Williamsburg Distillery Closed For Private Event Friday Oct. 21st, 2016

Hey everyone.  Just wanted to send out a message that the Distillery will be closed this Friday, October 21st, 2016 for a private event.  Seen in the picture here is a tent going up on the property now for this coming Friday evening.  We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause anyone.  We will be open again on Saturday, October 22nd, 2016 from 1:00 pm til 8:00 pm.

If you are interested in hosting a private event at the Distillery, please contact us for pricing and information.  

The Rum Runners Root Beer Float

The Rum Runners Root Beer Float.  Now this is a very simple recipe to follow, but you want to make sure this is for those 21 years of age and above.  All you do is fill a mug about three quarters of the way full of your favorite root beer leaving enough room for some vanilla ice cream.  Add in a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream and top off with a shot of Eight Shires Silver Rum.  (You may presently know this as our Yorktown Silver Rum). 

  Again, a very simple recipe but oh sooo gooooodddd.  I just have way too much fun figuring out ways to enjoy our rum.

Cherry Rum Cordial Ice Cream

Cherry Rum Cordial Ice Cream.  

During the Christmas season, Cella's comes out with these dark chocolate covered cherries.  They have been a family favorite for decades.  If you happen to be a fan of these, I have a wonderful surprise for you.  How to make your own Cherry Chocolate Rum Cordial Ice Cream that has the flavor of Cella's with an adult twist.

  At the top of the post is a bowl of chocolate ice cream covered with dark chocolate syrup.  That is your start.  Looking at a post below, I have covered how to make your own custom infused rum's.  In this version, start with some cherries bought at your favorite store, or picked at your local farmers market for those lucky enough to live near one or two, and bring them home, wash them and cut them up removing the pits.  Take a clean glass jar, put the cherries in it and then cover them with our 8 Shires Silver Rum.  You presently know this as Yorktown Silver Rum by us.  We are changing the name and our new labels will read 8 Shires or Eight Shires.  Now, cover the cherries and rum and let it sit for about 2 weeks.  You can use this sooner if you like, I prefer about 2 weeks myself to get the full flavor infusion.  

  So, you want to buy your ice cream and syrup at the end of the infusion period.  Once you have scooped your ice cream into a bowl and covered with dark chocolate syrup, you are now ready to add some of those cherries that have been waiting and then sprinkle about a half of a shot on top of the the ice cream.  

  The flavors will mix pretty fast.  Enjoy.

1st Annual Craft Distiller's Festival Hosted by Williamsburg Distillery

Dr D with Neal Steele at WXGM radio in Gloucester, Virginia yesterday, pictured above.  On the left is Neal Steele and on the right is Dr D.  This was in the recording studio at the radio station.  Dr D and Neal were putting together a promo to run on the radio station for the Williamsburg Distillery's upcoming First Annual Distiller's Festival being held at the Waterman's Museum in Yorktown on August 20th, 2016.  The event will feature 7 craft distilleries, one local brewery, food trucks on site, craft vendors, and live music as well as entertainment.

   Distilleries attending include: Vitae Spirits Distillery, Belle Isle Craft Spirits, KO Distilling, Virginia Distillery Company, Cirrus Vodka, MurLarkey Distilled Spirits, and Williamsburg Distillery.  Tickets to the event are $30.00 in advance or $40.00 the day of the event.  We also welcome those between the ages of 13 and 20 and those who aren't drinking for just $10. Children 12 and under can enter for free.  Where do you buy tickets in advance?

CLICK HERE for tickets.

   Again, that is August 20th, 2016.  The time is from 4:00 PM til 8:00 PM.  In the event of rain, there is a rain date of August 27th, 2016, same time.  So mark this on your calendar.  This is going to be a wonderful time. 

Plum Cake With Rum

Ingredients:
refined flour / all purpose flour
baking powder
vanilla extract
butter / oil
cinnamon powder
nutmeg powder
eggs
raisins
nuts
candid peel
sugar

Just follow the video as it is pretty straight forward.  If you do not want to make plum cake, just substitute the plums with another fruit.  We always recommend using Yorktown Silver Rum in your recipes.  Quality you can count on.

