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Kensington Distillery Brings Patrons Closer to Their Cocktails


According to Newsworks, a new distillery has launched in Kensington, and they’re letting the public observe their process. Red Brick Craft Distillery’s very first commercial brew has just been barrelled and begun the aging process, and the signature spirit is expected within six to nine months.

It will be a single-malt, single-barrel whiskey, with notes of chocolate and smoke, registering at 96-proof. While it’s certainly strong, another of Red Brick’s offerings, Red Brick Simple Shine whiskey, knocks it out of the park at 110 proof. The company recommends reserving the latter for cocktails.

whisky glass

Red Brick’s barley is sourced in Glen Mills, Delaware County. They use 100 percent malted barley from Deer Creek Malthouse in their brews, which ferment for two weeks, are distilled twice, and then sit in white oak bourbon barrels to age to perfection. The waste grain is sent to a high school in Roxborough called Saul Agricultural where it’s fed to cattle or composted.

The owners of the distillery, Brian Forrest and Zach Cohen, aren’t whiskey makers by trade. Forrest is a carpenter and Cohen is a clinical psychology doctoral student at UPenn. Cohen cites public interest and luck in his success story, telling Newsworks that “[i]t wasn’t until people started asking and giving us all this positive feedback that we really began to believe that this is happening.”

After repetition and refining, Red Brick’s process is ready to be shown off. Patrons can come to the distillery, located in a warehouse basement at 2600 Martha Street, on Saturdays and Sundays and watch from behind a stained glass window as Red Brick’s whiskey is made, a personal touch not offered by the other distilleries in the area. Red Brick offers tastings on these days as well. Forrest told The Spirit that Kensington, his home of nine years, was chosen as the distillery’s location because of the hopeful state of business development and the accessibility of permissive zoning. He believes that Kensington is a neighborhood that would support something like Red Brick.

“It’s an experience that people can really feel connected to. Watching people enjoy the flavor, that’s rewarding, but more than that, I think we have an opportunity to share the knowledge we have about how whiskey is made,” Cohen told Newsworks.

Forrest and Cohen hope that Red Brick and the other local distilleries, New Liberty Distillery/Millstone Spirits Group and Rowhouse Spirits, can come together in a Kentucky Bourbon Trail-style “distillers trail” in the one mile area that they all occupy, highlighting Philadelphia as a spirit tasting destination.

 

Full article at News Works
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