Alchemy Distillery Boldt Genever Style Gin with Cocktails

Alchemy Distillery released their first products (all unaged) in March of this year.  So far they have been distilling a 100 percent mash bill of either wheat or rye.  Their first two products were a clear Soft White Wheat whiskey and a clear Hard Red Wheat whiskey sourced from Hindley Ranch in Humboldt County.

When they exhausted the local farmers' grain supplies (the grains are also used locally by bakers such as Beck's Bakery in Arcata) they sourced Organic Rye and other grains from just over the border in Oregon.  Humboldt County is a lot closer to Oregon than it is to Napa/Sonoma, San Francisco or even the Interstate 5 corridor.  Alchemy's fourth batch was an organic clear rye whiskey  that is currently available.  Prior to distilling that, they had crafted a gin using Buck Pronto Wheat from Oregon and put it away in a new charred oak barrel to make their Genever Style Gin.

Fifty days later and the gin was ready to be pulled from barrel, cut to proof and bottled.  They so far have bottled all their spirits at 90 proof.  I really enjoyed the full proof gin and thought it had a real warm character, piles of cinnamon, star anise, clove, curry, pepper, smoke and baking spice.  Cutting it down to 90 proof dampened the warmer spices and cinnamon, but brought out more of the gin-like juniper and added more citrus notes.

The nose if full of floral, citrus and warm spices.

It tastes of baking and pepper spice, green notes (juniper and redwood), and more citrus (primarily lemon, but also some orange and grapefruit).

The finish is fairly long, with black pepper and lemon citrus notes.

I made a couple of cocktails to try and bring out some of the unique flavors and meld the other ingredients to this warmer style of gin.  The gin isn't as bright and astringent as a London Dry Gin so for a Gin and Tonic I used lemon instead of lime and put a dash of Woodford Reserve barrel aged bitters in.  The spice and structure in the bitters complimented the cocktail well and brought the whole thing together.

The next cocktail (and one of my favorites in a long time) is a modified and less sweet version of a classic gin based cocktail. 

Blushing Blonde Satan's Whiskers

3oz Boldt Genever Style Gin
1 1/2oz Dry Vermouth
1/2oz Agave Syrup
1/2oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2-3 Dashes Creole Bitters (You can substitute Peychaud's if Creole is not available)

Place all ingredients in a shaker with ice.

Shake, strain and pour into a coupe or cocktail glass. 

Garnish with a long lemon twist.  Make sure your lemon twist whisker curls nicely out of the glass.


The warm, spicy qualities of the gin mix well with the aromatic complexity of the vermouth and bitters, and are buoyed by the brightness of the lemon juice and rounded character of the agave syrup.

Be careful when enjoying this one.  It is deceptively easy to drink and contains about as much alcohol as your average manhattan.

If you are nearby and can try this gin, I highly recommend it.  If you can't make it to the land of the redwoods, then grab a Genever Gin near you and try it out in some warmer, spicier cocktails.

Alchemy Distillery Boldt Rye Whiskey Cocktails

It seems like new distilleries are popping up all over the place.  Partly due to the resurgence of craft cocktails, whiskey/bourbon and the loosening of prohibitive post-prohibition laws locally.  My (smaller geographically) area has seen a surge of new distilleries making everything including vodka, gin, moonshine, rum, whiskey and liqueurs.

Alchemy Distillery is a local husband a wife team who, while interested in spirits, just said one day "why not us?"  They did their research and come up with a plan.  The initial funding was done almost three years ago via a Kickstarter campaign.  They raised the money needed, but didn't jump right into the production of a distilling facility or rush to produce just anything.  They took a distillery tour of the United States towing their Airstream behind them, took distilling classes with the masters and refined their distillery vision (using local grains, buying American made equipment). 

Their first product hit shelves just before St Patrick's day this year.  They crafted two different clear whiskies made from locally grown soft white wheat and hard red wheat, sourced from Hindley Ranch.  These whiskies were different in a sense because the mash bill was 100 percent wheat.  They weren't a wheated bourbon, or mixed with any rye or barley.

Locally these products were a success and the farmers soon ran out of product for the season.  Next they sourced organic rye from a producer just over the border in Oregon.  The 100 percent rye, clear whiskey (a particularly stubborn and hard to make distillate) is their next product to market and the subject of this post.

I wanted to try using their unaged rye whiskey in cocktails that were common enough, but through slight tweaking would show off the character of their new whiskey.  I had previously made a margarita, screwdriver, Boldt Sunrise and a Boldt Julep with their hard red wheat clear whiskey.  They were nice because you could still taste the fresh, dry, dusty grain character of the whiskey.

The top of the picture is the Boldt Rye Whiskey neat along with a Boldt Sazerac.  I used:

3oz Boldt Clear Rye Whiskey
1/4 oz or a splash of Wild Card Absinthe from Oregon
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
2 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters (the original Sazerac calls for Peychaud's, but I was looking for something less sweet with the clear whiskey)
1/2 oz Perucchi Dry Vermouth
Lemon Zest Garnish

-Add the absinthe to your chilled glass, swirl to coat and discard the remainder.
-Fill a shaker with ice and add the whiskey, simple syrup, bitters and dry vermouth.
-Shake well and strain into your coated glass.
-Use a peeler to pull a thick zest from a fresh lemon. Rub around the rim of the glass and twist over the cocktail before adding.

On the bottom left is a Boldt Manhattan.  Being a clear whiskey, you don't want to overdo it with too much spice or sweetness.  Toning down the vermouth by using both sweet and dry will make for a more balance cocktail.  You will need:

3oz Boldt Clear Rye Whiskey
1/2 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
1oz Perucchi Dry Vermouth
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
1/2 t Luxardo Cherry juice/syrup
2 ea Luxardo Cherries
Lemon Zest Garnish

-Combine all ingredients except the cherries and lemon garnish in a shaker with plenty of ice.
-Shake vigorously and then strain into a coupe or martini glass.
-Add the cherries on a skewer and twist the lemon zest over the cocktail before adding it.

The bottom right picture is two different Boldt Rye Mules.  The Moscow Mule is one of my favorite light, bright and refreshing cocktails.  this one uses Fee Brothers Barrel aged bitters to add some structure, spice and tannin to the young whiskey, all things it would pick up with a little time in barrel.  The recipe is for the cocktail on the right.  For the more traditional version, leave out the bitters.

3oz Boldt Rye Whiskey
2 dashes Fee Brothers Barrel Aged Bitters
Juice of half a lime
4-5 oz Bundaberg Ginger Beer

-Mix the Rye Whiskey, Bitters and lime juice in a shaker with ice.
-Strain into a glass filled with ice.
-Top with 4-5 oz of ginger beer and garnish with the zest or a round of lime.

This is the end of my weekend of experimental Boldt Rye Whiskey cocktails, but I'm sure I'll still play around with them.  The Manhattan is my favorite cocktail.  Preferably with a high proof (or barrel proof) bourbon, Carpano Antica, luxardo cherries and Paychaud's bitters.  This doesn't mean that it's the be all end all of my cocktail world. Take a look at your favorite cocktail recipe and change it just a bit.  Try a different liquor or change the proportions of certain ingredients.  You may just find a new favorite.