How To Customize Your Own Rum

How to customize your own rum.  Pictured above are several different infusions made from our Yorktown Silver Rum.  From left to right:  Coconut vanilla rum.  blackberry rum, blueberry rum and honeysuckle rum.  The bottles hold about 3 to 4 oz's and are just used and cleaned spice bottles.  I prefer glass but plastic can be used.  The blackberries were picked fresh and lightly bruised before adding the rum on top.  The blueberries came from the store and were not bruised prior to adding the rum which is why the rum is clear.  The coconut came from the store and cracked fresh the I added vanilla extract in with the rum.  Just a light amount as you do not want to overpower the rum or the coconut.  The honeysuckle was picked fresh and and rum poured over the top.

  You just need to let these sit for about 3 days.  Then they are ready for your entertainment.  One great idea is to add these over vanilla ice cream.  Pick out the berries or coconut and put some into a bowl along with the ice cream and also add about half an ounce of the rum to the ice cream.  Once you start experimenting with these types of infusions, you can't stop.  You will want to make more and more.  The other option is to make yourself a great sipping drink.  Our rum is already fantastic.  Customizing it is just lot's of fun.  Let us hear some of your ideas and maybe we can get them up here on the site for everyone to try.

  Question?  Is there a certain amount I should use when making my own infusions?
Answer:  No, it's up to you and what you think would be good.  What one person likes isn't necessarily going to be what another person likes.

Question:  Do the fruits need to be fresh picked?
Answer:  Again, it's a matter of personal taste.  Frozen fruit can be used as easily as fresh.

Question: How long will my infused fruit last in a jar?
Answer:  Rule of thumb is no longer than 6 months on the fruit left in a jar.  I would take the actual fruit out after a few weeks and use it, but the infused rum will last as long as years to come.  It won't get any better with age in any bottle.  But it is fun just knowing you always have a special treat around when you want it.

June 22nd, 2016 Learn Colonial Dance - Free Event - Last one of the year

On June 22nd, 2016 we are holding our last class of this year for learning Colonial Dance.  This class is taught by a Colonial Williamsburg professional instructor.  After this, you can learn Colonial Dance at Colonial Williamsburg for a fee.  But here you get to learn it for free at the Distillery.  This is our third and final class this year and we will not do this again until next year and that depends on availability of our instructor.  This class is a lot of fun and did I mention it was free?  If you have not had a chance to try either our Gin or our Gold Medal award winning Rum, then make sure you come to this event and you can sample either or both the Gin and the Rum for free at this class.

  We will be posting a video or two of our last class very soon so you can see what you have been missing.  This is also a great time to meet the owner, Dr D.  Pictured back right with the flags behind him.

We will do our best to try and get one of these great big smiles for you from Dr D when you come in too.  If not, maybe we can get him to tell you a bad joke.  That usually gets him smiling.

  So put this date on your calendar and plan on coming out to learn Colonial Dance.  (Did I mention it was free too)?  

Yorktown Rum Takes Gold Medal In Los Angeles, California Competition - 91 Points

Our Yorktown Rum has just finished with a Gold Medal winning in an International competition.  The rum came up 91 points in the Los Angeles, California International Spirits competition for 2016 beating out some very big names and we once again beat out Bacardi where they had multiple entries.

  What is even more impressive is we beat out most entries where the rum was aged.  There were only 3 rums that were above us in this competition.  Congratulations to Dictador 20 Year Old Solera System Rum that came in with a very impressive 96 points, Dos Maderas 5+3 Rum that came in with 93 points and Blue Water Ultra that came in with 92 points.  We share 91 points with Cruzan Single Barrel Rum, Cruzan Aged Dark Rum, Kirk and Sweeney Rum. Pelican Harbor Light Rum.

