Using the barrel to get a more intense oak presence or caramel-forward flavor into your whiskey may not be as straightforward as you think. Sydney Jones, supervisor and lead distillery technician at Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky, lays out some recent findings on char and toast—plus, some tips on finishing whiskey in spirit casks.
The growing segment of “good for you” consumables can help a distillery tap into a different customer base—but there are key legal considerations to know.
The sour cocktail is a time-honored approach that offers a universe of variations to explore.
Because you get only one chance to make a first impression… In an increasingly competitive environment, craft distilleries should consider premium packaging options to pair with their small-batch products.
Much of whiskey’s flavor comes from maturation on oak. Sydney Jones, supervisor and lead distillery technician at Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky, explains why—and how both climate and entry proof can dramatically affect that impact.
Gin production begins with a complex series of questions, and it only gets more interesting from there. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure path that can lead to countless variations.
Explore ways your distillery can improve sanitation processes and tank-cleaning performance to produce the highest quality spirits.
This Asheville producer is mining a history of local folk medicine and foraging to produce spirits inextricably linked to their place.
There’s more to whiskey than grain alcohol and a barrel. Fermentation can do more than create ethanol—it also creates flavors that will be further developed by the still and the wood. Sydney Jones, supervisor and lead distillery technician at Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky, explains the process and the wider potential.
For distilleries that are proud of their product, standard operating procedures are the way to ensure it gets made the same, every time.
We can nudge the classic tomato-based cocktail in countless directions, and it deserves more than a cursory nod on the brunch menu.
Just because the spirit made it into the bottle doesn’t mean it’s across the finish line. Proper care and handling upstream are important to ensuring it retains the proper color and flavor all the way into the consumer’s glass.
Sydney Jones, supervisor and lead distillery technician at Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Kentucky, isolates the components of whiskey-making, zooming in on all the many decision points that a distiller can use to affect whiskey’s flavor.
Higher-proof spirits can unlock new levels of flavor potential—but how do you get there with balance while avoiding the pitfalls?
Customers generally expect a visually pristine spirit or cocktail. As a distiller, you should know where haze comes from, how to address it, and when it may actually be desirable.
To create novel flavor profiles, Western distillers are increasingly embracing a mold that is traditional in many Asian food and drink fermentations —and they’ve only begun to tap into its potential.
Barrel aging is a complex process that can take decades to master, but every distiller should at least understand the outlines of the journey.
Traditionally distilled in the backyards of the Balkans, rakija is rising with help from a new generation focused on character and quality—and they hope to find a willing audience in the United States and beyond.
While chocolate and whiskey are a classic pairing, chocolate cocktails can range from the familiar to the mold-breaking—and there are many combinations that work, so experiment away.
Here’s how one brand built a new spirit category entirely from scratch, looking to the natural, native ingredients of the region it set out to celebrate.
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