About Foundry Four Coffee & Whiskey

In early 2016 we bought an old dilapidated building. When we walked through the building after purchasing it, we thought it might fall down if we didn’t do something quickly. We knew it had good bones and it was in the heart of downtown Prineville, Oregon, a great Central Oregon ranching community that still held small town, hard working American values and the building had a heritage to match. We decided it was worth saving, so we started tearing the old gal apart to see what we had to work with, and found that the 1929 structure was built with old world quality and was sound. Over the next 18 months we worked to save the space and bring it back to life. In the end we couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. We had an amazing space that needed a worthy use.

Foundry Four Spirits was born to pay homage to the renovated industrial past of the building we saved, and the men and women that worked within its walls. Over the years, since 1929, the building had many uses, including a foundry, an automotive garage, a butcher shop & meat locker, and a newspaper, just to name a few. All uses reflected a long history of hard work and a hands-on maker’s heritage that we now could apply to the forging of American spirits.

In late 2017 we began the lengthy process to create distilled spirits. We have always been avid drinkers of whiskeys and bourbons, and with a nearby ranch, and ranching backgrounds, we had the acreage and the know-how to grow local wheat and rye from which we could create small batch bottlings of farm-to-table spirits. As we learned the distilling process, we found that our initial intentions were unrealistic. We were not able to distill within our industrial space and we did not have the resources to build a space where we could invest in the proper equipment to produce the kind of product we wanted. We turned to our friends at Stein Distillery in Joseph, Oregon to produce on our behalf, creating a special blend from their stock of locally distilled spirits. With this partnership we can begin to learn the distribution and tasting room side of the business before investing in a production facility of our own. No matter the way in which our product is produced, our intention is to maintain the small batch model and provide an ever-changing selection of unique whiskeys and bourbons to distribute through our tasting room and local liquor outlets.

In August of 2018 we expanded the Foundry Four concept to include a coffee bar in the morning and afternoon hours, as downtown Prineville was lacking in options for a great cup of coffee in a relaxing and hip atmosphere. We partnered up with our friends at Sisters Coffee Company to produce and supply our coffee products and we look forward to learning the coffee business with their help.

Life is a journey, and you can never stop learning. Renovating this building has changed us. We saved a historic structure from the wrecking ball and gave it new life and purpose. In turn, it gave us new opportunities and an education. We are looking forward to the next project and all that it might bring with it.