Inspired by the phrase, "A very blue puppy cries"—Appalachian Valley, Blue Ridge Mountain, Piedmont, Coastal Plain.

1½ ounces Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin
1½ ounces honeysuckle, blueberry, allspice, hibiscus and sugar tincture
¾ ounces Dolin Vermouth Blanc
2 shakes Angostura orange bitters
1 chocolate mint to garnish

Combine gin, tincture, vermouth and bitters in an ice-filled Boston Shaker. Shake vigorously and serve in a chilled champagne coupe. Garnish with a leaf of mint.

Recipe courtesy of Hunter Johnson, Lucky, Roanoke.

Todd Thrasher’s riff on the Old Fashioned plays homage to his home state with the Virginia figs and local rye.

¾ oz fig simple syrup*
2 oz Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye
liberal dash of orange bitters
orange peel to garnish

Combine fig simple syrup, bitters and rye in a mixing glass, stir and strain over fresh ice. Garnish with orange peel.

Fig simple syrup:

1 quart sugar
1 quart water
1 quart dried Virginia figs

Heat water over medium heat, add sugar and whisk until dissolved. Add figs, reduce heat to a low simmer for 20 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool. Strain through a fine chinois. Refrigerate.

Recipe courtesy Todd Thrasher of Bar PX, and used with permission.

We had the pleasure of hosting Jill Vitick, of Vitick's Switchel, in our tasting room this month.  Jill brought in several jars of switchel, which is an old colonial farm drink.  A mixture of honey, maple, or sorghum, vinegar, and other spices, switchel was the "Gatorade" of its day:  a cool, refreshing energy boost after a hard day's labor.

Of course, we turn things like this into cocktails!  Here is our cocktail with her sorghum switchel.

1 oz Roundstone Rye
½ oz Sorghum Switchel
¼ oz barrel aged maple syrup
dash of black walnut bitters
garnish with an orange twist

We had the pleasure of hosting Jill Vitick, of Vitick's Switchel, in our tasting room this month.  Jill brought in several jars of switchel, which is an old colonial farm drink.  A mixture of honey, maple, or sorghum, vinegar, and other spices, switchel was the "Gatorade" of its day:  a cool, refreshing energy boost after a hard day's labor.

Of course, we turn things like this into cocktails!  Here is our cocktail with her maple switchel.

1 oz Mosby's Spirit
½ oz Maple Syrup Switchel
¼ oz simple syrup
¼ oz lime juice
Ginger beer
Lime peel

Combine Mosby's Spirit, switchel, syrup and lime juice, and top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime peel.

Here is a fantastic brunch cocktail from DrinkTonight, one of my favorite Instagram accounts based in DC.  They feature fantastic cocktail recipes with various local spirits. Find them on Instagram at www.instagram.com/drinktonight.

Introducing your favorite new brunch cocktail. Another unique, delicious recipe courtesy of our friends over at @12bottlebar, The Benchley is similar to The Algonquin — rye, dry vermouth, and pineapple juice. Add some flavors from Sriracha and you have yourself a drink that is savory, sweet, strong, and everything you want at brunch. I added lemon juice from their recipe for some acidity to balance the pineapple, but if you omit its closer to their recipe.

1½ oz Roundstone Rye
¾ oz dry vermouth
¾ oz Pineapple Sriracha Syrup
Juice of a half lemon

Combine all over ice and strain into a rocks glass with ice. Lemon peel garnish.

Recipe and photo by DrinkTonight, and used with permission.

2 oz Watershed Gin
1 oz sage simple syrup*
1 oz unsweetened grapefruit juice (fresh squeezed is best)
sage for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a sage leaf.

*Sage Simple Syrup

Combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup of water and several leaves of sage.  Cook on low heat for a couple hours, strain and save in the fridge for up to two months.

This cocktail comes to us from Kevin W Collins on Instagram as @kevinwcollins, who spends his time crafting cocktails using many locally provided spirits.  We're grateful for people like him!

The Thyme Collins is very similar to our previous Watershed Thyme Gimlet, but with the presence of the soda water, a light and refreshing drink for the heat of summer.

2 oz Watershed Gin
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz thyme simple syrup*

Stir to combine the strain into Collins glass over ice. Top with club soda and garnish with fresh thyme.

*Thyme simple syrup

Combine 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water, and several sprigs of thyme. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours. A crockpot works fabulously for this.

Recipe and photo courtesy @kevinwcollins and used with permission.

This cocktail comes to us courtesy @fletcher_whiskeydog on Instagram, one of our favorite accounts for all things whiskey and cocktails.  He writes:

After doing some planning today for the next cocktail challenge, I thought it'd be fun to mix up the winning recipe from the first challenge. The "Middleman", submitted by @timmergund, is one crisp, refreshing cocktail! I used @catoctincreek cask strength 2-year rye, which really cuts through a cocktail nicely. Cheers y'all!

1½ oz Roundstone Rye Cask Proof
¾ oz Velvet Falernum
¾ oz fresh lime juice
¾ oz Green Chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake and strain and serve with lime wheel garnish.

