Krobar Craft Distillery

KROBĀR Craft Distillery is the San Luis Obispo, California craft spirits operation founded in 2010 by Stephen Kroener and Joe Barton — and one of the most editorially distinct California craft-distillery operations because of the founders' deep dual-roots in the broader Central Coast California wine industry. The "KROBĀR" name is a combination of the founders' last names (KRO from Kroener, BAR from Barton), and both founders maintain parallel careers in California Central Coast winemaking: Kroener makes wines at Silver Horse Winery south of San Luis Obispo, while Barton continues winemaking at Grey Wolf Cellars in Paso Robles. The cross-category wine-and-spirits production lineage gives KROBĀR a genuinely unique editorial identity in the broader American craft distilling scene.

The founders' approach to launching KROBĀR was deliberately rigorous. After deciding in 2010 to expand from winemaking into distilling, the pair spent a month studying and sampling at Kentucky bourbon distilleries (an unusual pilgrimage for California-based founders), then spent another two years researching production methods and equipment before launching the distillery. The result is a production setup with three distinct production stills, allowing KROBĀR to run multiple spirit categories in parallel without the equipment compromise that constrains most craft distilleries operating on a single still.

The product range covers KROBĀR Bourbon and KROBĀR Rye Whiskey (the aged whiskey programs — the brand's editorial centerpieces, both winning awards at ADI's Annual Judging of Craft Spirits in 2018), KROBĀR OG Gin (a flagship juniper-forward gin), KROBĀR Barrel-Rested Gin (a barrel-aged variant), KROBĀR Pink Gin (a unique gin aged on lees in used red wine barrels, all distilled from 100% grape distillate — a production approach that brings the founders' winemaking heritage directly into the gin program), KROBĀR Vermouth (white and red expressions), KROBĀR Bitters, and a rotating range of seasonal limited bottlings. The 100%-grape-distillate gin program in particular is essentially unique in American craft distilling.

The San Luis Obispo visitor experience anchors the Central Coast craft-spirits scene that's grown up alongside the broader SLO and Paso Robles wine-country tourism economy. KROBĀR pairs naturally with the surrounding Edna Valley and Paso Robles wine tasting room circuit, putting visitors who would otherwise be on a wine-only itinerary in front of a craft-spirits stop that genuinely speaks to the same regional agricultural-production context. The cross-category wine-and-spirits founder lineage gives KROBĀR an editorial credibility within the broader Central Coast wine-tourism economy that essentially no other regional craft distillery can match.