As the August heat becomes unbearable, the pumpkin-spice crazed public prematurely demands gourd juice of the gods. Before we’ve finished our last sips of summer shandy, liquor stores are already welcoming arrivals of pumpkin-flavored beers from craft and commercial breweries alike. But one pumpkin product you won’t see before the proper picking season is Sons of Liberty’s Pumpkin Spice Whiskey.
Sure, you could argue lumping spirits with beer is an apples to oranges approach, however Mike Reppucci, Sons of Liberty (SOL) founder and distiller, boasts and markets a craft brewer’s approach to distilling. The concept of seasonal flavors, for starters, feels more indicative of a brew than a fine whiskey. This summer his company introduced a Hop Flavored Whiskey, reminiscent of your favorite summer brew, and this fall he will bring back the award-winning pumpkin liquor.
But beyond satisfying the public demand for all things season-themed—be on the lookout for a SOL winter flavor—Reppucci’s methodology is decidedly inspired by brewing. Years ago while on a distillery tour abroad, Reppucci learned that the first step of effective whiskey making is creating a distiller’s beer that would then be distilled into whiskey. A distiller and a brewer both begin with the barley, water, and yeast, but whereas many brewers layer in complex flavors at this stage with longer brewing times and careful barley choice, distillers (often because it is most cost-effective) create a weak brew, and rely on barrel aging for flavor. Reppucci disagrees, “I think about whiskey making like my grandma making sauce on the stove and layering flavors throughout the day.”
That drive for rich and unique flavoring is also what sets his distribution of the Pumpkin Spice Whiskey behind the brewers. Those expecting a syrupy sweetness reminiscent of Starbuck’s specialty sludge will be disappointed, as the Rhode Island-based distillery uses the meat from local pumpkins plucked from Carpenter Farms in the first weeks of September.
And the tonic is worth the wait. In a blind tasting, Whiskey Magazine dubbed it one of the World’s top ten whiskeys.
“We’ll have a whiskey that’s 100 percent traditional in its production, but it has these weird complexities that people cant place,” says Reppuci. “That’s what we do.”