Baltimore’s Sagamore Spirit Opens Distillery Doors

Sagamore Spirit, a Baltimore-based whiskey company, opens its waterfront distillery on East Cromwell Street in Port Covington on Friday, April 21, 2017.

“We are proud to call the City of Baltimore our home,” said Brian Treacy, President of Sagamore Spirit. “Our team will continue to work hard to provide an incredible visitor experience, celebrate Maryland’s distilling heritage, and showcase what a great destination Charm City can be.  We want to put Maryland back on the map as the premier distiller of rye whiskey.”

The Sagamore Spirit Distillery campus sits on five acres of waterfront property on the banks of the Patapsco River. The 22,000 square-foot Distillery Building houses the world’s only handmade 40-foot mirrored finished copper column still, made by Vendome Copper in Lousiville, Kentucky. The still took twelve people 1,200 hours to make and is “continuous,” maintaining a constant state of distillation. The distillery features a 250-gallon copper pot still, used for research and development, seasonal releases, and new spirit expressions.  The Distillery Building also holds nine 6,500-gallon fermenting tanks, an 8,000-gallon beer well, and a 6,000-gallon mash cooker – all made in the United States.

The 27,000 square-foot Processing Building holds Sagamore’s state-of-the-art bottling line, barrel filler, and barrel dump trough. Ten 1,000-gallon proofing and gauging tanks reside on the second floor of the Processing Building, and unique spring-fed water from Sagamore Farm is added to each batch of whiskey during this process.

The distillery will be open to the public for free tours during opening weekend on April 21 – 23. Tours will be available from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. with the last tour beginning at 5:00 p.m.  Guests will have the opportunity to taste three different expressions of Sagamore Rye and learn how Sagamore Farm spring-fed water is used to cut their 13-time award winning whiskey to proof. Each tour can accommodate up to 24 people of all ages (must be 21 years old to drink) and will last about an hour. Regularly scheduled tours will begin on Monday, April 24 and will cost $15. Tours can be booked online through the Sagamore Spirit website.

Sagamore Spirit expects to welcome more than 100,000 visitors annually at its retail and visitor center for daily tours and tastings. The distillery campus will also include a two-story restaurant and event space, scheduled to open this fall.

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