There's a red barn just off Route 1 in Newcastle that will soon be welcoming visitors to come in and see how liquor is made. On July 1 Split Rock Distillers will open its doors for tours … and tastings of its bourbon, white whiskey, gin, vodka and rum.

Matt Page and Topher Mallory have spent almost four years learning and fine-tuning the skills required to operate the first 100 percent organic distillery in Maine. There are only a handful of them in the United States and around 22 in the world.

The two entrepreneurs met at a mutual friend's birthday party around 10 years ago. They were the only two men at the party, and found themselves drawn to the kitchen, and the refrigerator, where the beer was. They quickly discovered they shared a passion for climbing, their dogs and fine spirits.

The idea of opening a distillery first reared its head over, of all things, drinks in a bar, after a Thursday night climbing gym session. While enjoying some bourbon, the two began conversing about some of the different things they'd dreamed of doing. One of those things, it turned out, was a mutual interest in the process of distilling.

The dream soon became a fixation, and they started traveling around the country to visit distilleries and learn all they could about the process.

Eventually they bought the barn at 16 Osprey Point Road that had housed screen-printing and wood carving companies. They knew it was going to take some work to convert the space into a clean, modern, practical but aesthetically pleasing distillery and tasting room. “We both had a vision of what the building could be,” Page said. “We spent the first six months gutting it.”

Using only 100 percent MOFGA-certified organic grains for their booze, the pair will soon begin reaping the rewards they've spent, and are still spending, upwards of 15 hours daily to achieve. “We've been working really hard so we can work really hard,” Page said.

Both are married and each has a young child. And Mallory, the CEO of Mexicali Blues, and Page, a licensed site evaluator and co-owner of Ken Cotton and Associates in Bristol, have been putting every “spare” minute into their new business.

It's not hard to get caught up in their excitement and high spirits when you meet them. They take great pride in the fact that they use only organic grains — wheat, barley, rye and corn — and source everything they can locally. They'll use only specially raked organic Maine blueberries for the blueberry vodka and Maine botanicals for the gin.

And local farm animals get to reap some benefits. The by-product of the liquor, the grains, goes into large bins and is transported to a nearby farm in Edgecomb. “We're providing a free MOFGA-certified organic animal feed,” Mallory said. “We've heard that some animals prefer the bourbon recipe over the vodka.

The process of turning grains and water into alcohol is mind-boggling to anyone who isn't familiar with it. At Split Rock, it starts with 26, 50-pound bags of grains. They are carted, by hand, up a ladder and poured into the cooker, or mash tun. Water and enzymes are added, and the stuff cooks for four or five hours. After “crash cooling,” yeast is added and fermentation begins. After fermentation is complete — three to five days — the liquid goes into the pot still. “And then it's rock 'n roll,” Page said. The stilling is around a five-hour process.

From the still, the booze is transported into its respective column — whiskey, vodka or gin — and finally to the condenser column. The fun part is when the finished product is being poured out of the condenser spout.

When you go through the front door into the tasting room, a glass wall provides a peek into their operation. Page said he loves to see people's wide-eyed reactions the first time they walk in. The enormous gleaming copper and stainless steel pot still is something to behold. “We picked the largest still we could find,” Mallory said. “It barely fit in here.” That, combined with the three floor to ceiling distillation columns and the condenser, make for a mind-bogglingly impressive display.

There's a “Thank You” wall covered in metal plaques engraved with friends’ and family's names, and photographs of many of the people who helped make their dream a reality.

One of the photos shows Page on his hands and knees, drawing on the concrete floor of the distillery room. “I bought a playground set of chalk,” he said. “I was literally drawing shapes showing where the still was going to go, and where a wall would be. We stood back and looked at the drawings and said, 'Yeah, I think this is how it's going to look.'”

Mallory and Page don't call themselves 'master distillers.' They say they still have a lot to learn about liquor and the process of taking it from organic grains and water to bourbon, vodka, gin and rum, but to hear them talk about it you'd think they'd been doing it all their lives.

When the doors open on July 1, they'll be offering tastings, and impromptu tours, as well as scheduled ones. “We're both going to be here at all times. Page said. “Topher and I are the face of our brand, and it's going to be us greeting you when you come through the door. That's our name on those bottles.”

“We want people to become educated about the process to make it as clear as possible,” Mallory said. “And to know that the organically processed grain went into the mash tun with our own hands, and that the spirits were produced and bottled right here, by hand, in our little building.

“We'll hang out, maybe share a drink, and hopefully teach you a thing or two about what we've learned during our journey.”

Page pours an inch of brown liquor into a glass. “One of the most rewarding things about this whole thing is that we get to continually monitor the spirits,” he says. “Every couple days we look at the color and get a feel for the smell, and maybe take a taste. Then we'll look at each other and say, 'We like this!' Wonder what everyone else will think.”

Split Rock Distilling was named for a dirt road the two have traveled often — a shortcut between their homes.  

Visit Split Rock Distillers’ web page at http://www.splitrockdistilling.com and Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/splitrockdistilling/?fref=ts.