High Bank Distillery Co sits in Columbus’s Grandview Heights area, founded in 2013 by Brady Konya, who left his corporate banking career to chase a passion for craft spirits. The operation started small in a converted warehouse space, with Konya teaching himself distillation through books, online forums, and a lot of trial and error. What began as weekend experimentation turned into Ohio’s first urban distillery focused on grain-to-glass bourbon and rye production. The facility produces around 200 barrels annually using a custom 500-gallon copper pot still from Vendome Copper & Brass Works. Konya sources corn from local Ohio farms and handles every step of production on-site, from mashing to bottling. The distillery doubled its production space in 2018 and added a tasting room that feels more like a neighborhood bar than a sterile facility. You’ll find exposed brick walls, reclaimed wood furniture, and the constant hum of fermentation tanks working in the background. High Bank focuses on traditional bourbon and rye whiskey, but they’ve also experimented with rum and seasonal spirits. The name comes from the high riverbanks along the Scioto River that runs through Columbus.