BAKER CITY — People have been distilling alcohol for a few thousand years, and although Ryan and Kaylin Chaves opened Glacier 45 distillery in downtown Baker City a decade ago the couple has dealt with what can feel like a century’s worth of challenges.

A global pandemic, most notably.

But also Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has affected the worldwide market for vodka, which is Glacier 45’s signature spirit.

The distillery also produces gin, as well as a whiskey and vodka honoring the late Carroll Shelby, a race car driver and designer.

The Chaveses set out almost 10 years ago to establish their distillery after years of operating Kicks Sportswear in a Main Street building one block south of the distillery at 1901 Main.

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,” Ryan said.

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.

This was a harrowing time from a financial standpoint, Kaylin said.

“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,” she said.

Everything at the distillery is closely monitored.

The site and its workers’ conditions, the methods and materials are all inspected, even the labeling needs a federal stamp of approval from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the agency that regulates and collects taxes on trade and imports of alcohol.

The couple have trademarked several of their products.

“Did we look back and think twice in the two years process? Definitely,” Ryan said. “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.”

The couple started marketing Glacier 45 before they had 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,” Ryan said.

The tactic paid off with some large orders once Glacier 45 opened. And the distillery has continued to grow since.

Keeping their cool

The liquor industry as a whole has had some turmoil, especially in the past several years.

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

Some lower-priced competitors benefited from the pandemic, Ryan said, as people tried to cope with the business closures and other effects but had less income.

Kaylin said Glacier 45 is still managing pandemic-related losses, but otherwise they were confident their product would win out

The conflict in Ukraine resulted in Oregon shuttering vodka imports with Russia as the conflict escalated.

The effects have been mixed.

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

One of Glacier 45’s most important venues is Las Vegas, where casinos were rocked by restrictions during the pandemic.

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

But Glacier 45 has continued to expand its market, including plans to sell its products in Mexico.

They recently developed a phone app that will show anyone how to mix a cocktail almost instantly with an array of Glacier 45 products.

Mixing history

Ryan’s roots are deep in Baker County.

His great-grandparents had tickets on the Titanic’s only voyage but they decided to travel on a different vessel. They settled in Durkee.

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

Ryan’s father, Richard, owns Chaves Consulting in the Baker Tower.

After establishing Glacier 45’s various vodkas, in flavors including huckleberry, blood orange and coconut, the Chaveses started a limited edition series of whiskey and vodka in honor of Carroll Shelby.

The whiskey is 98 proof (49% alcohol) to honor Shelby’s racing car number.

Ryan said Glacier 45 also supports Shelby’s foundation, which offers medical and educational support to kids in need.

Their Shelby stock was made with unique influences, combined from a special pallet 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.

Inside the distillery, some of which is rebuilt over a prior structure, gleaming steel and copper serve to purify Glacier 45’s award-winning concoctions in careful stages.

The Chaveses also make their facility and wisdom available to black label varieties, special batches made in cooperation with other new distillers, which gives them a chance to perfect their craft.