Since 1996, Bendistillery Inc. has produced its vodka and gin — filtered five times through crushed Central Oregon lava rock and mixed with fresh local water and other ingredients.

But it has never actually distilled the alcohol that comprises the backbone of the company’s products, at least not for mass consumption. The company doesn’t hide the fact, said Alan Dietrich, the company’s CEO; it’s just not something the employees actively promote.

Bendistillery buys 190-proof alcohol, sometimes known as ethanol or neutral-grain spirits, from a large manufacturer to make its products, Dietrich said.

That’s about to change.

This week, Bendistillery will take up the role of a full-bore distiller, making gin from ingredients exclusively found on the company’s 23-acre farm, such as winter wheat, Dietrich said. It should hit shelves by the holidays.

Locally distilled whiskey and rum are in development, too.

“The whole history of distilled spirits in the United States was driven by farmers and small producers doing something with agriculture products that they had available to them,” Dietrich said. “All of our (American liquor) styles grew out of excess grains that were available.

“We want to revive that tradition. It’s not (going to be) the foundation of our company, but at least the soul of our company will be the traditional American distilled spirits.”

At least initially, products sourced exclusively from the Bendistillery farm will comprise less than 1 percent of total sales, he said.

The practice of making vodka and other products with neutral-grain spirits likely won’t be disappearing from Bendistillery’s operations anytime soon, but it won’t be Bendistillery’s sole function anymore.

Using neutral-grain spirits from other companies as a key ingredient is commonplace in the industry, Dietrich said, and figures from the American Distilling Institute back that up.

About 60 percent of U.S. distilleries follow that practice, said Bill Owens, founder and president of the for-profit organization.

“A lot of people are building the brand … before they build the distillery,” Owens said. “Reversing it like that is not a problem. You’ve got to pay the bills.”

That’s why Owens thinks highly of Bendistillery for starting to distill gin and other spirits exclusively from on-farm ingredients.

Considered a pioneer in the craft, or microdistilling, industry, Bendistillery has grown in recent years.

In 1996, when the company began, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission delivered a small supply — three or more Bendistillery liquor bottles — to the state’s Top 50 liquor stores, the company’s founder and former CEO, Jim Bendis, told The Bulletin at the time.

“I just want to be known as the guy who makes that awesome gin and vodka,” Bendis said in 1996.

Bendis passed the CEO title to Dietrich earlier this year but remains involved in company operations, Dietrich said.

In 2010, the company moved from a suite in a northeast Bend industrial building to its current location next to U.S. Highway 20 northwest of Tumalo. This year, it has constructed two new storage buildings on the property.

In July, 554 cases of Bendistillery’s Crater Lake Vodka in 1.75-liter bottles sold in Oregon, making it the OLCC’s 103rd best-selling product out of more than 5,000, according to commission data. Bendistillery spirits are also available in 17 other states, according to the company’s website.

Releasing high-quality products at a good value has always been a very high priority, said Dietrich, the current CEO. And that spirit does not appear to have changed much with age.

Brad Irwin, who distills whiskey and other products through his Bend company Oregon Spirit Distillers, welcomes Bendistillery’s shift.

“I’m glad that they’re doing it,” he said. “I’m excited to see what products they’re able to come up with.”

The two companies’ gins are different, and a possible bourbon from Bendistillery would differ from Oregon Spirit Distillers’ C.W. Irwin Straight Bourbon, Irwin said.

“There’s a lot of room for style,” he said.