting flavors with a great story, but the overall presentation and tour was really informative and entertaining. The head-​to-​head taste challenge was «eye opening» into the world of vodka. I would highly recommend the tour and the spirits… they also have a really clever at-​home barreling concept launching right now. You can barrel-​age your own cocktails… and it’s a really cute gift!

I recently visited Middle West Spirits for a tour of their facility after having a buddy that attended OSU introduce me to their products some time ago. However, only saying that Middle West makes great products would be understating their importance in the Columbus community. Not only do they make great products using predominately local products, they also have collaborated with other great local businesses such as Jeni’s and are solidifying themselves as a staple in the community and embody many of the qualities that it takes to make a small business successful. As one writer indicated the owners seem very passionate and that carries over in the quality of their products and is also reflected by their involvement in the community with their participation in various local events. It says a lot to me when you can observe the owners doing grunt work with the rest of their employees in the distillery when showing up for a tour.
I’m very excited for what the future holds for Middle West and for the expansion of their distillery that is happening in the near future! I am also excited for the release of a new wheat based whiskey being released in November that I had the opportunity to try during the tour. It was quite delicious and warmed my belly with its aged four years goodness.
So if you are in the Short North area of Columbus and would like to learn more about the manufacture of quality spirits (reservations would be recommended for the tours) or would just like to pick up a quality vodka or whiskey, Middle West Spirits is highly recommended.

Went here on a Groupon. Got there late because the local traffic and traffic lights are a nightmare at 6:00pm on a Friday. Leave plenty of time!
The owners are really passionate about spirits. They live and breathe for the product, not the profits. They hope for profits, but the product is more important. At least to them, but probably not their accountant! Very small place, cramped but the tour (really a talk) was very nice. They could go into much more detail than most would understand but kept it high level so even a non-​drinker like me could grasp most of the details.
The products they have reflect their passion. Tasty, even to me. Way too strong for me, but most people tolerate the alcohol better than I do! I bought a bottle of their honey vanilla bean.
We drove over 100 miles for this tour/​tasting. It was worth the drive. Recommended.

I called Middle West to see if they would be interested in teaming up with us for our Movember fundraising efforts. To say they were enthusiastic is such an understatement. In just a few short days, we went from a possible tour and tasting to raise money to a full blown kickoff event during one of Columbus’s biggest events, Highball!
I am so thankful to Brady and team and would love to work with them again! They truly value their customers, community and above all else really love what they do!

Middle West Spirits is run by some really great people who are trying to do some really great things. Even if they never make another batch of booze they have positively affected our state and our community by getting some laws relaxed, allowing for new business to be created. Already, other distilleries around Ohio are popping up and producing money for our economy simply because they are able to open thanks to Middle West. These gents are using Ohio grain and Ohio honey, further influencing and helping the Ohio economy.
Now besides all the good they are doing, the do make one hell of a product. I used to say that if I was to open a bar, vodka would NOT be in it. Vodka is just a pointless product with no intrinsic value or flavor. Now, I am reformed. If I was to open a bar, the ONLY vodka I would sell would be OYO Vodka. I love their product! It is the first and only vodka that I can drink neat. Flavorful and robust, yet mixable. If you want your classic clear flavorless spirit, you can keep it. If you want to get drunk just to get drunk, go buy your Grey Goose and Everclear. But if you want to enjoy the art of imbibing like wine connoisseurs and scotch aficionados, you need to give their product a try.
I think my personal favorite in their line is the OYO Honey Vanilla Bean Vodka. For the most part, I hate flavored Vodkas even more than regular ones, but OYO Honey Vanilla Bean is different. You still have the subtlety of the OYO Vodka yet a smooth, pronounced Honey flavor is detectable, followed by a beautiful oily vanilla that coats the throat. Mmm, delicious.
All in all, this is the type of company that you want in your city! Putting money into the local and state economies while making a superior and unique product that is bound to grow in popularity.

The «Vodka» is technically more like white whiskey, but I’m not complaining. It’s crazy delicious. Yeah, I said it… it tastes GOOD! Usually, V is brewed to taste like nothing, but MWS distills theirs to this gorgeous minerally finish that makes it taste like super-​expensive water from somewhere on top of an Alp. And it makes you thirsty, and you want more, and then you’re hammered. Neat, barely chilled is the best way to experience this bliss. Their infused Vodka (honey vanilla bean) tasted like candy corn to me, which was good, but not my favorite — plus vanilla beans don’t come from Ohio, which, invalidates the «philosophy» of this otherwise really well thought-​out clever mission. The aged whiskey has been okay, but they need to keep it in the barrel a little longer, it tasted kind of young, but yummy.
Ohio-​made, all of it, sourced here, distilled here, bottled here, named after here, sporting a big buckeye tree on the bottle. (They were working on getting the bottles blown in Ohio, last I checked, which would also be awesome, since they now come from Italy). It’s the best-​made premium spirit I’ve bought in a while, and worth every penny. The guys who run this shindig are amazing men, and if you can stop in for a tour of the place, do. You’ll fall in love.

I want to bathe in a vat of OYO Vanilla Honey Bean vodka. Oh, and the regular vodka is tits, too.
Thank you, Middle West, for making amazing booze in the ‘bus.

You have to see and taste for yourself.
You know a good thing when you see it. And this my friends, is a great thing.
My fellow Unilocalers have done a great job giving cred where cred is due and so honestly, there isn’t much I can add that hasn’t been said. BUT I will tell you that I’m not a huge vodka drinker, but I LOVE sipping OYO. No mixers needed. (Although dirty martinis with OYO are my favorite). Their honey vanilla batch is just absolutely amazing.
They do group tours and hearing their story is simply inspiring.
Keep up the good work, guys. Columbus is lucky to have you.

