The founder of T12 Distillery still plans to build in Bondurant’s Grain District, but has along the way opened a distillery in West Des Moines.
T12 earlier this year bought the assets and is now leasing the former space of Foundry Distilling Co. in The Foundry building at 111 S. 11th St. in Valley Junction. T12 took over May 29.
T12 is continuing to fill orders that had been placed with Foundry Distilling and is selling Foundry’s remaining products before it’s able to start making its own in about a month. But T12’s founder said the West Des Moines distillery will continue to build its own style as it ultimately becomes a satellite location for the mixed-use entertainment district in Bondurant he’s helping develop that would include a distillery inside a converted grain silo.
“I love the way it looks and the character of it,” T12 founder Scott Turczynski said.
Turczynski said the West Des Moines location just presented the right opportunity. Foundry Distilling owner Scott Bush wanted to take a step back, and “I was looking to dive in,” Turczynski said.
T12’s West Des Moines location will continue to have many of the offerings Foundry Distilling had — a private barrel club, custom bottle design, a tasting room, a speakeasy in the back, a private space upstairs and bar hours Thursday through Saturday.
But Turczynski said he plans to add more. He wants to have more spirits, including whiskeys, gin, tequila, and imported mezcal and rum. He may add live entertainment. He plans to expand T12’s product presence in stores, along with merchandise including clothing, hats, glassware and flasks.
T12 has added three new tanks for the distilling process. Foundry Distilling did not handle its own grain, but T12 will also keep quantities of corn and wheat onsite, Turczynski said. T12’s main bourbon will be a wheated bourbon.
Turczynski said he wants to give a portion of profits to spinal cord injury research.
T12 Distillery is his passion project, named after the spinal cord injury to the T12 vertebra in his thoracic spine that was the result of a 6-foot fall in August 2010 from the top of a retaining wall.
What’s the timeline for T12 Distillery in Bondurant?
City leaders and developers broke ground in July 2025 for the Grain District in Bondurant at 100 Lincoln St. N.E.
The Grain District will transform the 25-acre former Landus Cooperative site, which went up for sale in 2021 because of old age and damage from the August 2020 derecho. The site includes 140-foot-tall grain silos that would be turned into hotel rooms or condominiums, as well as become part of T12 Distillery.
T12 Distillery’s planned location has been touted as the first fully wheelchair-accessible distillery in the United States.
Turczynski said June 26 he hoped to open a building in the Grain District within the next year or two that would serve as a tasting room, a place to sell merchandise, and possibly a speakeasy.
The silo conversion is at least five years away, he said.
What is happening with The Hall in The Foundry?
T12 Distillery in West Des Moines would remain open once the Bondurant location opens, Turczynski said.
The Hall — a former beer hall and eatery — remains empty next door to T12’s space at The Foundry. The Hall’s former tenants allegedly stopped paying rent and stole property from the site last year after the city denied them a liquor license, according to a lawsuit the building’s owner, The Foundry DSM LLC, filed in February. A trial has been scheduled for June 2027.
Turczynski said he doesn’t know whether he’s interested in leasing The Hall. If he did, he would not operate it as a beer hall but instead as an event space and for storage.
Phillip Sitter covers the suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at PSitter@usatodayco.com. Find out more about him online in the Register’s staff directory.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: T12 Distillery takes over The Foundry building in West Des Moines
Reporting by Phillip Sitter, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Phillip Sitter, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
