Our Story

From five guys in sauna to a global team and a portfolio of rye spirits

Finnish Sauna

Like so many brilliant Finnish ideas and half of the population, the concept for this all-rye distillery was conceived in a sauna. We – Mikko, Jouni, Miika, Miko, and Kalle – sipped on a rye whisky for the first time together, and a relevant question arose: with rye thriving in abundance in the brutal Finnish climate, and having been a culinary staple for centuries, why hadn’t anyone thought of turning it into whisky yet?

Somewhat surprisingly (given the amounts of rye consumed that night) the idea of starting our own distillery still felt right the next morning. And so, the Kyrö Distillery Company was born.

The old Dairy

In search of a home for the distillery, the founders first visited a family farm in Isokyrö. Although charming, it didn’t quite live up to their ambitious plans. Then, on their way to a planning session (read: dinner and drinks), they noticed a disused old dairy, filled with cars as the old dairy workers had leased it as a garage to maintain the building.

The first distillation

It was finally time for the first distillation: our Head Distiller Kalle’s parents went on a vacation, during which a section of their house was turned into a fermentation hall. Within a week, the outcome was mushy distillers' beer, and a smell that would later become very familiar. The closest proper pot was hundreds of kilometres away at Finland’s first craft whisky distillery – Beer Hunters in Pori. They were kind enough to let us use their still for our first batch, provided that we transport it there ourselves.

from dreaming to daring

from new make to a pop-up bar

The result of our first attempt was a clear liquid that smelled and tasted exactly like moonshine. At the time, it was difficult for us inexperienced distillers to tell whether this clear liquid would ever age into a good-tasting rye whisky.

So, in order to get professional feedback quickly, Miika flew to the Whisky Show in London. He smuggled in samples and poured them into drams for tasting in the men's toilets. He went from stand to stand with these samples. Encouragingly, this "New Make" received a lot of positive feedback.

After that, it was time to step on the gas. In 2014, the still was heated up for the first time in the old dairy and the first drinks were served at the "Isokyrö Tourism Agency" – a pop-up speakeasy bar in Helsinki. The bar was visited by two types of guests: Friends of the founders and confused elderly people who were perhaps after something different.

NAPUE GIN: Sold out

Once the first batch of whisky was resting in its barrels we realised that it would be important to have something else to sell while waiting for the whisky to mature. So, we made a gin.

And, as it turns out, the gin was really rather good. In 2015, when Miika was on a cycling trip in Estonia, he received a phone call:

“We know nothing about your distillery, but your gin has been selected as the best gin for gin & tonic. We suggest you prepare yourselves before the award goes public.”

So prepare we did. And we sold out of Kyrö Gin within two days.

Today

Our distillery has grown from a wild dream to a craft powerhouse encompassing skill and capacity.

It all started with rye whisky in the sauna, and rye remains at the very core of Kyrö Distillery, which is why all of our spirits are made with 100% rye. It may be the hardest grain to distill due to its temperament, but we will still only ever use Finnish wholegrain rye in our products — be it whisky, gin, liquor, or anything else.

In 2019, we finally launched our long-awaited Kyrö Malt Whisky.

In 2020, we sold more hand sanitiser than gin, adapting to the times and providing the public with what was needed.

In 2024, we launched our Kyrö Vodka, becoming a part of a long-standing Finnish tradition.

And who knows what we'll do next.