Craft Spirits & Distilling Podcast

Chicago's Maplewood has made quite a name for themselves over the years in both the brewing and the distilling worlds. Four Great American Beer Festival medals, a couple of 99 ratings and one perfect 100 score from the blind review panel at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine®, and most recently a double gold for their Fat Pug single-malt whiskey at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (along with three additional silvers and a bronze). Producing thoughtful, interesting, and beautifully crafted beverages is in the company’s DNA.

In this episode, host Sydney Jones leads cofounder Adam Cieslak and distiller Adam Smith through a ranging conversation that touches on:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

As blender and manager of blending operations for the blend-focused brand Barrell Craft Spirits, Nic Christiansen’s job is to understand flavors, how they develop, and how they interact with each other to create harmonious wholes.

In this episode, Christiansen and host Molly Troupe discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

New York City’s Widow Jane Distillery may be one of the better known craft-spirits brands, with a relatively wide distribution footprint earned through the incredible reputation built by former distillers such as Lisa Wicker (hear her perspective on Episode 3). Now, under the guidance of head distiller and blender Sienna Jevremov, the distillery continues to grow despite the functional challenge of producing spirits in tight urban spaces, and the results of their work capture a certain artful tension and energy.

In this episode, Jevremov and host Sydney Jones explore the challenges Widow Jane faces and the creative solutions those necessitate. Along the way, they discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

Brewer-turned-distiller Christian Krogstad launched House Spirits in the mid-‘00s with a focus on artisanal gin, but he had no idea the botanical spirit they pursued with passion would become one of the larger celebrity-owned-and-endorsed spirits in this recent wave of high-profile acquisitions.

Tinkering with two partners—one a prominent bartender, the other a fellow distiller—their goal was to create a pre-Prohibition-style gin perfect for classic cocktails. But no recipes existed for those earlier gins, so he set about reverse-engineering one from a recipe perspective. The result is now a modern classic and a favorite of bartenders everywhere—but in this episode, Krogstad takes us back to the roots of the creation process, tracks the Aviation’s evolution to the present day.

In this episode, Krogstad and host Mollly Troupe discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

The modes that distillers operate in can vary wildly based on the goals of the business and the avenues for sales. While at the helm of Ghost Coast in Savannah, Georgia, Ken Klehm did it all—a law change allowed the distillery to sell cocktails as long as all the spirits were produced in-house, so Klehm distilled a wide range of spirits and liqueurs to stock the entire bar. Now, at the helm of 450 North Spirits—a family-owned distillery, adjacent to the family’s brewery, situated on a corner of the family’s Indiana farmland—he’s tackling new problems and finding opportunities in ingredients like estate corn, while creating spirits that feel at home next to the sweet and tart fruit beers the brewery is known for.

In this episode, host Sydney Jones and Klehm discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

The last decade and a half have been a whirlwind for Andy Nelson, as the discovery of a family distilling legacy led his brother Charlie and him to pursue and launch the Nelson's Green Brier Distillery to make Tennessee Whiskey the way his great-great-great grandfather did (with a few accomodations for modernity, of course). Along the way, they also launched Belle Meade Bourbon, sourcing and blending, with the requisite learning that that entailed. Now, after selling the majority stake in the distillery to Constellation Brands, Nelson has set an independent course, consulting and helping other would-be distillery founders and operators navigate the same go-to-market maze.

In this episode, host Molly Troupe and Nelson discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

Nicole Austin has spent time in distilleries around the world, but if there’s one thing she’s learned from producing at distilleries both tiny and very large, it’s that no single blending strategy works at every scale, for every product, or with each kind of spirit. Today, as director of George Dickel and luxury American whiskey for Diageo, she has extensive tools at her disposal—from deep stocks of long-aged Tennessee whiskey to modern lab equipment. The nexus of that deeper palette of whiskies with which to blend—and deeper knowledge of those whiskies and how they age—is paying off with a number of releases that are piquing the interest of whiskey lovers.

In this episode, Austin sits down with host Sydney Jones for a distiller-to-distiller conversation on the intricacies of blending. Along the way, they discuss:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

Fourteen years into her career at Clear Creek in Hood River, Oregon, Caitlin Bartlemay recently become master distiller at the respected craft producer. There, she continues to lead a small, hands-on team through seasons of distilling an array of whole-fruit brandies as well as McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt—the first American craft single-malt whiskey.

In this week’s episode, Bartlemay joins host Molly Troupe for a wide-ranging discussion that includes:

And more.

