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2024 ADI International Spirits Competition: Gold Medal Queens Reserve Bourbon • Silver Medal Rubenesque Bottled-in Bond • Bronze Medal Persimmon Cordial • Bronze Medal Excellence in Packaging Queens Reserve Bourbon
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(2022) Silver Medal Distilled Spirit Bourbon Rubenesque Single Barrel Cask Strength • Bronze Medal Distilled Spirit Bloody Butcher Red Corn Whiskey
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2023 Key West Whiskey Awards: DOUBLE GOLD Medal Montgomery County • Bronze Medal Rubenesque
• 2024 ADI International Spirits Competition: Gold Medal Queens Reserve Bourbon • Silver Medal Rubenesque Bottled-in Bond • Bronze Medal Persimmon Cordial • Bronze Medal Excellence in Packaging Queens Reserve Bourbon • (2022) Silver Medal Distilled Spirit Bourbon Rubenesque Single Barrel Cask Strength • Bronze Medal Distilled Spirit Bloody Butcher Red Corn Whiskey • 2023 Key West Whiskey Awards: DOUBLE GOLD Medal Montgomery County • Bronze Medal Rubenesque
This place is amazing! Hands down, don't think about it, don't doubt, make a visit, get a flight, and buy a bottle or two....trust me.
I stopped into this place on a whim on a long drive to the airport (leaving my whiskey in my truck while I traveled).
I hit up a conversation with the employee and started learning about what makes this place special while having a sampler of whiskeys to taste. I thought I liked whiskey, before I found this place, and now I love it.
The corn is all unique and works into the recipes and flavors, all homegrown on the distillery's own land, and human food grade instead of the feed grade that everyone else uses. More than that, some of it is ancient corn that the owner has essentially brought back into circulation and gathered from heirloom strains around the world.
This is clearly a passion project and everything about this place is head and shoulders above the competition. The diversity of tastes, qualities, and smells is amazing. This is absolutely the first time I've ever truly had a "Favorite" distillery and if anyone ever asks me, Wood Hat Spirits is where anyone should get whiskey if they want it to be quality.
JC PRAZAK (GOOGLE | MARCH ‘24 | 5 STARS)
We had driven by this distillery for years, never with time to stop. Right off the interstate, we finally had an extra day to stop and smell the roses (or drink the bourbon in this case). So glad we did!
Wood Hat is a smaller distillery and so we called the day before to verify the time they would open, and they said "what time do you want to come? We'll open then"!
When we arrived we were offered a tasting, 5 for $5. Between the two of us we shared so we could each try 10 of their products - almost all of them. We really appreciated the unique taste of different corns they use - not something you get at most distilleries. During our tasting, both the owner and distiller were present and happy to answer all of our questions.
We walked away with a few bottles and will definitely make the stop next time we drive by!
-Mandy l. (yelp | May 4th | 5 stars)
who we are
what’s up with the ‘wood hat’?
gary hinegardner, owner/founder, is a man of many hats quite literally. beyond the distillery he creates and wears hats made of real wood! A true unique skill learned from the concepts inventor, johannes michelsen (bio). check them out, in all their glory, while you are visiting the tasting room at wood hat spirits in new florence, mo!
wood-fired distilling
carbon-neutral:
we are the only legal wood-fired distillery (that we know of). We burn wood chips which are scrap wood from a local stave mill. The fire heats a specialized heat-transfer oil to 375 degrees which is pumped through insulated pipes into coils in the still to cook or distill the mash.
unique wood elements: Barrels are a key element in the flavor of whiskey. We use 3 types of barrel treatment, 3 types of secondary barrel finishes and two sizes of barrels. Most of our barrels are made of staves that have been air dried for years which removes some of the more harsh tanins.
our corn