page_title: Microdistillery
section_title: Innovation
hierarchical_section_title: Microdistillery / Innovation
caption_attribution_description: English: Downslope Double Diamond Still
context_page_description: A microdistillery is a small, often boutique-style distillery established to produce beverage grade spirit alcohol in relatively small quantities, usually done in single batches. While the term is most commonly used in the United States, micro-distilleries have been established in Europe for many years, either as small cognac distilleries supplying the larger cognac houses, or as distilleries of single malt whisky originally produced for the blended Scotch whisky market, but whose products are now sold as niche single malt brands. The more recent development of micro-distilleries can now also be seen in locations as diverse as London, Switzerland and South Africa.
  Throughout much of the world, small distilleries operate throughout communities of various sizes, mostly without being given a special description. Due to the extended period of Prohibition in the United States, however, most small distillers were forced out of business, leaving only the corporate-dominated megadistilleries to resume operation when Prohibition was repealed to produce small batch brands.
context_section_description: Microdistillers often experiment with new techniques to produce new flavors. Tony Conigliaro uses a rotavap (i.e. glassware not copper pot) on a small scale to produce distilled spirits which change from day to day in his bar, and Ian Hart uses vacuum equipment to conduct distillation at much reduced temperatures, resulting in less cooked aromatics.
caption: A Double Diamond pot still used by Downslope Distilling of Centennial, Colorado.
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