Pink Bench Distilling hopes to open soon in Troy

Pink Bench Distilling, a new business set to open in Troy, will serve drinks while serving the local community and grizzly populations by advocating for safe human-bear interactions while paying for the local fruit that attracts the bears.

Kristina Boyd and Shawna Kelsey say their business is expected to be open this summer.

Boyd and Kelsey have spent years working to conserve local grizzly and black bear populations. The bears are well-known for getting into trouble foraging for fruit in the Troy area's numerous backyard fruit trees.

"Left unpicked, these trees generate a significant amount of bear-human conflict that almost never ends well for the bears. Pink Bench will run a backyard fruit gleaning program to remove that irresistible fruit and use it to craft apple, pear and plum brandies," a press release states.

They said the birth of the distillery was based on economic development, community development and action. Boyd and Kelsey met while working at a local non-profit 10 years ago.

"We worked together on planning projects and how to use our resources on things that would make Troy a little better," Boyd said.

"We're definitely focused on it being a nice place for people to be there for a while, we're gonna have mocktails, but also cocktails," Boyd said.

It should feel different than either a restaurant or a bar, she said. As the distillery hopes to earn most of its income from distribution, they will be able to stay creative in how they run the distillery, Boyd said. This gives them a lot of freedom to try new things, like different kinds of food or non-alcoholic drinks.

The distribution will start in Montana so they will have to build relationships with liquor stores and hotel bars as they order through the state in the end and not a distributor, Kelsey said.

"Once we get our feet under us in Montana, we will look at expanding in other states, but Montana's No. 1," Kelsey said.

The duo started the Apple Festival in Troy in 2015 with the idea to celebrate all the fruit trees and the fruit tree heritage that Troy has, they said in an interview.

At the same time, they are using it as an opportunity to do bear-aware activities and education at the festival, Boyd said. The festival got them thinking about what else they could do to raise awareness about bear-human interactions.

"The apple festival really was a hit, is still going on and it made us realize that this is a much bigger issue than could be solved by the Apple Festival alone," Boyd said.

The duo would like to be a model in conflict reduction in addition to creating an economic incentive for people to pick their apples, as opposed to just asking people to pick their trees or fencing their trees, Kelsey said.

"Often the quality of the apples is too low to become snacks, but they provide the opportunity to ferment them and make them into a very delicious brandy," Kelsey said.

"It'll create interesting yearly runs of brandy for us every year," Boyd said.

"They are gutting and renovating the 100-year-old downtown building that will house their distillery and tasting room. Boyd and Kelsey are building programs to sustainably source ingredients from the small farms and vast forests that surround the town. They plan to hire locals to grow and forage the fruits and botanicals they will use to craft gins and liqueurs," they said in a press release.

The acquired the building in downtown Troy in 2020, Kelsey said. The building will also have a large outdoor space, they said.

Most of the investors have been local, providing them a way to incorporate the community, Kelsey said.

"So far, almost 50 people have come on board, three-quarters of them local, investing enough for the business to meet its minimum start-up goals. These supporters aren't just donating their money, though. They are true investors who will share in the success of the business as it launches and grows," they said in a press release.