With the rave reviews online about the St Augustine Distillery, we knew it was something to check out on the last leg of our Southern Road Trip.
We are not big drinkers, and to be completely honest, our home bar is overstocked. Our friends tend to bring us bottles when they come to dinner, and we enjoy checking out local beers, wines, and liquors when we travel.
Why St Augustine Distillery?
Several things attract us to a local business or attraction, and St Augustine Distillery checks lots of those boxes.
- Established in 2013, St Augustine Distillery is family-owned and operated with tremendous community support.
- The distillery and their restaurant, The Ice Plant, are housed in St Augustine’s first power and ice complex dating back to 1907. They have won numerous awards for historic preservation.
- The distillers work with farming partners throughout the state to use grains and crops from across the region. And, they return the ‘mash’ created from the grains to farmers to use as feed.
Their website outlines many sustainable practices. Even their restaurant, which we didn’t get a chance to try, focuses on Farm-to-Table cooking with grass-fed beef, local seafood, fruits, and vegetables.
Visiting The Distillery
St Augustine Distillery
112 Riberia Street
St Augustine, Florida 32084
The distillery is open seven days a week and offers a free self-guided tour with samples of their liquors for those of us over 21.
Their hours are:
Retail Shop: 10:00am to 6:00pm
Tours: 10:30am to 5:30pm
The tour is part history, part process, and part tasting. The panels with historical information were fascinating and informative. The tastings were relatively small groups as you passed through each area. It did seem that there was very little going on in the way of production when we were there.
The Bourbon samples we tried were excellent, and it appears that they have won a good number of awards. We skipped over the Vodka tasting as it’s not our drink of choice. We both enjoyed the light citrus flavors of the Gin, and Chuck bought a bottle to add to our collection.
Like all good attractions, the distillery tour ends in a huge gift shop with options for buying the liquor and mixers they produce, t-shirts, and all kinds of cocktail-related swag.
Overall, we enjoyed our afternoon at St Augustine Distillery. Our only regret was not planning to stay for lunch. The menu at the Ice Plant looked like something we would enjoy.
