If you’re ever in or near Montpelier, Vermont, visit the Barr Hill Distillery for a tour/tasting and their award-winning bar. They’re open year-round and have outdoor spaces and indoor. The facility was opened two years ago, after being operated elsewhere.
Sign up for a tour to learn about the operations before digging into the drinks and food. During the tour you’ll start in the gardens out front, a sample of what they do to support the bees and Vermont locally-grown produce. Every year they have a Bee’s Knees Week, where they will plant 10 square feet of new bee habitat for every Bee’s Knees cocktail tagged with @barrhillgin and #beeskneesweek in posts and stories. The initiative has resulted in 700,000 square feet planted in six years. Mark your calendars for Sept 20-29, 2024.
Ever seen a 55 gallon drum filled with honey? You’ll see one on the tour, and get to dip your spoon in to try it. They buy up all the honey from the beekeepers they contract with, and the honey is Vermont local, within 250 miles of the distillery.
The guide will show you the stills, including the largest still in Vermont, next to column stills that look like wind instruments. They also have a reclamation still, capturing and reusing the early and late distillations which otherwise would not be used.
You’ll get to taste multiple products throughout the tour, including the vodka, Barr Hill Gin, Tom Cat Gin (a gin/whisky hybrid) and others. We tried a gin aged in an apple cider barrel. They also sell a rye whiskey called Phyllis (also the name of one of the stills). Though vodka is made WITH honey, some of the others are finished with honey.
As Barr Hill is a marriage made between a beekeeper and a distiller, and they incorporate honey into everything they do. In fact, they have a vodka that is made only with honey (no grains), yeast and water. That is it. 3.5 pounds of honey in every bottle.
They are experimenting with their products and what barrels they age them in, to find new flavors and nuances, like aging them in port barrels, apple cider barrels and other combinations.
After seeing the stills and the barrels/aging rooms, you’ll learn about the wax dipping process for the bottle tops, that used to be done by hand. Not shockingly, the wax comes from the very farms where they get the honey. You’ll be offered the opportunity to dip a bottle you want to buy in the wax to top it off yourself. They used to all be done by hand, but they now have a machine to do it.
Lastly, you’ll see the laboratory, where they have tasting panels of nine people who ensure quality control. The gins can have different coloring depending on the honey used, though they’ll still taste the same (the tasters guarantee it). They hold back a bottle from each batch to test against in case there are problems reported later on.
I recommend at the end, heading to the bar (inside or outside) to try some of the drinks and eat the amazing food – a separate post. They have a gift shop (shocking!) with plenty to choose from, including some of that delicious honey.
Barr Hill was one of 20 semifinalists in 2024 for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar, nationwide. (Jewel of the South in New Orleans won) so don’t skimp on your time there to try the different cocktails (and order food – it was to die for).
If you visit the Barr Hill Distillery:
Where: Barr Hill is at 116 Gin Lane, Montpelier
When: Barr Hill is open daily except for Tuesday.
Tours: $20/person plus tax, 15 participants max.
Events: Check out Barr Hill events, which include not just tours, but cheese and cocktail pairings, cocktail-making classes, music
Buy their spirits: They sell Barr Hill (Caledonia Spirits is the company) in New Jersey, and it was one of the first states they began selling in.