Cheese to Booze? How This Wisconsin Family Created Award-Winning Spirits

What happens when Wisconsin’s biggest family-owned cheese producer also makes world-class spirits? Meet Mullins Cheese—processing over 9 million pounds of milk daily, transforming it into Italian-style cheeses, cheddar, and parmesan. But that’s not all! The Knowlton House Distillery takes dairy innovation one step further by distilling spirits from milk sugars, turning byproducts into vodka and gin.

Join us on this epic Wisconsin adventure, from massive cheese vats to craft distilling, and discover how this third-generation dairy family is redefining farm-to-table—and farm-to-bottle.

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Locations Featured:
Mullins Cheese – Wisconsin’s largest family-owned cheese producer
www.mullinscheese.com
Knowlton House Distillery – Craft spirits made from cheese byproducts
www.knowltonhousedistillery.com

Chapters:
00:00 - Episode Overview
00:57 - Intro – A Wisconsin Love Story Begins
02:15 - Arriving at Mullins Cheese – The Dairy Powerhouse
03:30 - Tour of Mullins Cheese Facility
04:00 - The Science Behind Cheesemaking – Pasteurization & Standardization
06:20 - So Many Cheese Curds!
07:20 - Curds Formed Into Blocks of Cheese
08:30 - The Whey Process – Separating Cheese from Spirits
12:30 - The Start of the Process – Milk Sugars into Beer
13:55 - The Still House – Distillers Beer into Vodka
15:50 - The Heads and Hearts – Separating the Good Stuff
16:20 - “All Gin is Made from Vodka” – The Process Explained
17:03 - Preparing Botanicals for Gin – No Secrets Given!
17:49 - Adding Botanicals to “Bitty” – Crafting Unique Flavors
20:30 - Luke Attempts to Bottle Fresh Gin
22:08 - Bloopers & Behind-the-Scenes Fun

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💬 What’s your favorite Wisconsin cheese or spirit? Let us know in the comments!