LIVE from Jasper’s Kitchen

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

We’re taking a road trip, Kansas City, and we’re headed to Baldwin City, Kansas, to explore a unique destination that brings, today, craft distilling and a working orchard — Baldwin City Distillery and Orchard. It’s not just about producing high quality spirits, it’s about honoring the land, using locally sourced ingredients, and creating a true farm-to-bottle experience.

Joining us today is Glynis Murphy and master distiller Daryl Kleitz, of course, the passionate team behind Baldwin City Distillery and Orchard.

We’ll dive into the story behind the distillery, how their orchard influences their spirits, and what visions they have, and what’s going on right now in the distillery.
My friends, welcome to the show.

Glynis Murphy

Thank you for having us.

Daryl Kleitz

Thank you.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Oh, thank you for coming on. Glynis, tell me a little bit about the history and inspiration behind Baldwin City Distillery.

Glynis Murphy

So, my husband, Rory Murphy and myself, bought the farm in 2009, and we just wanted a place to work. We were living in the city. We wanted a place close by that we could, you know, go out and experience nature and just enjoy, our time there. And it turned out to be that it was an old, abandoned apple orchard.

And we decided, oh goodness, you know, let’s see what we can do. And, together, we kind of worked all our free time. We went out to the orchard. You know, it was very, wonderful. It was a good feeling to get our, you know, hands in the dirt, and feel like we were doing something for this orchard that had been so badly abandoned.

Over the years, we went ahead and planted a lot of different vintage apple cider apple trees. And, actually, there were about, we have currently about 42 different varieties. And so those went in about 2014. So, between the period of 2014 to 2017, we were planting apple trees, cleaning up the orchard, and so that’s how the orchard started developing here in Baldwin City.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Wow. I had no idea. Now with over 1500 trees. And I have to ask you because, I mean, Daryl, this is really unique what you’re doing. What types of spirits do you produce?

Daryl Kleitz

When we distill everything down, we make about every kind of class of spirit out there. We make agave spirit — which is tequila — vodka, rum, and we do Bourbons. Brandy is our staple, because anything in the fruit class is going to be designated as a brandy-type spirit. So, what we do, we cook all those apples down, ferment them, and we make those in what’s called apple brandy.

So that is kind of a staple of the orchard that’s our primary focus. That’s what we really consider our top-notch quality product. And then we make a variety of flavored products inside of there. We make a variety of flavored vodkas, flavored whiskeys, things like that. So, it’s a full-service distillery across the board, but apple is our primary.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Wow. And Darryl, of course, you being the master distiller, how does your background come into this? How do you find out about this and get involved with the distillery?

Daryl Kleitz

I’ve actually got a long history with distilling. I started kind of as a sideline moonshiner probably 15 or 20 years ago. I worked at Sprint as a career, and kind of as a hobby, was making moonshine out in the garage or in the barn on our farm.

That turned into — I opened my own distillery, I believe it was about 2014, somewhere in there. I opened my own distillery, ran that for about eight years. Worked with other multiple distilleries — you might recall a distillery, Bull Creek Distillery in Spring Hill. I help them get up and going. I worked at Good Spirits Distilling an Olathe, which is an industrial style distillery. There’s about six distilleries tied to that, and I was the operations manager. I made, all the spirits, all the formulas, everything. And that’s a very, very large, nationwide distribution. So, it’s massive amounts of vodka, things like that.

And the way I got in with Glynis, was I had actually left that place, kind of semi-retired again, and Glynis called me out of nowhere, out of the blue here. What was the Glynis, about July? Probably June.

Glynis Murphy

Yes. Late June.

Daryl Kleitz

Yeah. And she kind of told me her story about her distillery and the situation with her husband, and how he had recently passed away, and she was really struggling, trying to find a way to finish this dream of hers, that her and her husband shared. So, what that turned into, obviously caught my heart string, caught my passion. It was a little off guard, but once we kind of got to know each other and delve into what she’s doing, what her goal, I’m all in. So that’s kind of how I landed in this, and probably the better story is Glynis’s side of how, you know, she got through this to the point that we’re at right now.

So, we’ve been at this about six months. We’ve already got what we got was probably 12 or 15 products out for sale. We finished out the tasting room where you can come into the distillery, we put all the stills in, and we’ve been a really, really busy team. She is fantastic to work with — a very hardworking, goal-oriented person. So that’s our success so far from my side.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Wow, what a story. No kidding. Glynis. That’s what I want to ask you now. What can visitors expect when they come to Baldwin City Distillery and Orchard? Do you offer tours? Tastings? I know you said a tasting bar. And how about special events?

