What We’re Sipping Now: The Best Philly-Area Distilleries
From small-batch bourbon to experimental gin, local distilleries are crafting sips worth tasting. Here’s the proof.
From left: Five Saints Distilling’s exterior; the brand’s bottling process. / Photograph courtesy of Five Saints (left) and by Courtney Apple
The next time you’re in the state store, take a long look at the labels: They’re much different than they were even five years ago. Bourbons from Kentucky have been replaced by ryes from Bristol, and gins from England are swapped out for versions from Chester County. The spirits world is booming in Pennsylvania, which boasts the fourth-most craft distilleries of any U.S. state. (We’re coming for you, Texas.) So don’t settle for something distilled hundreds or thousands of miles away; sometimes, it’s as simple as walking down the block. Here’s a look at some of our Philly-area favorites.
Five Saints Distilling
Norristown
You’d be forgiven if you glanced at this roster of products and raised an eyebrow. Some of them seem a bit, let’s say, experimental. (Raspberry-lavender absinthe is the one that initially caught our side-eye.) But just try the products; you’ll be convinced. Whiskeys, gins, liqueurs — everything owners Amy and John George are doing at Five Saints has a distinct point of view without falling over into kitsch.
You gotta try: The savory Tuscan-style gin, which pairs traditional gin flavors with rosemary and other Italian herbs. Perfect to swap into a Bloody Mary.
Five Saints Distilling / Photograph by Courtney Apple
Bluebird Distilling
Phoenixville
The story of Bluebird is much like that of many distilleries: Man is unfulfilled at job, reads something about craft spirits, turns life upside-down to build company. What does distinguish the product Jared Adkins makes at Bluebird? The stuff is actually tasty. Pick from any of the 15-plus grain-to-glass whiskeys distilled on-site, or sip the Juniperus gin. Heck, they even make agave spirits, a rarity in the U.S.
You gotta try: The straight Phoenixville whiskey, a blend of the company’s four-grain bourbon, straight rye, and American wheat whiskey.
Bluebird Distilling’s selection / Photograph by Brian Sanchez
Revivalist Spirits
Elverson
It all begins with the barn. The structure started life as a post-Civil War dairy barn and transformed and shifted over time to a point where it was nicknamed “The Hippie Barn” and saw folks as famed as James Dean and Daryl Hall wander the boards. Its latest iteration is a home for botanists and distillers working to combine those worlds into one-of-a-kind gins. Each of the distillery’s gin “expressions” focuses on a different season, and the botanicals shift accordingly.
You gotta try: The Equinox Expression, which sets aside the juniper and revs up notes of meadow flowers and citrus.
Revivalist Gin / Photograph by Courtney Apple
Pennsylvania Distilling
Malvern
There are shortcuts in any business, but the folks at Pennsylvania Distilling want you to know they don’t take ’em. It’s right in their mission statement: “We will never blend or redistill third-party products and sell them as our own craft products.” We appreciate that brutal honesty almost as much as their Dewey’s No. 69 small-batch bourbon, made using only Pennsylvania-produced grains. It’s the Keystone State in a glass.
You gotta try: The Dewey’s, obviously.
New Liberty Distilling
Kensington
One thing that’s impossible to miss when you look at the world of spirits: It’s overwhelmingly white. New Liberty is trying to change that, teaming up with former Eagle Malcolm Jenkins to create a whiskey crafted exclusively from grains grown by Black- and brown-owned farms. It’s a project the company hopes will have a cascading effect on an industry where only two percent of executives are Black.
You gotta try: Until that whiskey is ready (which will be a couple years because of the aging process) pour a few fingers of the Millstone rye whiskey, made with malted rye from Delco’s Deer Creek Malthouse.
Herman Mihalich and John Cooper at their Dad’s Hat distillery / Photograph by Todd Trice
Dad’s Hat
Bristol
Sometimes when Herman Mihalich is giving tours of Bristol distillery Dad’s Hat, he’ll sprinkle some historic knowledge onto the group. He might say, “Hey, did you know there were something like 200 whiskey distilleries in Pennsylvania before Prohibition?” Or maybe, “Pennsylvania really is the birthplace of American whiskey.”
