Until relatively recently, American whiskey meant bourbon, rye, and maybe a wheat whiskey here and there. But that’s all changed. Whiskey drinkers who look outside the large-scale producers will find spirits made from blue corn, spelt, millet, quinoa, and virtually any other type of cereal grain imaginable. It’s all thanks to a boom of American craft distillers, hundreds of them, armed with the willingness to experiment and the scrappiness to get away with it.

We sat down with Whisky Magazine contributing editor Dave Broom (who last spoke with us about Japanese whisky) to discuss this phenomenon over some of his favorite pours. There was a moment in the conversation when his eyes unfocused and he seemed to drift away to a distant place. It wasn’t from the drink—turns out, he was ruminating on the beginning of the universe.

“I saw a clip once, of a British comedian interviewing a quantum physicist,” Dave said. “He asked [the physicist], sort of kiddingly, ‘What was before the Big Bang?’ Without missing a beat, the guy says ‘Fields of potentiality.’ Well, right now, the Big Bang of whiskey has happened, and the fields of potentiality are being filled in.”

It’s hard not to be blown away by the huge number of new American craft distillers—“There are probably two or three new ones that just opened today,” Dave said—but a good place to start is the second edition of his best-selling book The World Atlas of Whisky, which features an all-new section devoted exclusively to American microdistilleries.

I asked Dave to give me his thoughts on 10 craft distillers, old and new, including which of their spirits are most worth sampling.

Tuthilltown Spirits | Gardiner, NY

Spirits to sample: Hudson Manhattan Rye, Hudson Baby Bourbon, Hudson Maple Cask Rye

Dave says: “They’re one of the second wave of distillers and helped establish what might end up being a New York State style. … I think they’re establishing their personality, especially now that they’re using larger casks. It’s a great whiskey, and it will continue to improve.”

Corsair Artisan Distillery | Nashville, TN, and Bowling Green, KY

Spirits to sample: Triple Smoke, Quinoa Whiskey, Ryemageddon

Dave says: “[Founder] Darek [Bell] admits himself that he’s going to have to stop experimenting at some point." Corsair was one of the first, if not the first, to distill quinoa and has also performed experiments such as crossbreeding rye and wheat to create a whole new type of grain. “But somebody had to do it. I’m so impressed with his perseverance and his madness—he says, ‘I’ll distill every cereal known to man and see what happens.’”

Anchor Distilling Company | San Francisco, CA

Spirits to sample: Old Potrero Single Malt Straight Rye Whiskey, Old Potrero 18th Century Style Whiskey

Dave says: “Oh yeah. Old Potrero. The Old Boy. … The ironic thing is that the pioneers like Anchor and St. George [Spirits] were kind of forgotten in the new wave of craft distillers. … Anchor came at distilling from this very fundamentalist view of what whiskey should be. … I think it’s high time they got the credit they deserve because they were in there at the start.”

St. George Spirits | Alameda, CA

Spirits to sample: St. George Single Malt Whiskey, Breaking & Entering Bourbon

Dave says: “St. George is phenomenal. Another one that’s completely overlooked, sadly. The way that they play with yeast is just amazing. … [The single malt has] just the right amount of softness and phenomenal aromatic qualities—it really took whiskey off in a different direction.”

Westland Distillery | Seattle, WA

Spirits to sample: American Single Malt, Peated Malt, Sherry Wood

Dave says: “Their intention is to be America’s biggest single malt producer. … They wanted to use the Scottish template of malted barley but age it American fashion in new wood. As soon as they tried it, they realized the spirit they’d made was too fragile for new wood, and instead of giving up … they decided to roast the barley to get more heft.”

Koval Distillery | Chicago, IL

Spirits to sample: Bourbon, Millet, Oat, Rye

Dave says: “Again, one of the great innovators. I think they’re releasing all of these individual grains because it’s fascinating from a consumer’s perspective. … Now that the whiskeys are maturing, they’ve been in the casks for a bit longer, and they’ve got a bit of weight, they’re doing really great stuff. … The world is watching them.”

Balcones Distilling | Waco, TX

Spirits to sample: Brimstone, Texas Single Malt Whisky, True Blue

Dave says: “I love what they do. Their blue-corn whisky is amazing. It’s a natch. And the Brimstone is phenomenal stuff. It’s got a huge amount of character. It’s smoked with Texas brush, which just solidifies how committed they are to reflecting their origins.”

Kings County Distillery | Brooklyn, NY

Spirits to sample: Bourbon Whiskey, Moonshine

Dave says: “They’re expanding significantly; their stills and casks are getting bigger. There’s a local rye that they bought samples of, and it’s just fantastic. … I remember when I heard about them for the first time, because I said into the phone, ‘Brooklyn? You can’t have distilleries in towns.’ But then I thought, yes, of course you can. They’ve always been there in Scotland.”

High West Distillery | Park City, UT

Spirits to sample: Rendezvous Rye, Valley Tan Utah Oat Whiskey, A Midwinter Nights Dram

Dave says: “They’re the highest distillery in the world, in terms of altitude. [Proprietor] David [Perkins] comes from a chemistry background, and you might think he’d be cold and analytical, but he’s anything but. … High West is the perfect model of how to build a brand by blending other distillers’ juice, and they’re on the verge of producing their own as well.”

[High West is currently aging its spirits, and in the meantime anything with the High West brand is a blend of other distillers “juice”—that is, their single-source whiskey. As Dave says, blending and bottling is “a great and noble tradition that has existed since the 19th century.” – Ed.]

New Holland Brewing | Holland, MI

Spirits to sample: Beer Barrel Bourbon, Double Down Barley, Walleye Rye

Dave says: “Obviously they come from a brewing background. It’s funny to see that though whiskey, in simplest terms, is distilled beer, how little crossover there has been until relatively recently between the whiskey world and the beer world. This is one way that American craft [breweries] can find an unusual and informed way to make their way into [distilling].”

Top photo by Andrew Nawrocki, Groupon. Other images courtesy of Tuthilltown Spirits, St. George Spirits, and Christopher Talbot via Kings County Distillery.

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