DO YOU KNOW WHEN WAS FOUNDED THE OLDEST RUNNING DISTILLERY IN BROOKLYN SINCE PROHIBITION ERA ?17/10/2017
 2010 ! The oldest running distillery since Prohibition Era is just 7 years as I write this post ! This is the Kings County Distillery. As the sun was setting in a vast purple and pink sky, i finally made it to the Navy Yards where the Distillery is located since 2012. I’ve been welcomed by Lia, a Bourbon sommelier who started the conversation with many stories about whiskey tax, bourbon or booze war. Do you for example know when and where did the first distillery ever registered in what is now the USA ?  WHAT BARRELS DO TO WHISKEY WITH TIME.... The “when" is logical, distillation as we know it today is the child of the late middle age, so it couldn’t be happening in the Americas before massive European immigration (no distillation tools dated back to before their arrival are known so far) Indeed a Mr Hirst registered a distillery in 1640. The Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam distilled a kind of Dutch Genever, a grain-based gin infused with local botanicals like hops and juniper berries. And “where” ? …. on Staten Island inaugurating a series of distilleries opening all over the state of New York, and most of all, in Brooklyn. What was distilled in the US at that time ? Many type of ancestors of Whiskey but most of all Rum. Until the end of the English colonization, Rum was the most produced spirit as part of a triangular business involving slavery, sugar cane plantation, etc etc. It changed after the Independence by the end of the 18th century. The English gone, Rum failed in disgrace and was replaced by a spirit easier to produce, specially in a no cash economy, where barter was the rule and excess of harvest could simply not been thrown away. The farmers start distilling their surplus of crops and slowly but surely American whiskey was born. I’m not gonna get further into history, I’ll keep it for a future post, specially when spirit 101 will start a series on whiskey. for the moment, what is relevant for today’s discovery and visit to the King’s county Distillery is that mid 19th century, many distilleries were running in Brooklyn, especially all around the Navy Yards. One of the neighborhood is Vinegar Hills, it was the home of many Irish immigrants who came from Ireland … with their stills. And not without provoking troubles (Brooklyn whiskey wars anyone?). Let’s fast forward. We’re early 2000s, and as we saw in a former post, the law changed in 2007 and 2009. It was becoming affordable to obtain a licence and possible to distill in a city even though you were not a farmer, as soon as you were using grains from NY state. Two friends -David Haskell, a magazine editor and Colin Spoelman, a former architect- who were distilling in their Bushwick home took this opportunity, and this is how King’s county is, despite being quite young, the oldest running distilleries in Brooklyn since the Prohibition Era !!! Let’s start a tour now. Let the slide show begins !!!! Comments are closed.
|