“They’re like, ‘Oh, we had no idea,’” says Mihalich. “‘We thought whiskey started in Kentucky.’”
That education infuses everything Mihalich has done at Dad’s Hat since opening almost 15 years ago, resulting in the state’s finest rye whiskey — grassy, peppery stuff that’s perfect on its own and equally great in an old-fashioned or Sazerac. Keep reading …
Sator Square Distillery
Furlong
Sator Square is a side project for Wycombe Vineyards, which helps explain the funkiest thing about it: The spirits are made with grapes. Instead of grains — from which most spirits are crafted — Sator Square uses grapes from the vineyard, resulting in a lush, full mouthfeel that’s wholly surprising. The technique has been around for centuries and is making a comeback.
You gotta try: The aquavit, a Scandinavian spirit popping with caraway and dill seed.
Katy and Walter Palmer, owners of W.P. Palmer Distilling Co. / Photograph by Courtney Apple
W.P. Palmer Distilling Co.
Manayunk
Palmer has had a tough few years. The company, run by husband-and-wife team Walter and Katy Palmer, halted production in 2022 when the landlord didn’t renew its lease. Yet Palmer has not only rebounded but stayed in Manayunk, where the Palmers now produce their world-renowned Liberty gin at an even faster clip. That gin comes from an 18th-century Dutch recipe that reflects botanicals the founding fathers would be familiar with: juniper, cardamom, coriander, angelica root, lemon peel and grains of paradise.
You gotta try: The Liberty gin. They only make one product, and it’s damn good.
Slow Drinks
South Jersey
South Jersey cocktail consultant and author Danny Childs, known for creating botanical drinks with foraged ingredients, puts amari in a “Wild West category” of liqueurs. On his Instagram, @slowdrinks, you’ll find a menagerie of mason jars brimming with berries, leaves, tree bark, herbs, fruit scraps and other foraged finds, infused in a 151-proof neutral grain spirit. These are tinctures, the essence of an entire season concentrated in a jar. Left to sit anywhere from two weeks to a year — Childs says the sweet spot is five weeks — they’re as beautiful as they are potent. Once a tincture reaches the desired flavor, the solids are strained out. Dilute the tincture with water and simple syrup, and voilà! You’ve got an amaro.
From left: A tincture; Danny Childs of Slow Drinks / Photographs by Katie Childs
Childs says there aren’t really any rules to making amari, but he likes to follow the flavor-profile structure outlined in his cocktail book, also named Slow Drinks: acidic, herbaceous, floral, sweet, spice, depth and bitter. For a light and floral springtime amaro, he recommends rhubarb for your acidic component; mint or other young and tender herbs for an herbaceous note; honeysuckle and strawberries for floral and sweetness; spice tips or green coriander seeds for spice; pine cones or bark from a hickory tree for depth; and dandelion root and mugwort to add bitterness.
Need to Know
Not all local brands distill their own spirits. Sometimes, especially when a brand is starting out, it will purchase third-party spirits from another company — typically a large commercial distiller in Kentucky or Indiana — and simply blend or repackage them in Pennsylvania. This is especially common with whiskeys, where the aging process can take years. So to ensure you’re purchasing a truly local product, see that the label reads “distilled by” the brand and not simply “bottled” or “aged” by it.
By the Numbers
72
Years it took Pennsylvania to give out its first post- Prohibition distillery license — to Philadelphia Distilling, of Bluecoat gin fame, in 2005. (While they still distill their spirits here, the company is now owned by Kentucky-based Heaven Hill.)
257
Number of federally licensed distilleries in Pennsylvania. Distilleries must obtain a federal license before getting a state license.
414%
Increase in federally licensed distilleries in Pennsylvania since December 2016, when there were only 50.
100,000
Gallons of liquor that can be manufactured and sold per year under a limited-distillery license. (“Limited” only refers to the upper cap on production, which hasn’t restricted any of the state’s active distilleries because none of them have reached that threshold.)
11
Active limited distilleries operating in Philadelphia today; there are currently 206 total in the state. Limited distilleries are still able to sell direct to consumers, serve cocktails at their distilleries, and even sell products at farmers’ markets — as long as they have a permit.
1
Number of pending limited-distillery licenses in Philadelphia.
Published as “That’s the Spirit!” in the April 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
