Outlaw Distillery acquired Adventurous Stills, which has been operating at Fifth Street and Price Road since 2015. The transfer of ownership to the Utah distiller was made official May 30.
A grand reopening party with food trucks and a DJ is scheduled for June 21.
The distillery and adjacent tasting room occupy a 2,500-square-foot facility in an industrial area of east Tempe. Like its previous iteration, guests can still take a group tour, order a flight of spirits or sip on any of the specialty cocktails featuring in-house-made syrups and mixers.
While the name has changed, the dedication to using Arizona-grown ingredients remains, says Outlaw Distillery owner and head distiller Tyler Halstead.
At any time, there are at least 10 spirits representing both Outlaw and Adventurous labels. They encompass bourbons, whiskeys and vodkas. Among the rum lineup is an Outlaw vanilla bean rum infused with raw Tahitian vanilla beans. Staples of the Adventurous Stills label, including the Peralta Bourbon, North Rim Single Malt American Whiskey and Picket Post Vodka, will continue to be made onsite with corn from the Four Corners region and Arizona durum wheat.
“There are no changes to the recipes. It is still local grain-to-glass,” Halstead says.
Outlaw Distillery owner Tyler Halstead will continue to craft Arizona grain-to-glass spirits onsite a the Tempe facility.
Georgann Yara
A 'win-win' move
Halstead grew up in the town of La Mirada, on the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties, where his father still works in construction.He used his background in tech and finance in the film business, working for a major studio. Halstead grew weary of what he called the “fake nature” of the city and moved to Utah, where he found respite in a country setting that was the polar opposite of the one he left.
Halstead needed a job and found one at Outlaw, working for its founder Kirk Sedgwick in 2020. At the time, Sedgwick was looking to hand off the ownership reins after his father and co-founder had passed away.
Sedgwick and Halstead bonded immediately. Sedgwick found the ideal person to hand the mantle to and sold Outlaw to Halstead that year.
Halstead continues to run Outlaw’s original distillery in Sandy, Utah, and now splits his time between the two states. What both distilleries have in common is a dedication to using local ingredients, partnering with local farms and doing all production in-house, Halstead explains.
“There is no difference from a production strategy,” Halstead says. “(Adventurous Stills founder) Kelly (Lattig) and I always saw eye-to-eye on that and we share those same values.”
Four years ago, Halstead took an Adventurous Stills tour that would be career-changing. Impressed with his industry colleague’s operation, he kept in touch with Lattig and followed the company's progress.
Meanwhile in Utah, Outlaw faced challenges that roiled many small businesses emerging from the pandemic. The state's strict laws regarding the sale and consumption of spirits had already made operating the distillery’s retail and tasting room more difficult.
For Lattig, Adventurous Stills was his post-retirement plan following a more than 20-year career in the semiconductor industry. But he didn’t intend it to be a permanent one and longed for an actual retirement.
Their respective professional paths appeared to serendipitously dovetail.
“At some point, the conversations led to (Outlaw’s) expansion,” Halstead recalls. “It was the best way to give both distilleries a fighting chance.”
Lattig called the ownership change a “win-win.” He is pleased that Halstead will continue the Arizona grain-to-glass model.
“With the philosophy of buying local grains and making spirits from scratch in-house, we’re really well aligned,” Lattig says. “I think it’s fantastic. I’m happy for Tyler.”
Utah-based Outlaw Distillery officially acquired Tempe-based Adventurous Stills in May.
Georgann Yara
Ideology echoed in a glass
Already, Halstead has big new ideas for his Tempe spot. A portion of the sales from the featured cocktail-of-the-month benefits a local non-profit. June’s cocktail, a cucumber vodka lemonade, will support The Joy Bus, which delivers fresh and healthy meals to cancer patients.
For the spirits, Halstead is brainstorming using different kinds of local grains like quinoa and citrus, such as Arizona oranges, as a base. Classes that focus on aspects of the craft, such as fat-washing cocktails using non-traditional ingredients like pecans or avocado, are in the works.
Halstead also wants to give his establishment a coffee-shop vibe where guests can pull up a chair and work using Outlaw's Wi-Fi while sipping on a cocktail, non-alcoholic refresher or water. A few people have wandered in and used his space as their office for a few hours.
Halstead talks about the significance of the Outlaw name. It refers to the historical connection between Interstate 15 and its locations along the way likely used as routes and hideouts by outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That highway stretches from Southern California to Alberta, Canada, and passes through a bevy of western states, including Arizona and Utah.
While it may take some time for Adventurous Stills fans to get used to the new name, Halstead believes it is a perfect fit not only for the distillery but for anyone who wants to swing by and give its wares a try.
“Outlaw is an Arizona ideology. You’re not a criminal, you don’t rebel to be bad. It means you’re a little bit of an underdog,” Halstead says. “Whether you’re a vodka or whisky drinker, a professor or gun-toting cowboy, it means being unapologetically yourself.”
