Rob Masters is happy to be back at work. The Family Jones Spirit House distiller, only 46, has lived a lifetime of battles, each of which he has whipped and come back from.

He’s battled cancer three different times. He’s faced chronic illnesses since being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis at age 12 (he was later diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease). He lost his entire colon to a cancerous polyp. He had more than half his liver removed thanks to bile duct cancer – it grew back, but the cancer returned, forcing him to have a very difficult liver transplant just last year.

Let’s just say that it’s been a journey.

“My body doesn’t like itself,” Masters joked during an interview.

He’s not kidding. A more complete mission of self-sabotage by a human body might be tough to find. But Masters has remained not just resilient, but upbeat. And that’s even with, through his ordeals which hit their peak in 2022-23, his wife Heather being diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing a double mastectomy in 2023.

“It was a pretty gnarly year,” Masters said. “2022 and 2023 were pretty crazy. “We both went through some pretty crazy stuff, but here we are, everybody’s doing well. For the most part, I’m back at work and we’re cranking away.”

After the transplant last February, he slowly worked his way back to Family Jones and is back to at least close to 100%. All the lifelong hockey fan Masters has gone through has taught him valuable lessons. He’s passed those lessons onto others.

‘The Small Stuff’

Masters offers a hockey analogy for his situation, and that is that “a season is longer than one game. It’s bigger than one person.” Basically, you take your lumps and keep moving forward with the determination to win the next game. 

Upon hearing one of his later diagnoses, his response to his doctor was, “OK, good to know. What’s the plan and how do we fight it?”

And after that? “You put together that plan,” he said, “and you go, and you fight like hell.”

Masters said his many illnesses and setbacks have changed his outlook on life, and how he faces each day. It’s helped him focus and made him stronger. It’s helped him fully appreciate his role and team at Denver-based The Family Jones.

“It’s kind of a cliché, but don’t sweat the small stuff,” he said. “I used to get pretty wound up at a 2-star review in the tasting room. I’ve always been pretty good at looking at the bigger picture. But now I’m even more don’t sweat the small stuff. There so much more to life than worrying about the little things.”

Part of his healing has come through turning his experiences into positives for others, from counseling others who have dealt with cancer and other illnesses to mentoring young distillers and aspiring whiskey makers. It was a transition, because he’s been focused on distilling for nearly two decades.

“I bounced around and learned how not to be a distiller,” he said. Through this shift, he opened a consulting business called Epic Distilling, a company that helps upstart distilleries get up and running. And even though Family Jones is where he calls home, where his blood, sweat and tears go, he still enjoys counseling others.

“I get energy and strength from helping others go through things I’ve already been through, whether it’s health or business,” Masters said. “I’m always happy to take time out of my day to help people figure things out.”

He points out that whether he is offering his methods or even recipes to distillers in other states, even if they replicate those things exactly, the product will be different. That’s just how whiskey-making works.

“That’s what I love about this industry and what we do,” he said.

The State of the Whiskey Industry

Discussing the current whiskey industry, be it tariffs or different drinking habits in young consumers, Masters said, “Everything’s rough right now.”

There are many factors. He cites the economy – basic staples of life like milk and bread simply cost more now than ever before. That tends to curtail socializing and drinking. He also cites weight stabilizing drugs like Ozempic, which millions of people currently use. Masters notes they are doing “amazing things” for many people, but with a downside for the whiskey industry.

“People who used to drink three or four cocktails or glasses of wine an evening, they now don’t have the appetite for it,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said, Boomers are aging and drinking less, Gen Xers are beginning to get sober, and Millennials and Gen Zers are far more health conscious and what they put into their bottles. They want to know what’s in everything, he said.

“We make poison,” Masters said, “so, it’s only so safe and harmless.”

But, much like with the other aspects of his life, he will continue to push forward, turning grains into the best whiskey he can make. There would be no point in turning around after coming so far.

“Don’t look back,” he said. “You can’t go back and change anything.”

-Kevin Gibson

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