New Realm’s distilling arm ramped up massive this summer time, launching spirits in each on and off-premise retail.

So let’s get actual about New Realm Savannah. The placement introduced New Realm Vodka and a line of RTDs into the world that to at the present time are nonetheless doing fairly nicely. And but, regardless of excessive hopes for the town lined in Spanish moss, there have been a plethora of things that always labored towards it. New Realm needed to take an “L” on Savannah however the spirits program wasn’t performed.

New Realm Brewing appeared out of seemingly nowhere in 2018 with the biggest opening brewing capability in Georgia’s historical past (round 20,000 barrels). They blew by that capability in simply months, and never lengthy after, the brewery discovered itself with a second location in Virginia Seashore. After making such an aggressive mark on the beer world, naturally, the spirits world was subsequent. That’s the place Savannah, Georgia, got here to be.

Again to Atlanta.

Inside New Realm’s Atlanta brewery was a small barrel room used principally for barrel-aged beers. It morphed in a little bit occasion house for personal events or the occasional beer dinner. That’s the place New Realm resurrected the spirits program, placing in a complete new distillery, after promoting the Savannah nonetheless and shopping for a brand new hybrid nonetheless. Kevin Ford, Grasp Distiller, with a earlier historical past at Buffalo Distillery heads up this system, and identical to New Realm’s beer program, lightning is putting once more.

Right here in summer time 2023, a craft distilling program that when appeared ancillary to New Realm’s imaginative and prescient is entrance and heart. Something refined about New Realm Distilling will be thought of a factor of the previous, with Ford working the present. He’s a reasonably humble and all the way down to earth distiller who has principally cannonballed into the deep finish of the booze pool in Atlanta and past.

“We actually didn’t wish to do that the best way it’s been performed earlier than.”

If you wish to supply bourbon on your personal program, most of it can come come from one among three totally different distilleries. To Ford, that will be principally checking containers. “Similar juice, totally different bottle. That didn’t sit nicely with me,” he says. So whereas New Realm’s 100% in-house bourbon ages, New Realm did one thing a little bit totally different – sourcing bourbon from small, youthful Texas and Kentucky distillers and mixing it at dwelling. The result’s a bourbon mix with hints of toasted walnut and brown sugar that hit the market initially in April 2022. New Realm’s 100% in-house bourbon is getting older as you learn this. 

Vodka. Gin. Rum. Agave.

Vodka is pretty simple and fast to make, which is why virtually each burgeoning spirits program begins with it. By the way, New Realm Vodka sells extraordinarily nicely on the Atlanta location. Rum, Gin and Tequila are a little bit extra sophisticated if you wish to do it proper. Craft beer brewing is a continuing exploration, so why can’t distilling be as nicely? 

The objective is to be a little bit totally different. That meant not shopping for liquid and relabeling it. “That’s again to checking containers,” Ford says. Kevin began with a standout legacy Jamaican rum producer, then distilling Savannah-made molasses and mixing.

Producing tequila proved to be extra sophisticated nevertheless, for the reason that spirit is protected. If you wish to name it tequila, it must be made in Jalisco, Mexico. Within the U.S. it’s pretty frequent for a small distiller to purchase bulk agave syrup and ferment it. “It’s simply not good that manner, so we pushed in a unique course,” Ford says. “We have been going to do that the onerous manner by rising our personal, however ultimately we discovered a Mexican based mostly producer that grows Blue Webber agave and roasts and extracts it for us,” he provides. New Realm distills it in Atlanta, making a spirit as near genuine tequila as doable.

Introducing the “Cask Collection” 

Spirits are loads like beer. You want that restricted launch that piques curiosity. On this occasion, it’s much less of a buyer hook and extra of a playground for Ford that may always change. This newly minted collection makes use of specifically sourced barrels like Oloroso Sherry and Madeira to create uniquely completed bourbons. 

Solely half of the quantity from these barrels has been bottled (in honor of the brewery’s fifth birthday).  They’ve then been refilled with the flagship bourbon and racked away once more for some time. This solera methodology ensures this specialty collection will always change.

Promoting Quicker Than We Can Maintain

“Vodka is our primary vendor in Atlanta, and bourbon at Virginia Seashore, and it’s all promoting sooner than we are able to at present maintain,” Ford says. It could appear after the final two years of consuming to outlive, of us wish to spend their cash on good liquid. New Realm is distilling at each Atlanta and Virginia Seashore however is at present on the hunt for a full-scale manufacturing facility within the southeast. “It’s loopy to work at a spot the place the sky’s the restrict,” Ford provides. “New Realm is happier making issues the onerous manner so long as it’s good.”

This summer time is perhaps the “summer time of spirits” for New Realm, having now expanded their vodka and bourbon and different spirits choices past the brewery/distillery partitions. It was one thing the New Realm had at all times deliberate to do when the time was proper.

Just lately, we requested New Realm co-founder Carey Falcone concerning the spirits distribution growth. “All of it occurred a little bit in reverse,” he says. The demand was there earlier than we went massive with it, the place I believed we might launch and construct demand.”

Time works in your favor typically. It definitely does for whiskey.