Iron Smoke Whiskey Crosses the Country: New York’s Applewood-Smoked Bourbon Lands in California
There are distilleries that play it safe — standard mash bills, familiar flavor profiles, distribution strategies that hug the coasts where the name already means something. Then there are distilleries that build a cult following in their backyard and eventually make the jump to the country’s most competitive spirits market with something genuinely different to offer. Iron Smoke Distillery out of Fairport, New York, is firmly the latter. On June 15, 2026, the company announced it has made its full portfolio available to licensed California retailers, restaurants, and bars through an expanded partnership with LibDib, the San Jose-based web-based wholesale distributor — marking a significant moment in the brand’s decade-plus journey from a backyard smoker in upstate New York to one of the most ambitious craft distilleries east of the Mississippi.
The announcement came jointly from Fairport, NY, and San Jose, CA, with Iron Smoke Distillery describing LibDib as its mechanism for making its full portfolio available to licensed California retailers, restaurants, and bars through online ordering. It’s a move that signals Iron Smoke’s confidence in its product lineup and its willingness to compete in a state where shelf space is precious and bartenders have seen every gimmick in the book.
Born in the Backyard, Built in an Old Can Factory
Understanding what Iron Smoke is bringing to California requires understanding where it came from — and the origin story is one of those only-in-America tales that sounds almost too convenient until you actually taste the whiskey. Iron Smoke was founded in 2011, in a backyard over some whiskey and a loaded smoker, when founder and chief trailblazer, musician Tommy Brunett, came up with the concept of combining two great American pastimes: great bourbon and whiskey making with an added subtle hint of applewood BBQ’s smoked goodness.
Iron Smoke Distillery was founded in 2011 by musician Tommy Brunett along with partners Ron Kirshner and Steve Brown. What started as experimenting in Brunett’s backyard with corn whiskey and charred apple chunks ended with the Iron Smoke spirit known today. The concept was deceptively simple: take the American tradition of slow-smoking food over hardwood and apply it to the grain before distillation, rather than borrowing the peat-smoke technique the Scots had been using for centuries. The result was something with familiar bourbon bones but an entirely different personality on the nose and palate…