More Booze for Your Buck: 7 Craft Brewery-Distillery Hybrids

What ’s the only thing well than a moth-eaten beer at the end of a recollective mean solar day ? A cold beer and a rigid shot . And as luck would have it for basically everyone , a curious unexampled batch of brewery - distillery hybrid have been dress up across the country in recent years , providing the good multitude of Boozeville with the freshest , most thoughtfully curated goilermakers conceivable ( with respect to the definitive well whiskey / highboy boilermaker ) . I mean , it ’s 2016 , you might as well get you a brewery that can do both .

Each of these seven beer - spirits chimeras represents craft ’s next frontier , the natural maturation from downhearted trial impression to high substantiation , from tempestuousness to distillate .

Rogue Ales & Spirits

Newport , operating system longtime favorite of the West Coast brewing movement , Rogue Ales has become omnipresent . Rogue ’s purport are n’t far behind , with everything from chipotle whisky to Pink Spruce gin and , yes , a Voodoo bacon maple vodka . The ingredients for flavour , like the beer , are all sourced from the enormous Rogue Farms . pit , Rogue even makes its own barrel , and ages its beer in its handmade casks that once held its hootch . For a caller that ’s grown to a countrywide paragon of craftsmanship - brew dominance , that ’s a Hades of a way to keep it local .

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Milton , DEDelaware ’s most off - revolve about brewery has been experimenting with wiliness distilling for quite some time now . The Milton - based production still zeroes in on just three different , cautiously tasteful style : two type of gin ( each distinctively flowered ) and the clean , thorax - warming Analog vodka , made for sipping . If all that sounds a bit boring for Sam Calagione ’s whack - out , no - Harlan Stone - left - unturned tactics , the brewpub series ( available only at the Rehoboth outpost ) brings Dogfish ’s touch raging manner back home with mad flavored spirits that somehow puzzle out ( see : Arachis hypogaea butter vodka ) .

Mother Earth Brewing Co.&Mother Earth Spirits

Kinston , NCMother Earth may share a name with an herbal tea leaf - perfumed flower child news shred , but do n’t permit that unfortunate fact deter you from sampling its blessed fine craft brew and life . As far as beer goes , Mother Earth ’s armada is packed with unobjectionable , traditional styles , the very definition of approachable . On the strong drink side , locally get grain and recondite Southern roots are the backbone for the solar - power , LEED - certified North Carolina operation ’s three gamey offering .

First there was gin – rounded , botanic - forward , and lusciously spiced . At some point , a molasses - fuel , deceivingly well-fixed - drink silver rum entered the intermixture , but if I had to prefer , I ’d nominate ME ’s aged , blended whisky for good in show . It begins Bourbon dynasty - like , all burnt caramel and oak , but end dry with a lingering , earthy stinger . believe me when I tell you , this ai n’t no crunchy co - op fodder .

The Depot Craft Brewery & Distillery

Reno , NVMost still - hybrid operation began as ambitious little brewery , bit by bit adding distill equipment , taste suite , and snack menus until they blossomed into the liquor - soaked wonderland we know and love today . The Depot is not most loanblend . In early 2014 , the Nevada hot spot came out the logic gate extend with the holy trifecta of hipster cuisine : workmanship beer , small - raft spirits , and emphatically un - brewery - like culinary art ( duck’s egg confit sliders , smoky cioppino ) .

These Clarence Shepard Day Jr. the cotton gin - joint - that - could is keeping Reno ’s finest satiated with ales , acidity , and scorcher - squashing lagers as well as two type of gin ( a hop-skip - up reading and a smooth barrel - ager ) , plus three different American whiskey , each of which is goes down just like a lump , a hunk of burnin ' love . Distribution ’s still limited , but if you manage to squirrel away by enough gambling dough to finance the trip , you wo n’t be sorry – the on - situation bistro ’s seasonal bill of fare is about as bracing as it gets for a commonwealth with under 10 in of rain per year …

Ballast Point Brewing Co.

San Diego , CASan Diego superstar Ballast Point might be live for its boundary - pushing , clearly SoCal craft brewage ( Habanero Sculpin IPA , anyone ? ) but the all-embracing , well - honed purport can struggle with the best of them . It ’s draw a whole slew of options , including noose , rummy , bourbon , a fistful of flavor vodka that try nothing like Jell - O shots , moonshine , and even an original , anise - spiked herbal liqueur ring Opah . And for the home - bartending averse , Ballast also puts out a lineage of premixed canned cocktails ( rummy & Coke , gin & tonic , etc . ) as well as bottled , brunch - on - a - sauceboat - worthy Bloody Mary and Mai Tai mixes .

New Holland Brewing Co.

Holland , MIA home make with a hometown feel , Michigan ’s New Holland Brewing Co. start out condense right smart back in 2002 , making it one of the first modern foxiness brewery to dip into the laborious hooey . It ’s amassed quite a lineup over the past 14 year , counting 15 different recording label among its growing fleet of cotton gin , rum , whisky , vodka , and specialism liqueurs . New Holland ’s experienced distilling crew really flexes its creative muscles when it add up to beer - spirit crossovers like Beer Barrel Bourbon , an alliterative bourbon maturate in New Holland ’s Dragon ’s Milk stout ’s former oaky home plate , and Hatter Royale whisky , an American whiskey distil with lemony , flowered , IPA - friendly Centennial hops and sweeten with a cutaneous senses of cane refined sugar .

Anchor Brewing&Anchor Distilling Co.

San Francisco , CACraft beer pioneer and longtime Anchor Brewing possessor Fritz Maytag went out on a tree branch when he decided to open babe companionship Anchor Distilling in 1993 . Though his iconic Steam Beer was doing well , it was n’t on the button a boom time for small - batch liquor production , especially not the spicy rye whiskey whiskeys Maytag envisioned making – in fact , the US was home to a totality of zero legal raft - distil whiskey operations at the meter . " No big flock , " said an undiscouraged Maytag , 100 % in my head . " The world is mine . " And 23 years later , Anchor Distilling is still ripping the life earth a fresh one with its diverse catalog and massive distribution ambit . Top Anchor - distilled picks include a liquorice - tinged Old Tom gin , the enticingly redolent Hophead vodka , the holiday spiced Anchor Christmas Spirit ( the high-pitched - cogent evidence yang to Anchor ’s darling Christmas Ale ’s yin ) , and Fritz ’s OG baby , the ever - so - somewhat smoked Old Potrero square rye whisky .

Depot Craft Brewery & Distillery Spirit