POUR

COURTESY OF ST. AUGUSTINE DISTILLERY

SPIRITS SAVOR the State

Discover FLORIDA’S homegrown craft distillers

By Mark Spivak

COURTESY OF ST. AUGUSTINE DISTILLERY

Steel Tie Spirits (above) are crafted in a hand-built still. St. Augustine Distillery (left) is located in an old ice plant built by FPL in 1907.

If you want to visit a distillery, there’s no need to hop on a plane to Louisville and drive across the Bourbon Trail. Around 40 distillers currently belong to the Florida Craft Spirits Association, and they produce everything from rum and vodka made with local ingredients to aged expressions of whiskey. Here, we present a subjective list of the best.

Florida Farm Distillers: Marti and Dick Waters craft their awardwinning Palm Ridge Reserve whiskey on a small cattle farm outside Umatilla. This bourbon-style spirit is handmade in small quantities, aged in charred-oak barrels, and bottled at 90 proof (“whiskey the way it’s supposed to be,” according to Dick). Despite the low production, Palm Ridge Reserve is available at select Florida retailers. (palmridgereserve.com)

Manifest Distilling: Located in downtown Jacksonville’s Sports District, Manifest is a full-scale organic distillery producing regular and barreled gin, potato and Florida citrus vodka, rye whiskey, coffee liqueur, and fernet. The facility includes a bar and tasting room. Tours are offered, as well as a monthly Discovery Series that allows consumers to get hands-on experience in the blending and formulation of spirits. (manifestdistilling.com)

Kozuba & Sons Distillery: Zbigniew Kozuba began making cordials and single malts in the Polish village of Jablonka. In 2014, he relocated the business to St. Petersburg with his sons, Matthias and Jacob. The family still makes cordials (ratafia, triple sec, quince, and cranberry) along with vodka, straight bourbon, and high-wheat rye whiskeys. Visitors may observe the production of spirits in the copper stills brought from Poland. (kozubadistillery.com)

Loggerhead Distillery: Named for Florida’s endangered sea turtle species, this Sanford distillery draws on local sugarcane, citrus, grains, and botanicals to create three varieties of moonshine, regular and sweet tea vodka, a key lime gin, bourbon, rum, and single-malt whiskey. Visitors are welcome every afternoon except Monday. (loggerheaddistillery.com)

St. Augustine Distillery: Situated in a historic FPL ice plant originally built in 1907, St. Augustine Distillery is committed to community preservation as well as sustainability: They source Florida-grown agricultural products to make their vodka, gin, bourbon, and pot-distilled rum. Free tours and tastings are available, and the distillery is a stop on St. Augustine’s Old Town Trolley Tours. (staugustinedistillery.com)

Steel Tie Spirits Company: The Etheridge family has lived in West Palm Beach since the late 1800s and helped lay the tracks next to the distillery (hence the name). Steel Tie’s non-GMO, pesticide-free, and locally sourced spirits include vodka and three Black Coral rums, all made in a still hand-built by Ben Etheridge. (steeltiespirits.com)

Tarpon Springs Distillery: Where else can you find ouzo but in the largest community of Greek Americans in the country? In addition to Papou’s Ouzo, the distillery produces Gramling Woods High Rye Moonshine, Anclote Very Small Batch Gin, and Claresso, an espresso-based spirit. (tarponspringsdistillery.net)

Wicked Dolphin: Founded in 2012 in Cape Coral, a few miles from the sugarcane fields, Wicked Dolphin distills local ingredients in southern Florida’s largest copper pot still. Their Reserve rums (spiced, silver, and gold) are aged for a minimum of three years in barrels that once held Kentucky bourbon. Free distillery tours are offered by reservation. (wickeddolphinrum.com)

Winter Park Distilling Company: Hometown natives Paul Twyford and Andrew Asher make everything from vodka and white corn whiskey to beer-barrel-aged rum and Florida’s first single-barrel bourbon. Tours may be reserved on the website, and aficionados can mash bourbon with the distiller and “adopt” their own five-gallon barrel, «whose contents are bottled for them when ready. (wpdistilling.com)

COURTESY OF KOZUBA & SONS DISTILLERY

Clockwise from above: Claresso is an espressobased spirit by Tarpon Springs Distillery; Kozuba & Sons Distillery uses copper stills from Poland; Loggerhead Distillery is named for the endangered turtle species.

LOGGERHEAD DISTILLERY

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