It’s no secret that more people consume spirits via cocktails than they do neat. Cocktails are also the entry point for many drinkers to learn about spirits and to begin appreciating them for their own flavors.
So, are the cocktails you serve at your distillery bar up to the task?
From fellow pros behind the tasting bars at small distilleries, here are some drinks, tips, and approaches that have found success in different parts of the country.
Whiskey Drinks that Win: Char, Slush, and “Buttered”
Whiskey Acres is a “seed-to-spirit” distillery on a multigenerational family farm in DeKalb, Illinois. Its attractive visitor space features a striking wooden bar, seating that’s cozy enough for winter, and an outdoor cocktail patio for warmer weather. The distillery offers regular live music and chef-driven events, but it’s the cocktails that keep people coming back.
“The state of Illinois limits us to cocktailing with only the spirits that we make,” says cofounder Nick Nagele. “We cannot use cocktail components containing alcohol distilled elsewhere, so our creativity is handcuffed. We’ve turned that into a positive and focused on simplicity, consumer repeatability, and approachability. Our goal is for our customers to make each of our cocktails at home without having to attend a mixology class or go shopping for cocktailing supplies. This supports bottle sales, even if consumers cannot return to the distillery often to imbibe.”
Nagele says their best-selling cocktail is an old fashioned infused with bourbon-barrel char. “When we empty our barrels, we capture the char, then infuse it into simple syrup and utilize that as the base sweetener for the old fashioned,” he says. “It’s incredible, with so much depth of flavors and a very approachable smokiness.”
A close second to their old fashioned in popularity is their bourbon slush. Besides being easy to make and a real treat on hot summer days, a bourbon slush is a crowd-friendly drink that often appeals to those who think they don’t like whiskey. (As a mixologist, I can attest to summer-ready cocktails often turning people on to spirits they previously refused to drink.)
Typically made of bourbon, lemon, and sweet tea, the slush is easy to batch in a big pitcher. Back in 2018, the Chicago Tribune even named the bourbon slush its No. 1 drink on a bicentennial bucket list, specifically citing the one they make at Whiskey Acres—excellent exposure for a small distiller.
The cool slush isn’t the only route to seasonal appeal—there are also drinks that can warm in winter, winning over new fans of your whiskeys.
When you sidle up to the tasting bar at Catoctin Creek in Purcellville, Virginia, known for its ryes, it quickly becomes clear that you’re in for a learning experience. The bartenders deliver knowledge about flavors in an approachable, friendly way, inviting guests to become experts on their own palate. Like Whiskey Acres, Catoctin Creek faces constraints in what they can use at their own bar, says lead bartender Maria Figueroa-Gonzalez. Again, they aim to turn that into a strength.
“We showcase our spirits by carefully creating cocktails that we hope are enjoyable in the moment and inspire our guests to try them at home,” Figueroa-Gonzalez says. “We make the cocktails right at the head of the bar, in front of our guests. There are no secrets in our preparation, ingredients, or technique. … We believe that being open about our processes, our ingredients, about everything ... engages our guests and encourages them to take what they learn and experience in our tasting room and re-create it or use it as inspiration to try things at their home bar.”
The crowd favorite every winter, she says, is their hot buttered rye. “If we didn’t bring this Rachel Ray–inspired cup of warm cheer back every year, we’d be in serious trouble with our guests.” Made with brown sugar, baking spices, a pinch of salt, rye whiskey, and hot water, the drink is as easy to make at a busy bar as is to make at home.
Widening the Entry Points: Honey and Huckleberries
At Up North Distillery in Post Falls, Idaho, cofounders Hilary and Randy Mann have maximized their limited space to focus on a vibrant customer experience featuring cocktail bar and bottle shop.
Up North is one of the few distilleries in the country making true honey spirits, distilling mead made from 100 percent honey. Besides honey spirits, they also make apple brandy and single-malt whiskey. You won’t find vodka, rum, or bourbon at Up North, so education on their niche spirits is critical.
“We have designed a cocktail for every one of our nine spirits, to help give those who don't prefer straight spirits another way to enjoy [ours],” says Hilary Mann. “We also diversify our menu to provide sweet, spicy, and spirit-forward cocktails to appeal to various palates.”
There are locals who come to the distillery every week to visit the cocktail bar, she says, treating it as a favorite hangout. So, Up North rotates the menu with the seasons, to ensure that there’s something new for the regulars. These changing cocktails give the team a chance to get creative, craft new syrups, and lean into more innovative drinks. However, they always have cocktails with fewer components, built to showcase their unique spirits.
“Most people are not familiar with honey spirits,” Mann says, “so we showcase this category in a range of cocktails that may be built with vodka, rum, and whiskey, and guests learn about the specific flavors of our honey spirit while imbibing familiar-to-them cocktails. Our guests don’t have to change what they drink when they get home, and they can still have a Manhattan or old fashioned. This method makes our spirits more approachable and more familiar to new consumers.”
