Midwestern Distilleries Represent At Tales Of The Cocktail

By Amy Cavanaugh in Food on Aug 5, 2012 8:00PM

Photo credit: Amy Cavanaugh

While at Tales of the Cocktail, I stopped by Indie Spirits That Rock, a tasting room that featured a couple dozen independent distilleries. Before the room got too packed to move around, I popped by Few Spirits, Death's Door Spirits, and Haus Alpenz to check out what they were offering.

• Few Spirits

The Evanston-based distillery was offering tastes of its rye, bourbon, and gin. We chatted with Paul Hletko, the founder and master distiller, who told us that Few is working on a collaboration with Alpana Singh to make a chai gin for her upcoming project The Boarding House. They're also planning an amaro with Stephanie Izard for Girl and the Goat, have a single malt in barrels, and working on a dry hopped gin.

• Death's Door

Meg Bell was pouring gin rickeys with the Madison-based distillery's gin, and showing tasters a passage from The Great Gatsby in which the main characters are drinking the cooling summer cocktai.

• Haus Alpenz

The Minnesota-based importing company brings a stellar line-up of unique liquors to the U.S., like the byrrh I wrote about last week. Another great spirit I sampled at their table was Kronan Swedish Punsch, a warming liqueur made with rum, sugar, and spices.