By Jay Erisman, EQ Wine and Spirits Manager

By now the craft beer revolution in America is complete, as microbreweries and brewpubs have changed the way we think of beer. Now a similar movement is trickling along in distilled spirits. American craft distillers are producing a huge range of spirits, from maple syrup vodkas to tea liqueurs to wild whiskeys and brandies of every stripe. These small stills are truly “micro,” little start-up operations working out of barns and sheds, basements and old airplane hangars.

Given that they require no aging, it’s not surprising that white spirits—gin, rum, vodka —have dominated the early years of the craft distilling movement. North Shore Distillery in Chicago makes a terrific “No. 6” Gin, plus an innovative Danish-style Aquavit flavored with caraway. Tennessee is well known for its whiskey, but Prichard’s makes outstanding rum and liqueur from its small pot stills. St. George Spirits founder Jorg Rupf is an early pioneer in craft spirits, a native of Alsace, France who took his family’s mastery of eau de vie fruit brandies to Alameda, California in the 1980s. Rupf and his distiller Lance Winters are responsible for Hangar One Vodka, among the most thrilling vodkas in the world since 2002; some are flavored with exotic fruits and flowers (mandarin blossom, anyone?). Plus, Lance has a side job: Qi Spirits, a line of stunning tea-based liqueurs. Try the Qi White Tea Liqueur, with mellow tea notes alongside ethereal orange. We even have a microdistiller here in Cincinnati: Woodstone Creek Distillery, in Evanston, released a vodka in 2007, with more spirits on the way.

Though it takes some time to age, whiskey also gets special attention from these modern day alchemists. For his Virginia single malt whiskey, Rick Wasmund malts his own barley and smokes it over apple and cherry wood; the aging is accomplished with chunks of hardwood instead of barrels, for a remarkable whiskey at just four months of age. St. George Single Malt, features an incredible fruity flavor from roasted barley and port and French oak cask aging. And in Tennessee, Prichard’s Double Barreled Bourbon sees the inside of two new charred oak barrels for a delightful one-two punch of vanilla oak flavor.

And brandy is not forgotten, either. Possibly the first American craft distillery is Germain-Robin, founded in 1982 in Mendocino County, California. At this unique distillery, Hubert Germain-Robin, scion of an old Cognac family, avails himself of the fine Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc grapes available in California to craft a one-of-a-kind brandy. The ripe fruit notes of Pinot Noir brandy in Germain-Robin XO are unforgettable.

The beer we drink is very different today than 25 years ago, and with booze like this trickling from every corner of the USA, your nightly cocktail might look a lot different in the future, too. We will revisit many of these producers here on the EQ blog in the future. For now, you can wet your whistle with this brief article, and wait for the next wave of micro-distillates: absinthe.

Tags: American, artisan, brandy, craft, distilling, gin, liqueur, spirits, vodka, whiskey

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