Sneak Peek: Silver Brothers Spirits Company
CRL IRL heads to Old Chatham to check out a new distillery ahead of its inaugural whiskey release and tasting room opening.
You wouldn’t expect someone with a 25-year-long career in the tech industry to jump headfirst into whiskey making. But when I met Matt Greitzer, founder of Silver Brothers Spirits Company, at his Old Chatham farm, I quickly realized that actually, this was what he was meant to do.
In 2020, Matt and his wife, Kim, purchased the land that was Old Chatham Sheepherding Company in the rolling hills of the Hudson Valley. (Before that, it was the original site of the Shaker Museum.) They transformed the property into an epicenter of whiskey production, planting rye and barley that, in time, would be used to create their own line of terroir-driven whiskeys.
“When we were looking for a property, we specifically wanted a property that was well suited to make whiskey from things we grow on the farm,” Matt says. “Partly because we have good fields for growing grain and we have really good water here.”
While the rolling hills that make up what’s now Silver Brothers Spirits are certainly beautiful, it’s what’s below the ground that makes the property the perfect place for a distillery. Naturally filtered water, located in an aquifer below limestone and shale bedrock, supports fermentation—an essential component to whiskey-making—and calcium in the rock only enhances the grains’ flavor. In other words, Silver Brothers’ spirits taste like the Hudson Valley.
“The whiskey is made here with what we have here,” Matt says. “The way we designed this facility is to make whiskey that’s as expressive of this place as it could be.”
That facility includes a renovated barn that holds everything needed to produce whiskey, including traditional copper alembic stills that produce whiskey one batch at a time, unlike the continuous column stills that run nonstop at some commercial distilleries. Such distilleries can pump out a barrel of whiskey in 90 seconds; Matt prefers a slower two-day process he believes draws out more of that Hudson Valley character. “With any distillery, if you do it the right way, you’re creating something that you couldn’t create anywhere else,” he says.
Three years after purchasing the farm, Matt and his team began spirit production with the rye and barley they’d harvested the previous year, and now, at long last, they’re preparing for their first whiskey releases—the Empire Rye and American Single Malt, which are available for pre-order now. Oh, and they’re opening up a brand-new tasting room in which to debut it.
If you’re looking to immerse yourself in the world of whiskey, or wondering how exactly the region tastes in a glass, head to Silver Brothers for opening weekend this Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7, from 11am–5pm. Tours of the distillery will be offered on the hour. Cheers.
—Jolena