Their most popular cocktail, she says, is their huckleberry old fashioned, on the menu since the day they opened their doors. They’re in prime huckleberry territory—anywhere you go in northern Idaho and eastern Washington, you’re likely to find huckleberry jam, baked goods, soap, pies, candles, you name it.
“So, why not lean into this fan-favorite berry and showcase our honey spirits?” Mann says. “We use our barrel-finished honey spirit in this cocktail to create a very smooth old-fashioned that highlights just the right amount of honey and oak while also showcasing our Idaho state fruit.”
Seasonal offerings tend to be a draw at any bar, and that holds true at craft distilleries trying to win new customers.
In the summertime, Mann says, they can open a bay door to the cocktail bar and have tables on the patio, transforming the atmosphere in warmer weather. Even if you are at the bar, you’re getting some fresh air.
Yet space is tight, and that’s part of the thinking behind their streamlined menu.
“Our backbar is small, and refrigerated storage is limited, so we must consider that when developing new cocktails for the menu,” she says. “How much can we batch ahead, and do we have the storage space for the components that need to be held cold? Storage is a big consideration—we want fresh components in our cocktails, and we like to craft as many components by hand as possible, so we have designed our menu with these considerations in mind. For example, we have a menu of five different old fashioneds, allowing us to have more cocktails on the menu with fewer components.”
Inspiration to Take Home
At Westward Whiskey in Portland, Oregon, the goal is to offer great-tasting cocktails that people want to make at home, says Kelly Woodcock, partner and VP of tasting rooms.
“We always want to make something people can and will make at home,” says Woodcock, who oversees the distillery’s tasting room as well as the one they operate at Portland International Airport. “We love cocktails with infused syrups or ingredients that aren’t as common, but that’s hard to ask of the home bartender. We want the cocktail to be approachable and inspire confidence in the home bartender.”
A successful approach to recipe development takes a variety of factors into consideration. “We begin our cocktail development by first choosing a particular cocktail format and the whiskey we’re looking to mix with,” Woodcock says. “We then have our cocktail building blocks—we know what flavor bases these cocktails call for, as well as the particular flavor of the whiskey we are working with.”
As an example, she cites the whiskey sour. “This format balances its parts between alcohol, sweet, sour, and the optional aromatic,” she says. “If we decide we want to work with Westward’s Pinot Noir Cask [whiskey], we then know where to go. We’ll fulfill our ‘sour’ part with lemon, as it tends to work best with whiskey historically, and get creative with the sweet components. In this case, we’ll split our sweet into two parts: amaretto—which complements the pinot with nutty and cherry tones—and one part vanilla syrup, which offers warmth. Lastly, [we] add an aromatic element with a wine float on top. We then taste and adjust accordingly.”
The result is what Westward calls the Willamette sour—and the recipe is available on the distillery’s website. That’s one avenue that the distillery uses to appeal to people who aren’t yet enthusiastic about whiskey.
“We believe that a well-balanced cocktail is the most approachable way to showcase Westward, even to non-whiskey fans,” Woodcock says. “We feel that most people who don’t like whiskey feel that way because they’ve tried it in a non-delicious drink. When you present it in a balanced way using great ingredients, we find we change most minds. And because these same well-balanced drinks appeal to the whiskey enthusiast, we don’t have to do something different for those two palates.”
Their most popular offering is the True Northwest old fashioned, featuring carrot-flower honey, bitters, and sea salt—all made in the area. “We love to showcase other local companies wherever possible,” she says.
When building a cocktail based on a particular spirit, Woodcock says her approach is informed by the history of the drink as well as the particular flavors of the spirit.
“By understanding the history and formats of cocktails, you also understand how you can both play by the existing rules as well as how to buck tradition by innovating and creating something new,” she says. “A great example of this would be a Westward staff favorite, the Westward Stout Cask espresso martini, which complements our Stout Cask whiskey for a distinctive and flavorful twist on a traditional vodka cocktail.”
Clearly, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach—each distillery should look to its own strengths when it comes to cocktails that can win friends and sell bottles. However, common threads include embracing seasonality, local flavors, cocktails that customers can easily reproduce at home, and those that highlight the character of your spirits.
These are among the elements to consider when shaping a successful bar program at your distillery—one that combines hospitality with better sales.
Cocktail Recipes
Up North Huckleberry Old Fashioned
2 oz Up North Barrel Finished Honey Spirits
1/2 oz huckleberry syrup
3 dashes orange bitters
Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass with cubed ice and stir well until the glass is cold. Strain over a large cube and garnish with a lemon peel.
Westward Whiskey True Northwest Old Fashioned
2 oz Westward Whiskey Original
½ oz Jacobsen Raw Carrot Flower Honey
1 pinch Jacobsen sea salt
1/2 dropper Portland Bitters Project Aromatic Bitters
Combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, and stir until well-mixed and cold. Strain over fresh ice into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange twist or speared cherry.