Brought to you by:

[ABS Commercial:](hhttps://abs-commercial.com) For over 11 years, ABS Commercial has been your full-service equipment manufacturer, designing quality distillation equipment ranging from 50L – 5,000L. Whether establishing a new distillery or expanding into a brewstillery, their team of experienced engineers and designers work with you to develop customized distilling solutions. With their consultative approach, they tailor to your production capacity, space constraints, and budgetary considerations to help you create quality, crafted spirits. Contact them today at [email protected] to discuss your customized distilling needs.

Brewery & Distillery Workshop: IIf you’re planning a distillery or brewery launch, adding a distillery to your brewery, or considering purchasing an existing brewing or distilling business, then visit breweryworkshop.com for more information about the Brewery and Distillery workshop brought to you by Craft Spirits & Distilling and Craft Beer & Brewing. Over four days, you’ll learn what it takes to get a successful craft beverage business off the ground, through panel discussions, working group sessions, technical tours, and more. Get your ticket now at breweryworkshop.com.

While Sydney Jones’ last turn in the host chair was an exit interview of sorts, this episode is her entrance interview with new boss, Heaven Hill Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll, as she settles into her new role as supervisor and technical lead for the under-construction $150M distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. In this episode, O’Driscoll shares his insight gained from two decades of distilling for respected whiskey brands, and along the way touches on:

And more.

Brought to you by:

Country Malt Group: Country Malt Group is proud to support craft distillers across North America with a carefully curated portfolio of the best everyday ingredients and supplies, including malt, adjuncts, fruit, yeast, and more! Visit CountryMalt.com/distilling to view their complete list of distilling products, resources, and podcast episodes.

Crafted ERP: Is your brewery, distillery or, ... heck we’ll say it ... “brewstillery” looking for better control of production, finance, compliance, inventory, supply chain, etc.? You want a system that untaps your potential and future-proofs your strategy. You need total visibility into every aspect of your business—and you need it on demand. Visit CraftedERP.com to learn how Crafted meets you where you are today—and prepares you for everything that’s coming tomorrow. CraftedERP.com

Techniblend Craft the perfect blend every time by enhancing the flavor profile of your spirits with TechniBlend’s state-of-the-art blending and batching technology. TechniBlend is the trusted partner of distilleries across the country, providing solutions for unparalleled accuracy and consistency in the distilled-spirits production process. Visit techniblend.com today to discover how our innovative solutions can redefine the art of distillation. TechniBlend: Blend the Best!

In Andy Garrison’s mind, fruit brandies have historically been necessary byproducts of excess—fruit trees produce more food that could be consumed by their owners, so what better way to preserve their bounty than distilling the juice from the leftover fruit? Today, in the age of wide-scale commercial farming, that approach to adding or preserving value from one’s harvest is not an animating factor, and pressing and distilling juice from fruits is one of the most expensive ways to produce a spirit. But do they have to be?

Whether through his work for Stone Barn Brandyworks, or for his own label Tuff Talk Distilling, Garrison seeks more compelling answers to these questions, through creative and technical exploration. He’s tackled some tough projects, and solved some difficult technical challenges along the way, and shares his insight with host Molly Troupe in this episode. Over the course of the conversation, he touches on:

And more.

Brought to you by:

Arryved: Arryved point of sale combines industry expertise, essential tasting room tools, and a whole lotta love to make running your distillery easier. Scale faster with Arryved’s mobile system that offers flexible service with QR code ordering, detailed reporting, and award-winning customer support. New customers get your first month free when you launch before June 30th, 2024.Visit Arryved.com/spiritsanddistilling and mention this ad.

Encompass: Omnibibulous means “able or willing to drink almost anything.” That’s the attitude of the consumer you’re trying to reach: they’re omnibibulous. So how does your distillery remain competitive? Distillers must future-proof their business with a multi-segment production attitude to meet consumers with the right beverages for the right occasions. Encompass Production Cloud is the software designed to help you lead in the modern beverage industry. Become future-proofed at encompasstech.com.

RMS Roller-Grinder At RMS Roller-Grinder, they design and build quality roller mills and grain handling systems for your specific distilling needs. From idea to installation, they can help with roller mills, augers, control panels, bulk storage, and more. RMS has the right equipment to help you increase efficiency, simplify your process, and create a quality, crafted product. Contact them today at rmsroller-grinder.com to work with their experts on your new distillery build or expansion.