BENDT Distilling Co. – Lewisville, Texas
Whiskey distillery in historic Old Town Lewisville, Texas. Tours are offered weekly on Friday and Saturday, with reservations available online. A full craft cocktail menu is offered, with non-whiskey cocktails available (vodka, rum, gin, agave), as well as house-made craft sodas. Bendt also offers guided tours, a craft cocktail bar, and live music.
Stylish distillery featuring handcrafted whiskies, guided tours, a craft cocktail bar & live music. BENDT whiskey is made from local Texas grain, grown just down the road from the distillery. Here at BENDT, we believe that using local ingredients is the best way to create the most delicious whiskey possible, while also supporting local farmers, seed companies, and malt houses. Our grains come from local farms via MBS Seed (Denton, TX), and our malt is from both TexMalt (Ft. Worth, TX) and Maverick Malt House (Wilderado, TX).
History
Still battling a global pandemic, 2021 did not start with much improvement over the previous year. Some of the restrictions of 2020 were loosened, but individuals were still cautious about living life as it was pre-Covid. However, by summer, business picked up and we began seeing familiar faces in the tasting hall again. Tours and events resumed, and the world seemed to be on the right track.
By fall, it was clear that life and business would return to “normal”. Whiskey production was back in full swing and we were able to hire an additional distiller, Karson Kasberg. And with the holidays just around the corner and BENDT Whiskey Cake sales on the rise, it only made sense to bring on a full-time baker. Monica joined our team in November 2021 and helped expand our tasting hall menu offering, now including all fresh-baked breads.
Early in 2022, the time was finally right to release a new kind of Texas whiskey. UNBENDT Bottled-in-Bond series uses Texas grains, is made grain-to-glass in-house, and has been aged in a 53-gallon bourbon barrel for more than four years. The time had come to show how Texas grains, Texas distillers and Texas heat can come together to create something truly special and unique to the state we call home. Eventually, all components of our flagship blend, BENDT No. 5, will be released individually through the UNBENDT series.
2022 was also a year for the team members who had survived the pandemic together, working side-by-side through some of the darkest times, to come together and acknowledge that #teambendt held a bond that went beyond the day-to-day work schedule. The first-ever “BENDT Family Vacation” was taken to Colorado, where we camped by the river for a week, and visited our friends at Colorado Malting Company.