Fort Hamilton Distillery of Brooklyn, New York, now offers behind-the-scenes tours of its distilling operations. The tours tell the tale of a bygone era in American spirits history and share the story of what it has taken to revive a forgotten art.
On the one-hour Rye Revolution Tour, guests will hear many more stories about the rise, fall and rebirth of New York Rye, as well as bottle their own whiskey and taste it straight from the tap. Guests also will be introduced to exclusive distillery-only whiskey bottlings and collaborations with local artisans, including barrel-aged New York maple syrup and whiskey-infused, single-origin chocolate bars.
Tours will initially be available every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, starting this Friday. Start times vary between 1-7 p.m. The tour is one hour in length and costs $30.00 per guest. For more information or to book a tour, visit www.forthamilton.com/tours.
Rye whiskey used to be more popular than bourbon, and thousands of small farm distillers operated in the state of New York dating back to the founding of our country. Even George Washington ran a distilling operation. However, prohibition destroyed small farm operators, and corn subsidies before and after the ban made corn a far more enticing crop. Thus, 200 years of distilling history were wiped out in less than 20 years.
But with another turn of the century came another revolution in the spirits industry: the revival of New York Rye. Acclaimed bartender Alex Clark fell in love with the canon of classic American cocktails like the Manhattan and Old Fashioned, which demand rye whiskey as a base. So in 2016, Clark founded Fort Hamilton and went back to the traditional and time-honored techniques of his forefathers, sourcing grain from local New York farmers and aging it in American Oak barrels.