Craft Distillers of Specialty Liqueurs and Small-Batch Spirits
Find unique distilleries around the U.S. that are devoted to local ingredients and production.
Charbay is run by a family of 12th- and 13th-generation distillers who focus on whole-fruit flavoring for their unique creations.
Clear Creek Distillery makes fine fruit liqueurs, eaux-de-vie, and brandy using locally grown ingredients, including their famed Pear Brandy and a Douglas Fir Liqueur - made from pine buds immersed in alcohol upon harvest in the Cascade Mountains - that tastes most delightfully of a Christmas tree.
Cold River distills its vodka from Maine potatoes for a vodka with delightfully more body that grain vodkas. Try the blueberry vodka made with, yes, local Maine blueberries.
Germain-Robin has been distilling fine cognac-style brandies in Mendocino since the 1980s.
Prairie organic vodka, from the Phillips Distilling Company in Benson, Minnesota (a fifth-generation family of spirit makers) and a co-op of over 900 farmers, is distilled exclusively from organic corn grown near the distillery on three family farms, the leftover corn cobs are gasified to provide energy for the stills.
St. George Spirits produces Hangar One vodkas, Aqua Perfecta fruit brandies and liqueurs, Qi Spirits tea-flavored alcohols, and St. George Single Malt whiskey. The facility in Alameda, California is open visitors and has a great tasting room.