At Middle West, you can walk in and buy a bottle of their award winning OYO vodka, and soon you’ll be able to buy a bottle of their new whiskey, which will be for sale in just a few short months. You can even get yourself a Middle West T-​shirt if you’re so inclined.
However, I am telling you not to stop there.
Get a couple of friends. Call ahead. Ask for a tour.
Let Brady or Ryan take you through their business, as they show you the entire process from getting the raw grain to bottling and sealing the final product. It’s a fascinating use of a few hours as they take you through everything, explain the hows and whys of the distilling process, share their philosophies behind the business, and give you glimpses of their future — both in terms of products they’re working on for the future, and how they intend to keep shaping and expanding their space as they move forward.
In just a few months, they plan to complete an on-​site grain silo and mill so they can give local farmers a better price for directly purchased wheat.
In the next year, they plan to have the facility run off their own solar panels, and to sell their surplus electricity to the city and their neighbors.
Soon, thanks to a collaborative project with OSU, they’ll start selling used mash and waste cuts of alcohol to local farms and businesses.
Every step of the way they’re working to make their project more sustainable and more valuable to their community.
But the best reason to take the tour is to see the passion that these guys have for what they do — in Ryan’s case, it’s literally a tradition that has been passed down in his family for generations, and the pride he takes in each bottle, every step of the way, is amazing and inspiring.

THIS is why Columbus is my favourite city («greatest city of all» — props to Cheryl H. for that one :) No matter how strong my wanderlust is, no matter how many cool things I see and do, or where I’ve lived or will live around the country and the globe, the most impressive thing about Columbus, Ohio compared to all others is endeavors like Middle West Spirits — a liquor microdistillery and purveyor, yes, but also a small agro-​business (their term), a locally-​conscious, environmentally-​conscious, sustainable, and all around just… gawdamm!, GOOD couple of dudes doing something they love and giving back to (and educating!) the immediate community. And it’s something inherently — Ohio — about the way it’s done. Does it get better than this? No, it does not.
I went on the distillery tour today with a bunch of my fellow Unilocalers (love!), and didn’t really know what to expect, but was duly impressed. Ryan, one of the owners/​distillers, gave us an incredible, in depth, and very care-​filled history to the process, including a description of all the laws that have to be changed just to have people like us inside the building (oh, Ohio!). One of the things that endeared me most to their project was the integrity with which Ryan and his partner-​in-​distillery Brady approach it. They don’t cut any corners — if there is something that needs changed — for example, having tastings in the distillery — they approach the feds directly and get the law amended. And the due process is worth the wait.
I actually had to cut out a bit early and missed the best part — the tasting! But I’ve had the OYO (O-​why-​o) vodka before at Knead, and it’s fantastic — it tastes like a smooth whiskey almost, which is just incredible. Ryan mentioned that the OYO vodka just came in 7^th in the WORLD at a recent competition, against big name imports like Grey Goose — how amazing is that??? It’s the most incredible vodka I’ve ever tasted, and as a whiskey drinker, that means a lot. So, of course I am very interested to see how their whiskey turns out. When the green is in my favor I can assure you I will be buying bottles of this fine liquor as gifts (to others AND to myself — squee!).
The love with which this whole process of distillation — the actual vodka (and now whiskey!) — is evident in the final product. We watched as Ryan dipped a just-​bottled and corked bottle of local– honey and fair-​trade-​vanilla vodka into wax and stamped it with the Middle West Spirits seal (which actually almost made me shed a tear, not gonna lie). The sense of historicity («Oyo» being the original pronunciation of the Ohio River, if I recall correctly; the hand-​done sealing wax, etc), local product use and pride, community, and the emphasis that Ryan placed on Ohioans (and Americans in general) understanding local ingredients and their connection to the land and to place… it was enough to hook this historian for life. You can be sure that if I could give more than five stars, I would.
I’ll be back, Middle West. And I’ll recommend the bloody ‘ell out of OYO. Simply amazing. Every aspect. Eff yeah, Ohio!

I went to Middle West Spirits for their Open House Collaboration with Jeni’s Splendid. First off, it was a great event. Well done! Second, Middle West Spirits is a really cool business venture! Really down to earth local people making good booze. I like it! The distillery was amazingly clean. (maybe they spruced up for the event?) Probably not, because I hear they do tours every Weds. So, they have to keep on their toes. I’d like to take one of those tours since they were sooo busy during the event last night I couldn’t figure out what any of the cool gadgets were for.
On to the drinks. They have a really great bottle design and logo that makes me want to buy AND a reasonable price tag for artisan small batch vodka at $ 34 a bottle I believe. Right now, They have just their flagship vodka, which they were sampling at the event. As a vodka lover I can say that OYO has the MOST flavor of any vodka I’ve ever had. While one would think that means you would want to drink OYO neet or on the rocks vs. mixed, I would choose the latter. I was not loving the flavor of the vodka, but could imagine it making a great classic mixed drink (Moscow Mule at Mouton). So, alas I did not buy a bottle for myself. BUT, I am really looking forward to trying their vanilla bean (soon to be released) which smelled much smoother than the flagship OYO. They are also coming out with a whiskey, for those whiskey lovers.
I realize not everyone can love everything so you should definitely try OYO for yourself and get a tour of their cool distillery! I like Middle West and am looking forward to their company growing in our community.
PS: they also sell cool t-​shirts with their brand on it!