This week on Fuhmentaboudit!, hosts Mary Izett and Chris Cuzme are talking distilling with Chris Murillo, president of the Astoria Distilling Company. Specifically talking about distilling gin, Chris shares how he got his start in distilling and how he arrived at crafting his own gin. Talking about his distillery’s original gin called Queens Courage, it is an “Old Tom” style gin, a type that was popular during the 1800s. Sweetened slightly using locally sourced honey, he explains that it can be used to craft classic cocktails or even to drink on its own. After the break, Chris shares that unlike most gins, Queens Courage’s botanicals are distilled in separate fractions. This allows the distillery to treat each botanical fraction differently to get the best individual flavor from the carefully selected botanicals. Astoria Distilling Company then marries all the components together to get the best unified flavor profile possible. Taking Chris and Mary through the gin making basics and more, tune in to learn all about this classic spirit. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

“There’s three main categories of gin, there’s Dutch Genever gin, London Dry, and then you have style of gin that’s essentially been forgotten, very popular in the 1800s called Old Tom.” [8:40]

“What we ferment is all New York wheat. What we use to sweeten it is all New York honey, so we wanted to make sure this was a New York product when we made it.” [17:15]

—Chris Murillo on Fuhmentaboudit!