  What we are able to show by all of this is that aging is not a serious factor in the quality of any rum nor is spicing one's rum.  We beat out many of those by using quality ingredients.  Check out the results here at this link below.

http://www.laspiritscomp.com/wos/spirits_competition/documents/Gold%20Medal%20Awards.pdf

Adding flavors to rum did not help anyone in the competition.  Dark rum was not better than a white rum.  Dictador 20 Year Old Solera System Rum is very expensive to produce.  Who wants to age a rum for 20 years?  Sure, it got the company 96 points which is fantastic and they were named best of the best, but at what cost?  (I have to admit, I would be more than happy to try a bottle).  So as you will notice, Cruzan, who we share 91 points with, both of their entries were aged rums.  Again, at what cost?  We did not age our rum at all.  We did not color it nor did we add any additional flavors.  We just used quality ingredients and ran the still the way it's supposed to be run using an historical recipe.

  But that is what we are about.  Bringing to you historical interpretations of what the first rum would have tasted like and ensuring we give you the highest quality product we can produce.  Now it shows.  We are working on some plans to still improve our rum.  We want to take that 96 points next time and we will do it without aging.  We set out sights to the Gold and we easily made it.  Now we are setting our sights on best of the best.  You can rest assured we will make that too.  And best of all, it's all made right here in the Good old USA. Hey, better yet, It's Virginia made in the heart of America's most historical birth place.  Thank you for your support.

Flights Are Coming

Flights are coming, flights are coming.  What are flights?  Now that is a good question.  Flights are a tray or some form of cup or glass holder where one has drinks lined up on them so that they can sample various forms of a type of spirit.  In other words, a tray with 4 drinks on them.

  Now Virginia ABC allows us to serve up to and only 2 shots per day per person.  No more period.  This is beyond our control and we will stick to that limit.  So does that mean that flights will only be 2 drinks?  No.   Our flights are going to consist of 4 drinks but the maximum alcohol level between all 4 drinks will be 2 shots.  So each drink will be a half of one shot.  Once you buy one flight, that is it.  We can not sell you another flight until the next day.  It's not that we do not want to, it's that we are not allowed to and we want you to be safe and come back.

  So we are lining up a nice series of old recipe drinks made with our Rum or Gin.  If you prefer, you can mix two gin drinks with two rum drinks.  As much as we would love to have bourbon ready, it just won't happen yet.  So when does this all begin?  In just a few short weeks from this post date.  Just so there are no disappointments the drink sizes are only half size due to the limit on the amount of alcohol we can put in each glass which again is only a half of a shot.

  We will post pictures of our drinks soon.

Chocolate Rum Balls Easy Recipe

Now here is a fast easy recipe for making chocolate rum balls.  Recommended in the video is using dark rum, that isn't at all required.  We recommend using our white rum.  It's smooth and does not give any negative after tastes to the recipe which some dark rums will cause.  If you want to make them extra strong without being over bearing?  Add some rum to the chocolate topping as well.  

Welcome to our new blog

Hello everyone and welcome to our new blog site for the Williamsburg Distillery.  Here we will post news, updates and recipes for everyone.  On this site we can expand and offer more information to you than we can either on our main website at http://www.williamsburg-distillery.com  or on our Facebook page.

  We can share entire recipes here and bring you full news that just does not work on other platforms.  Plus we have been having some issues getting areas corrected on our main site, please bare with us on that.  One thing I would like to take a moment to correct is the fact that our main site states we produce Vodka.  We looked at that before we ever got our license, but decided against it.  Our main products are Rum, Gin and Bourbon.  Right now we are producing an historic triangle series.  Our Rum is Yorktown Rum, our Gin is Jamestown Gin and our Bourbon is Williamsburg Bourbon.

  Now we have already produced Bourbon, but it is not yet available in our store or in the ABC stores yet.  It was barreled in February of this year, (2016), so it is going to take some time to properly age.  How long?  Well to put it this way, not soon enough and the expectations are about 3 years minimum.  It could be ready sooner, but we are not really expecting to see it sooner.

  Leave us some feedback and like us on Facebook.  We are now up on Twitter and Instagram as well as Pinterest and Flickr.  If you have some other favorites you would like to see us on, please let us know.  We look forward to seeing you at our shop.