Bacon and booze:: Iowa distillery raises pigs to taste like whiskey

Bacon and booze:: Iowa distillery raises pigs to taste like whiskey

Templeton Rye Distillery has launched the Templeton Rye Pork Project.

Whiskey pork? Yes please. (File/UPI/Stephen shaver)

TEMPLETON, Iowa, May 9 (UPI) --Just when it seemed like there was no way to make eating bacon an even more excessive experience, some folks in Iowa came up with a way.
The Templeton Rye Pork Project was started at the Templeton Rye Distillery in the hope of raising pigs that will taste like whiskey.

The 25 purebred Duroc pigs in the project were born in January 2014 and they are subsisting on a diet that incorporates distillery grain into their food. "As a group who appreciates both flavor and quality, we thought it would interesting to bring to market a selection of heritage breed pigs fed a diet using spent Templeton Rye mash," according to the project's website.

Even at this stage of the project, the distillery is already fielding calls from people who want to purchase the pigs.

"We have a little motto here. My dad always told me, 'Nothing good happens after 12 p.m.' So, it seems like that's when this idea was probably thought of -- after we had a few drinks," distillery co-founder Keith Kerkhoff told WQAD. "I don't think we're going to have any problem getting rid of the 25 pigs."

The final call about where the pigs will end up will be made in June.


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