Chief Gowanus New Netherland

Gin description

Distilled in the old Dutch colony of Brooklyn from grains grown in New York State, Chief Gowanus is based on an early American recipe for making a version of “Holland gin” out of American rye whiskey. With a little help from Brooklyn’s resident historian of drink, Dr. David Wondrich, we’ve taken our unaged, double-distilled rye whiskey, put it back in our traditional pot still with a few shovelfuls of juniper berries and a handful of Cluster hops (the variety likely to have been in use in 1809, from whence the recipe originates) and run it through a third time. Three months in an oak barrel to smooth it out a bit and the result is gin that, we like to believe, would have brought a smile to the legendary Gowanus, great chief of the Canarsees back in the days when Brooklyn was still Dutch.