BAKER CITY — Roughly 10,000 years before the invention of writing, human beings brewed alcohol, both accidentally and inevitably. With fermentation being a default of our earliest efforts to store fruit juices, wine simply invented itself.

And though the ice age has receded, and the brewing tradition has since been refined, you can still taste both at the Glacier 45 distillery in downtown Baker City.

Owners Ryan and Kaylin Chaves set out roughly 10 years ago to establish their distillery, when they invested in the Main Street space after years of operating the Kicks sportswear shop one block south.

Testing the waters

“My wife and I started Kicks sportswear in 2008, and about 10 years ago we were in the top 100 entrepreneurs in the United States in Main Street businesses,” said Ryan.

Around then the Chaveses decided to move on to a product with a different kind of kick after taking courses in Colorado on the art of distilling. They also learned that most manufacturers lean on efficiency, and together decided that their own products would aim for quality.

For nearly two years they went through the meticulous process of building their facility, licensing their business and branding their products, which was harrowing from an investing standpoint.

“You’re bleeding money before you can start bringing in money, which is so stressful because you’re hoping and praying you’re going to get your license,” said Kaylin, adding that those starting out will be harder pressed than ever.

Everything in the setup is closely monitored. The site and its working conditions, the methods and materials are all inspected — even the labeling needs a federal stamp of approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

“Did we look back and think twice in the two years process? Definitely,” said Ryan. “If you can’t handle the heat, you shouldn’t do it. If you can’t get the money, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t have backing, you should not do it.”

While this was underway, the Chaveses started marketing, even though they didn’t have even a bottle to sell.

“For one year before we released the product, we had family members, friends, anybody we had acquaintance with, when they would go into restaurants in Oregon or Idaho, they would ask for Glacier 45,” said Ryan.

The clever approach paid off with some large orders once doors opened officially, and since then they’ve continued to grow into their new role.

Keeping their cool

The liquor industry as a whole has had some turmoil, especially in these last few years.

“We were, I think, three years in when COVID happened,” said Kaylin. “And thank goodness we had a really strong brand already, and a good loyalty to our brand, but it hurt us bad.”

Some of their lower-priced competitors saw some boom from the pandemic, according to Ryan, especially as citizens simultaneously coped with the pandemic and lost income to spend.

Kaylin says they’re still managing lockdown losses, but otherwise they were confident their product would win out, and for now they are seeing business carry on steadily.

On another front, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in Oregon shutting off vodka imports from Russia as the conflict escalated.

“Hell, we’ll lose 20 accounts in one week and gain 50 in another,” said Ryan, though he notes most of the import market has been redirected into the cheaper vodka distilleries.

The Chaveses say that some of their most important customers are casinos in Las Vegas, which have been fundamentally rocked by the lockdown years, despite some of the city’s newer attractions.

“I don’t know how these places are even open, there’s hardly anybody in them. It’s like a ghost town,” said Ryan.

Regardless, Kaylin says they’re slowly taking over the world, one shot at a time.

Ryan adds that they’re even planning to expand sales into Mexico, and that during the lockdowns they were contacted to supply the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the UK, but couldn’t fill the order at the time.

Thinking forward, they’ve recently developed a phone app that will show anyone how to mix a cocktail almost instantly with an array of their products.

Mixing history

Ryan says his great-grandparents had narrowly missed boarding the Titanic, with tickets in hand even, before opting onto another ride to join the United States and settling in Durkee.

“My family immigrated in from Portugal,” he said. “My grandfather, Art Chaves, had Chaves grocery here for a long time.”

Ryan’s father, Richard, still runs Chaves Consulting, located in the Baker Tower.

In addition to vodka, Glacier 45 has built some renown for its limited-production Carroll Shelby whiskey, named for the historic racing entrepreneur. Baker City used to host drag races at the airport runway north of town, and Ryan says he still hopes they make a comeback.

At 98 proof (Shelby’s racing number), the whiskey might actually be strong enough to start a race car. Ryan says that they also support the Shelby Foundation, which offers medical and educational support to kids in need.

Their Shelby stock was made with unique influences, combined from a special palette of alcohol flavorings. In many raw materials the flavors and smells we love are themselves a form of alcohol, including the smell of cut grass.