“This election Tuesday, before or after you vote, make sure you stop by the distillery to be one of the first to get your hands on our amazing hand-crafted spirits,” distillery owners wrote on Facebook.
Dayton Barrel Works founder Peter Hilgeman said the distillery’s Rubicon Creek bourbon is named for the stream where D.C. Cooper began distilling in 1799 near land just south of what became downtown Dayton that evolved into NCR. The Lily Water Vodka is named for Hilgeman’s 2-year-old daughter (she’ll be 3 in December), and the Harper’s Siren Gin is named for his 9-month-old daughter, Harper.
The distillery’s bourbon has been aged for five years and was sourced from an outside distillery, Hilgeman said. Its mash bill includes 21 percent rye, and the bourbon was bottled at 95 proof. The distillery will eventually produce its own aged bourbons, and this initial release was chosen by the Dayton distillery’s team to match the style of what Dayton Barrel Works' own bourbon will be, the distillery’s founder said.
“We hand-picked this blend of bourbon to represent our brand well,” Hilgeman said.
Harpers Siren Gin was bottled at 90 proof, and the Lily Water Vodka at 80 proof.
Building out the distillery at 318 E. Second St. alongside the craft brewery was a difficult and lengthy task, but its completion moves the facility closer to Hilgeman’s vision of what the brewery-distillery can achieve, the founder said. Dayton Beer Company started in 2012 as a 1,500-square-foot microbrewery and tasting room on East Dorothy Lane in Kettering, and has evolved into a 30,000-square-foot complex in downtown Dayton.
“I started this because I wanted to bring something to Dayton that it didn’t have, to inject some energy to the city, to its downtown, and to the region,” Hillgeman told this news outlet in an interview. “I’m excited to get the distillery done and get it open.”
To keep tabs on other new releases and distillery news, go to www.facebook.com/daytonbarrelworks.
About the Author
