I’ll just lay out my biases right away: I’m enamored with Stein Distillery. It fulfills my idealized notion of what a rural, craft micro-distillery should be. They opened shop in Joseph, Oregon back in 2009. Ever heard of the town? If you are outside of the state, likely not. It’s a square mile in the northeastern corner Oregon that’s home to about 1,000 people.

The Steins farmed wheat there for generations, but also picked up some experience in construction, engineering, and moonshining—all skills that would come in handy when wheat prices bottomed out. They ordered a Bavarian dual column still…