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Spirits that feature foraged ingredients offer unique flavors while appealing to locally minded drinkers.

Cocktail kits, premixes, premium RTDs, and gift boxes can help provide an extra revenue stream for independent distilleries.

Properly gauging ethanol in a distilled spirit is essential to ensuring proper reporting and avoiding heavy fines from the TTB.

The way a distiller makes cuts will help to define the flavor and aroma of their spirit—but it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Successful collaborations need not be limited to alcoholic beverages. Coffee, chocolate, and hot sauce are among the many products with flavors that may be compatible with your spirits—and with customers who appreciate them.

With an eye toward modern craft spirits, top bartenders share their favorite riffs on two classic drinks: the swizzle and the negroni.

Fruit can be a valuable addition to packaged, ready-to-drink cocktails, but it takes research and care to produce a safe, shelf-stable product.

While ABV and proof are the most common methods for measuring spirit strength, they aren’t the only ones. Here’s a look at two alternative methods that you should know.

Several factors are converging to undermine the broader beverage-alcohol market, and smaller distilleries are among the most vulnerable.

For distillers of any size, the concept of flavor drift can be confusing and worrisome—yet it’s an inevitable part of any product’s life cycle. Here’s what to know about flavor drift and how it can affect your products.

What’s hot at the bar has a direct relationship to which bottles are mostly likely to get a spot behind it. For distillers who want to meet the mixology moment, here’s a look at real-life cocktail trends developing in 2024 and moving on into 2025.

Each failure to impress is a missed chance to get someone to try your spirit—yet packaging is expensive, especially on a smaller scale. Here’s how some craft distilleries are elevating lower-cost bottles for brands that shine on the shelves.

Distiller’s yeast strains are efficient workhorses, but depth of flavor isn’t their specialty. By co-pitching characterful ale yeast strains with other trusted strains—and experimenting to achieve the desired outcomes—craft distillers can get the best of both worlds.

Caribbean distillers produce rums in a range of styles, but those from Barbados and Jamaica are often the most misunderstood. Local yeast and fermentation methods play key roles in their distinctive character.

Craft distillers are taking advantage of the savoriness and salinity of kelp and other ocean algae, producing locally rooted, umami-driven spirits that evoke the sea.

A small craft distillery doesn’t have anything like the marketing budget of the bigger brands—but it does have a home and a story. One of the best ways to tell that story—and to get people to taste your pride and joy—is to offer a memorable tour. Here’s how to do it.

When you’re making whiskey, mashing can be more than a way to get fermentable sugars from the grain. Whatever process you use, there are control points you can use to influence the character of the final spirit.

It’s important to know the specs, but take nothing for granted. In-house quality testing and monitoring of ingredients can help you ensure consistent spirits and avoid big headaches down the road.

How producers design their barrel storage has a major impact on how whiskey ages—and, whether dunnage or rickhouse, one method’s drawback can be another’s strength.

The spicy compound 4-vinyl-guaiacol occurs in many drinks, but among distillers, it’s best known as a flavor component of certain whiskeys—especially ryes. Whether you want to dial it up, dial it down, or just dial it in, here’s what to know.

Don’t take that certificate of analysis for granted—the stats attached to your raw grain or malt can make a big difference in how you ferment and distill a consistent, quality spirit. Here’s what to know.

Spirits made from tree sap or syrup—usually maple, though other possibilities exist—are a widely overlooked opportunity for craft distillers to harness local flavor.

Like big, brown Easter eggs that contain surprises unique to each producer, some unusually shaped oak vessels for aging and blending are appearing in a few distilleries. While they aren’t for everyone, their owners tend to praise their impressive look and small footprint.

Unless you’re working with a single-grain mash bill, writing a whiskey recipe can be a daunting mental exercise worthy of trip to the therapist. From a master distiller, here are some tips to guide you through the process.