Cedar Ridge Distilling founder Jeff Quint is a former accountant and a blues fan from rural Swisher, Iowa, so he was initially dismissive when approached about teaming up with a metal band whose fans are known as “Maggots” and whose albums include “All Hope Is Gone.”

“I don’t think we want to do this, right?” he wrote to a colleague about the proposed partnership with the band known as Slipknot, which Rolling Stone once named “the heaviest band on the planet.”

Mr. Quint’s staff helped educate him on two key factors: Metal fans are intensely loyal. And they increasingly like good whiskey.