Gin

Take your juniper seriously, consider flavor compatibility, keep safety in mind … and never be afraid to experiment.

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.

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.

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.

Higher-proof spirits can unlock new levels of flavor potential—but how do you get there with balance while avoiding the pitfalls?

Barrel aging is a complex process that can take decades to master, but every distiller should at least understand the outlines of the journey.

A range of filtration tools and techniques allows the distiller opportunities to clean up the flavor profile and clarity of their products.

Botanically driven distilleries can level up their R&D with hundreds of individual distillations and macerations. Here’s what to know, so you can decide whether such a library is a smart move for your distillery.

As master distiller at Bombay Sapphire, Anne Brock combines creative interest in botanicals with the scientific approach of an organic chemist, testing various ingredients and distillation methods while prizing consistency of flavor.

A handful of distillers are looking to temper ABV without compromising flavor to provide something more for moderation-minded consumers.

Honey has more than mead up its beverage sleeve. Here’s how distillers work with it to balance bitterness, add floral notes, and speak to the nature around them.

Beyond its use in liqueurs and bitters, tea can also be a foundational piece to distilled spirits. Here’s how two distilleries are taking very different approaches to those flavors.

Distilling in Florida’s hot and humid environment, and producing spirits specifically tuned for cocktails in a tourism-driven locale—those are the major guideposts for the creative direction of these sibling distilleries, as well as for their methods of barrel aging and adding flavor.

Smaller distilleries can tap into flavors and opportunities that may not be available at larger scale, whether that’s to support modest growth or simply to make the best possible spirit.

When it comes to diluting a spirit before packaging, deliberate slowness has a strong following among distillers. Yet there’s a lack of hard evidence to back up the approach—or to dismiss it.

The available data around flavor impacts is unclear—even contradictory—but this much we know: Distilling a range of strengths for the barrels will give you a broader range of blending options.

Aging barrels on rivers and waterways offers distillers a unique profile—and an intriguing story—for their spirits. However, there are some legal and technical challenges to overcome.

Oh, the sweetness of loss… Here’s how and why the slow, inevitable reduction of cask-aged spirit plays a valuable role in its maturation and flavor—and why some people try to prevent it anyway.