Glynis Murphy

So, since we’re so young, our main focus is to make everybody feel comfortable and relaxed in an atmosphere where they can taste the spirits that we make, and then try the same spirit in our cocktail bar. Right now we are in winter, right? So, we don’t, we don’t have our outdoor space available.

However, in the summer or fall, we have an outdoor space that, it’s kind of a winding path that goes down to a firepit near the pond, and people can sit out there, enjoy the sunset, or wildlife that comes in. We have a lot of native grasses and wildflowers that they can enjoy seeing, you know, birds come in. We have geese, ducks.

So, it’s very pretty in the warmer months. But in the warmer months, we have some fun times. Yes.

Daryl Kleitz

So Glynis, it is a beautiful orchard, and it is an amazing place to just kind of relax and enjoy an afternoon. So it is.

Glynis Murphy

Right. It is.

And, so as far as tours, yes, we plan on doing those. Right now, it’s by appointment, but we have a website — baldwincitydistillery.com — where people can sign up on the contact page, and then we let them know special events that are happening.

We have musicians, live music that come in. We try to promote local talent. Baldwin City is an amazing place. I’m going to give it a little plug in here. The people are amazing. The talent that is here is amazing. So, I’d like to showcase that in my distillery. And, I don’t have any TVs in my distillery. People need to talk to each other. It’s an art, I think, that we need to bring back. And, so that’s my focus.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

I really like that. And also, you told me earlier, that you plan on having classes where Daryl can actually teach people the basics of distilling — or as he likes to say, maybe moonshining at home.

[laughter]

Glynis Murphy

I’ll let Daryl add to that one.

Daryl Kleitz

Yeah, that is part of the plan. There’s a lot of things that come to the distillery. Just from the entertainment, the cocktail bar, the tasting bar where you can buy things. But we also want to, you know, bring in the public and let them be a part of the learning process around distilleries.

Kansas, historically, doesn’t have this type of thing happening in it. It’s just recently that this has kind of opened up to the public to be able to come into these distilleries along the Kansas side. You know, so it’s one of those things we want to invite the public in and educate them on what we do, how we do it. It’s fairly new to the Kansas side of the house.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Well, I am excited about this. Of course, I’m excited about the tasting bar and cocktail bar.

This is unique. This is something that’s great for Kansas. It’s great for Baldwin City, of course.

Just love what you’re doing. I mean, I looked at the list — apple brandies that you’re making, rums, vodkas, agave, of course flavored whiskeys and flavored vodkas. Those are hot, hot, hot right now, I’ll tell you that.

[laughter]

Glynis Murphy

Yes. We sold out of the blackberry and the cinnamon whiskeys quite quickly. We’ve done another batch. Darryl is fantastic and trying to keep up with all of that.

We’re excited. I mean, we have a product — I think our apple brandy is going to be I think — it’s the first Kansas apple brandy, if I’m not mistaken, grown in Kansas.

With all these different varieties — and some of them I’ll just name you know — like King David, Saint Martins, Port of Perfection, you know. You go on Bramley seed gallery, you know, Roxbury Russet. I mean, you have all of these components in your brandy. And each year that we distill, it’s going to be a different brandy, because we have different varieties that come mature in different years.

So, we’re aging some, and we have some unaged brandy as well. But the aging brandy, we’re totally excited about that, because I think this is uniquely Kansas. And …

Daryl Kleitz

Yeah, if I could add, we just emptied out quite a few bourbon barrels that we’ve made our bourbon out of. And then we took that brandy, and we filled those bourbon barrels back up here recently. So, we’re really excited about this aged brandy. It’s going to be amazing.

The other thing you haven’t talked about, as a first for Kansas, is Glynis would be the first woman owner of a distillery in the state of Kansas.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Oh, I didn’t even think about that. That is fantastic. I mean, there you go. You know, little things like that, you know, that’s what set you all apart. Baldwin City Distillery and Orchard, of course. It was established in 2020. You can go you-pick in the fall. We’ll get you back on in the fall to talk all about that.

But making these brandies — and what a beautiful story about your husband, that you told me, and about the brandy — the first apple brandy. I love it. Thank you both for coming on the show today. I really appreciate it.

Kansas City, you need to go there. You need to find out more about it. Go to baldwincitydistillery.com.

This is unique. It’s handcrafted spirits and something that you won’t find around Kansas, especially from a woman, that’s, you know, the first woman distiller here, in Kansas City in the area here. I love it.

Glynis Murphy
Thank you. Thank you for that.

Jasper Mirabile, Jr.

Well thank you. Thank you both for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. And, Darryl, Glennis, I wish you both much and continued success.

Glynis Murphy

Yes. Come visit us, Jasper. Anytime.

Daryl Kleitz

Thank you, thank you. Yeah. I look forward to seeing you in the tasting room. You’ll enjoy it.