New distillery in Ulster savors old-fashioned ways

Specialty malt's key in creating its line of spirits
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Manager Christopher Williams adds rye to a batch of rye mash at Coppersea Distilling in West Park. The Ulster company makes spirits with time-tested traditional methods, including a process known as floor malting, which boosts the flavor of grains used in making liquor.STEVE BORLAND/Times Herald-Record

WEST PARK — A time traveler from the 19th century who stumbles out of a vortex and into the old chicken coop off Route 9W would likely know where he landed.

The barrels filled with fermenting fruits and grains would be the first clue he had been teleported to a distillery. The next would be the heat the hand-hammered copper still throws off, and the grain mills sitting upstairs.

That's the point of Coppersea Distilling, said Angus MacDonald, the master distiller at the new business. The old-fashioned distillery went into production last year, and sells its spirits at the Kingston Farmers' Market, some restaurants and a prominent New York City liquor store.

Process enhances flavor

MacDonald has eschewed modern conveniences to craft a specialty product. Instead of commodity malt — an industry term for grain — Coppersea workers undertake an arduous process called floor malting.

"It's the way that people approached this 150 years ago," MacDonald said, adding that almost every town had a distillery through the 19th century. "It's a historically accurate process."

Floor malting local grains gives the liquor trickling out of the still more flavor, said distillery manager Christopher Williams.

Floor malting involves spreading grain out over the floor, and constantly raking it.

Local grain is hard to find, since many Hudson Valley farmers long ago gave up growing it because it wasn't profitable, MacDonald said. In some cases, MacDonald and Williams have taught farmers how to grow grain, and will buy the crop before the seeds are even in the ground.

Taste unique to the region

The effort pays off, because the local grain creates a "Hudson Valley terroir," or flavor characteristics specific to the region, Williams said.

Because the spirits are more flavorful, Coppersea hasn't aged all of them. Aging spirits in barrels usually adds taste, MacDonald said.

Astor Wines & Spirits in New York City, where Coppersea's products are available, praised the distillery's New York Raw Rye in its tasting notes, saying the liquor will change drinkers' minds about unaged spirits.

"The challenge, the perception in the market, is that older is better," said Coppersea CEO Michael Kinstlick. "That's not necessarily true."

Monastery once owned building

In another throwback to old-school distilling, Coppersea workers also hand-char barrels they use for their aged spirits, which haven't hit the market yet.

A couple of dozen barrels, some filled with a green malt rye, are lined up in the distillery's attic, nicknamed "The Church" after the pulpit left there from a prior owner of the building, the Holy Cross Monastery.

MacDonald, who lives in New Paltz, found the building a couple of years ago, when it was being used as an auto repair shop.

"I said, 'That would make a great site for a distillery,'" said MacDonald, who has spent his adult life researching spirits. His family has a history in moonshining, both in his ancestral home of Scotland and in the U.S. MacDonald said his grandfather flew hooch from Canada to New York City during Prohibition.

Coppersea was still in its infancy when MacDonald stumbled across the structure. He had considered starting a distillery since at least the early 2000s, but plans only started to come together in late 2010, when Kinstlick started talking to potential investors. Kinstlick and MacDonald knew each other through an online distilling community.

Last year, MacDonald and Kinstlick got their government licenses, and had already signed the lease for the former chicken coop. They've been distilling since then.

Kinstlick, who has a business background, hopes to produce a couple of thousand cases annually next year, and widen the distribution network.

For MacDonald, Coppersea is a passion project.

"I didn't do this because I wanted to be a business," MacDonald said. "I did it because it's fascinating."

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