E. Patrick Heist

E. Patrick Heist, Ph.D. is the co-founder, co-owner, and chief scientific officer of Wilderness Trail Distillery and Ferm Solutions in Kentucky. He studied microbiology, earned B.S. M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Kentucky, and later spent six years as a medical microbiology professor at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine. In 2006 he co-founded Ferm Solutions with Shane Baker, and in 2013 they founded Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville, which later became a Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame inductee business associated with Heist.