Power native is a Montana rennaissance man. He’s a farmer, an engineer, a brewer and now a distiller. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Montana State in the early 2000’s, and took a job out of college that led to international travel and a curiosity in the world around him.

“I worked at Semitool in Kalispell for about seven years,” Pfeifle said. "That took me all over the world and, even end up in Scotland for a year and a half.”

While in Scotland, Pfeifle and his wife developed an interest in craft brewing and whiskey and traveled all over Europe sampling regional brews and spirits.

“When you're in Scotland, you got to do what you do in Scotland,” Pfeifle said. "And we went to many distilleries and tried many whiskeys made by the Scots, which obviously they do a fantastic job. So I got a taste for single malt whiskey.”

But agriculture is in his blood, and the call of the family farm in Power was too strong to ignore.

"The farming bug got me and the sitting in a desk bug didn't get to me,”Pfeifle said. “So I switched gears and came back to the farm about 2008.”

For generations, Pfeifle’s family raised barley for industrial breweries, including for MolsonCoors just a stones throw away from their farm in Power. But Ryan had other ideas and uses in mind for the grain raised in Central Montana.

“When I was engineering in Kalispell, I got into home brewing, but I had a problem. I couldn't use my family's barley to make my home brew because there's a middle step called malting,” Pfeifle said. "So through that, I learned about craft malting and decided that would be a great thing. A great fit for our farm and a great fit for central Montana.”

Pfeifle designed and built his own mallting machine and started producing craft malt for local breweries under the name Farm Power Malt.

Eventually Ryan went to malting school in Canada and met the Serenelli family from Argentina who ran a distillery called La Alazana in the Patagonia region. Through that relationship and exchange of ideas and processes, Pfeifle came up with the idea to create single malt whiskey in Central Montana.

He built a facility in Power and installed a custom made still and created a distillery called Farm Alazana.

"Single malt whiskey is the perfect fit for central Montana. Because 100-percent of whiskey, is 100-percent malted barley,” Pfeifle said. "And what do we grow here in central Montana? We grow fantastic malt barley.”

But it’s not just a passion project for Pfeifle. It’s a practical endeavor.

Beer consumption is in decline across the United States. According to numbers from the Brewers Association, overall beer production and consumption declined by 5% in 2023.

Barley orders from industrial breweries have been cut, and Montana producers feel the effects.

If fewer people drink beer or beer consumption goes down that will obviously filter back to the farmer eventually with lower prices,” Pfeifle exclaimed.

So an added value operation like a whiskey distillery can help offset those losses.

"I mean, one way we can combat that a little bit is doing what we're doing here and kind of cut out the middle man or make a high quality product,” Pfeifle said.

Farm Alazana whiskey is still a few years away from release as it ages in barrels. But Pfeifle hopes it’s just the start of what could be a growing industry in Central Montana.

“We're perfectly positioned in central Montana to to make some of the best single malt whiskey in the world. So I hope someday there are a dozen in this area,” Pfeifle said. "And that would lead to tourism and people traveling here, like they travel to Kentucky for bourbon, or they travel to Napa Valley for wine. So I think central Montana can be the the center of single malt.”