Photo courtesy @fletcher_whiskeydog, recipe courtesy @timmergund, and both used with permission.

1½ oz Roundstone Rye Whisky
1 oz sweet potato shrub*
½ oz lemon juice
1 egg white
2 dashes Jerry Thomas Bitters

Add all the ingredients except for the egg white in a Boston shaker. Add ice and shake. Strain into the smaller part of the shaker, pour out the ice and add the egg white to the smaller part of the shaker. Add two dashes of Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters into a chilled coupe and coat the inside of the coupe. Shake the cocktail again very vigorously and pour into the chilled coupe. Enjoy!

*Sweet potato shrub

Preheat the oven for 300 degrees. Peel and chop a sweet potato. Place pieces on a baking sheet covered in parchment. Bake for one hour. While sweet potato is baking, prepare 4 cups of 1:1 simple syrup. Puree the baked sweet potatoes with the syrup and add ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar to the mixture. Allow to cool before using. Store for up to 1 month in the fridge.

Courtesy Chad Robinson, and used with permission.

This cocktail was one of the favorites of our recent St. Patrick's Day Spirits Dinner at The Wine Kitchen on the Creek in Frederick, Maryland.  Perhaps the most surprising flavor in this cocktail is the infusion of the oats into the gin.  It gives the cocktail a warm, very satisfying flavor and texture.

2 oz Oat-infused Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin*
1 oz Strawberry syrup**
3-5 coins of rhubarb
Sparkling water

Strawberry garnish

Muddle the rhubarb in the strawberry syrup.  Add the gin and shake with ice.  Strain to a rocks glass with ice.  Top with sparkling water and garnish with a strawberry.

*Oat-infused Watershed Gin

2 c Oats
2 c Watershed Gin

Mix/infuse the oats in the gin.  Steep the mixture for 24-48 hours.

Separate the oats from the gin.  (Let the solids settle from the gin, then pour through a coffee filter.)

**Strawberry Syrup

1½ c sugar
1 c water
6-8 chopped strawberries.

Combine sugar with water, bring to a boil. Steep the chopped strawberries in the syrup for 20-25 minutes.  Remove strawberries.

Recipe courtesy The Wine Kitchen, and used with permission.

These cocktails were from our recent St. Patrick's Day Spirits Dinner at The Wine Kitchen on the Creek in Frederick, Maryland. They were fun, original, and totally delicious with the dinner menu for the evening.

If you've not been to one of our dinners, whether at the distillery, or at one of our favorite restaurants, you're really missing out! 

These recipes don't include exact measurements or quantities, so a little experimentation will be needed to get the proportions just right.  But that's okay; experimenting is fun!

Catoctin Rabbit

Watershed Gin | carrot juice | lime | ginger | honey | juniper | carrot top garnish

1 oz. Watershed Gin
½ oz. carrot juice
¼ oz. honey, ginger, and juniper infused syrup (let all ingredients steep in a crock pot for a few hours)
¼ oz. lime juice
garnish with carrot top or parsley

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Albino Scorpion

1757 Virginia Brandy | rum | coconut milk | lime juice | lime wheel garnish

2 oz. 1757 Virginia Brandy
1 oz. Coconut milk
¼ oz. lime juice
1 tsp rum extract or 1 oz white rum
garnish with lime wheel

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Clearly Manhattan

Mosby's Spirit | dry vermouth | coffee simple syrup | candied rhubarb garnish

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Wild Oats

Watershed Gin infused with oats | strawberry simple syrup | sparkling H₂O

Read the full recipe for this cocktail, here.

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Hoot Owl

Roundstone Rye | Hitochino beer | lime

This one is like a boilermaker meets Corona on the beach.  Fun!

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Pecan Pie

Brown butter fat-washes Roundstone Rye | pecan | brown sugar syrup

 

Recipes courtesy The Wine Kitchen, and used with permission.

We started something new in our tasting room starting in March this year.  After numerous requests, we are now pouring cocktails by the glass.  Our menu for March includes a few perennial favorites, including the Balsamic Berry Old Fashioned and the Bloody Mosby, but we also include four new cocktails.  One of our managers, Addie, came up with these.  She prefers her cocktails on the less-sweet side, so if you like a crisp, refreshing cocktail, these will hit the spot.

Fox Mulder

1½ Roundstone Rye
¾ oz lemon juice
¼ oz pineapple juice
½ simple syrup
½ Green Chartreuse

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker of ice, stir and strain into a rocks glass with ice.  Garnish with lemon peel.

Cocktail courtesy liquor.com and contributed by Matt Merkin.

Blueberry Shrub

1½ Mosby's Spirit
1 oz Blueberry syrup (blueberry preserves + hot water)
½ oz Element Lemon Mint shrub
Garnish with whole blueberries

Jasmine Gin Fizz

1½ Watershed Gin
1 oz Jasmine tea
½ oz honey simple syrup
¼ oz lemon juice
Garnish with lemon peel

James Bond Martini

(Not to be confused with our Ghost of Vesper Lynd cocktail.)

2 oz Watershed Gin
1 oz dry white vermouth (such as Lillet Blanc)
Garnish with olive.