In 2010, Colin Spoelman and David Haskell opened Kings County Distillery in a modest 325-square-foot room.

“We got into this at the right moment,” says Colin. “Craft beer had already opened the door. New York State had just changed its laws. The farm-to-table movement was reshaping how people thought about product origins. And thanks to the internet, a small business could reach a wide audience. It felt new at the time.”

Colin’s interest in whiskey started early. He grew up in a dry county in eastern Kentucky, where moonshine was common and bootleggers made regular border runs. “There was always this strange relationship to alcohol,” he says. “I’ve always been attracted to that tension – between rules and rebellion, history and tradition. That’s what whiskey represents to me. Even in New York, people love speakeasies. It’s the same impulse.”

While Colin began distilling as a hobby, his roommate and future co-founder David Haskell saw the bigger opportunity and took the lead on making it legitimate. When they launched, Kings County Distillery became the city’s first whiskey distillery since Prohibition. Two years later, they moved into the Paymaster Building inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, right near the site of the 1860s Brooklyn Whiskey Wars. “People don’t think about moonshine raids happening in Brooklyn, but they did. The Navy Yard was part of that history. It’s not just a backdrop.”

Fifteen years later, Kings County has grown into one of the most respected craft distilleries in the country.

Despite the company’s growth, Colin still sees their business as a form of rebellion -against mass production, marketing-driven brands, and the notion that great whiskey only comes from the industry’s most famous names. “Most people don’t think about how whiskey is made,” he says. “But for us, the process is everything. We make it all ourselves — that’s what sets us apart.” Kings County uses Scottish copper pot stills and practices open fermentation. Every step – mashing, fermenting, distilling and aging – takes place on-site.

That dedication to craft has paid off. The distillery has earned dozens of gold and double gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the American Craft Spirits Association, and the ASCOT Awards. It was named Distillery of the Year by the American Distilling Institute in 2016, and again in 2023 by the New Orleans Spirits Competition.

We’re always aging, always evolving. We’re now selling the barrels we laid down a decade ago. You plan so far ahead in this business — you have to be patient.”

That long-term mindset is part of what makes the company’s distillery tours so compelling. Visitors walk through the working production space, and taste whiskeys distilled and aged on-site. “We want people to see the equipment, smell the fermentation, really understand how this stuff is made,” says Colin. “We want people to see real whiskey being manufactured, right here in New York.”

The tasting room has become a Brooklyn destination in its own right. Part cocktail bar, part bottle shop, part front row seat to the world of whiskey. Guests can try a flight or enjoy a seasonal cocktail. Tours run daily, offering a close-up look at how traditional methods are being used in one of the world’s most modern cities.

This year, the company celebrated its 15th anniversary. By October, it will have sold its millionth bottle. But Colin still sees Kings County as a work in progress. “Some companies move fast,” he says. “Distilleries move at the speed of the product. And that’s fine by us.”