Rolling River Spirits sits in Portland’s industrial Southeast district, where founders Tim Rickert and Jared Rathbun transformed a former auto shop into Oregon’s most ambitious grain-to-glass operation. These two guys met working at Clear Creek Distillery, where Rickert spent eight years learning the craft before deciding to strike out on their own in 2015. What started as weekend distilling sessions in Rickert’s garage became a full-scale production facility that now cranks out bourbon, rye, and vodka from locally-sourced Oregon grains. The 4,000-square-foot space on SE 8th Avenue keeps the industrial bones of its previous life—concrete floors, exposed beams, steel fixtures—but fills it with custom copper stills and the sweet smell of fermenting mash. Rickert handles the distilling while Rathbun manages operations, and together they’ve built something that feels authentically Portland: unpretentious, quality-focused, and rooted in local ingredients. You’ll find their bottles in bars across the Pacific Northwest, but the distillery itself remains refreshingly low-key, more focused on perfecting their craft than chasing tourist dollars.
