Kings County Distillery LLC

Kings County Distillery is New York City's oldest operating distillery — and the Brooklyn-based craft whiskey operation that re-established commercial whiskey production in New York City for the first time since Prohibition. Founded in 2010 by Kentucky native Colin Spoelman and David Haskell in a small Williamsburg space, Kings County moved its operations in 2012 to the historic Paymaster Building inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard — a 169-year-old brick industrial building that had served as the Navy Yard's paymaster headquarters during World War II. The Paymaster Building distillery, with its preserved 19th-century brick construction, polished hardwood floors, and the visible copper pot stills as the architectural centerpiece, is one of the most photographed working distilleries in any American city.

The technical operation runs primarily on small-batch pot-still distillation — a deliberate departure from the column-still production that dominates Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. Spoelman's original mission was to apply Kentucky bourbon production traditions (he grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky) to a Brooklyn craft scale, using local Hudson Valley grain and small-format aging that would let the brand release substantive aged whiskey on a meaningful timeline. Nicole Austin — now General Manager of Cascade Hollow Distilling (George Dickel) in Tennessee — got her start in the bourbon industry as Kings County's Master Blender, giving the operation an additional credibility hook into the broader American whiskey scene.

The flagship Kings County Bourbon is a single-barrel-strength small-batch bourbon distilled from Hudson Valley corn and malted barley, aged in small barrels for accelerated wood interaction. The expanded range covers Kings County Empire Rye (one of the founding examples of the modern "Empire Rye" — a New York State-defined rye whiskey category), Kings County Single Barrel Bourbon, the Peated Bourbon (an Islay-peated American single malt-style release), and a substantial range of seasonal and limited bottlings. The Empire Rye program in particular has put Kings County at the center of one of the most distinctive modern regional American whiskey movements.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard visitor experience is one of the most-visited craft distillery stops in New York City. Tours move through the working production floor inside the Paymaster Building, the small on-site rickhouses, and a tasting room with views of the East River and Manhattan skyline. The on-site Gatehouses Bar — a cocktail program inside the Navy Yard gatehouse buildings — operates as the brand's public-facing tasting and event space. For NYC visitors building a Brooklyn craft-food-and-drink day, Kings County is the essential craft whiskey anchor and one of the few American distilleries operating inside an active major industrial facility.