Kings County Distillery
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New York City's oldest operating whiskey distillery since Prohibition, founded in 2010 by Colin Spoelman (a Kentucky native) and David Haskell in the Brooklyn Navy Yard's historic Paymaster Building. Started with tiny 24-gallon pot stills -- the kind of small-batch craft that defined the American microdistillery movement. Their bourbon, made from New York organic corn and English malted barley, is matured in small (5-15 gallon) barrels, accelerating extraction. Known for innovative expressions including a peated bourbon, chocolate whiskey, and bottled-in-bond bourbon. Spoelman also authored 'Dead Distillers,' a history of American whiskey. Represents the Brooklyn craft spirits ethos -- artisanal, experimental, and unapologetically urban.
Production Details
The Kings County Distillery Tale
In the shadow of Manhattan's gleaming towers, across the East River in Brooklyn's industrial Navy Yard, something ancient stirs in a building that once counted coins for sailors. The Paymaster Building, where Civil War-era clerks tallied wages for men who built America's warships, now houses copper stills that bubble with a different kind of American spirit.
Colin Spoelman arrived from Kentucky in 2010 carrying moonshine recipes and frontier instincts, but it was the collision with David Haskell's Brooklyn sensibilities that sparked Kings County Distillery into existence. They began with 24-gallon pot stills—tiny vessels that would fit in most home kitchens, the kind of equipment that whispers rather than roars. This was craft distilling stripped to its essence, where every drop demanded attention.
The water flows from the same Catskill watershed that fills eight million New York coffee cups each morning, traveling through municipal pipes to reach copper chambers where it transforms New York organic corn and English malted barley into something unmistakably American. But this isn't Kentucky bourbon transported north—it's Brooklyn bourbon, aged in barrels so small they'd be kindling in a major distillery. Five to fifteen gallons each, these miniature cooperage vessels compress years of maturation into months, pulling color and character with urban urgency.
The stills themselves reflect the Brooklyn ethos: experimental, unafraid, willing to chase ideas that would make traditional distillers wince. Peated bourbon—smoke meeting corn in ways that would puzzle purists. Chocolate whiskey that treats cocoa as seriously as grain. Bottled-in-bond expressions that honor century-old standards while pushing boundaries.
Spoelman's book "Dead Distillers" sits somewhere in the building, a reminder that American whiskey has always been about revival as much as tradition. Kings County stands as New York City's oldest operating whiskey distillery since Prohibition ended—not because of ancient lineage, but because someone finally had the audacity to start again.
The Navy Yard bustles with new energy now, but inside the Paymaster Building, copper gleams and mash bubbles with the same patient rhythm that built America's drinking culture, one small batch at a time.