Doc Porter's Gin & Living Kitchen

If you’ve toured our facility, you’ve learned all about how our gin is crafted. Unlike many other gins, Doc Porter’s is entirely grain-to-glass, meaning we make the base of our gin from scratch and then vapor infuse it with our perfect, proprietary blend of fresh citrus, herbs, and spices. When we say fresh citrus, we’re talking grapefruit and oranges and interestingly, for our process we only need the zest. After making Batches 1 & 2, we had eaten about 20 lbs of fresh citrus and in our Vitamin C haze, thought it was a good time to give a shout to our friends at The Living Kitchen. If you live in Charlotte, you’re probably a fan of their menu and amazing lineup of fresh, organic cold-pressed juices. We had the pleasure of touring their prep facility and it was incredible. Every morning, they’re juicing 30-40 lbs of the highest quality organic citrus along with other fruits and vegetables. Now, whenever we make a batch of our Doc Porter’s gin, we pick up the freshly juiced peels and harvest the zest for our vapor infusion. Since they only need the insides, and we only need the outsides, it’s a partnership made in citrus heaven. You can feel good about not only drinking local but drinking a product that brings two local businesses together to ensure that nothing is wasted.

In other news, summer cocktail menus are rolling out all over the city and a new personal favorite of ours is Bob Peter’s “Mother May I?” punch at The Punch Room in the Ritz-Carlton. Stop in to taste it or get instructions to make it yourself at home from the master himself here!

Doc's New Years Resolutions

It’s a new year and things at Doc Porter’s are picking up speed. We hope you all enjoyed many a Doc Porter’s holiday cocktail and are settling into 2016. Since it’s a new year, we figured it was time to make some resolutions. 

Resolution #1: Doc Porter’s GIN for your juice! We’ve been working the test still overtime making single botanical and spice infusions that are helping us find the perfect balance for our upcoming gin release. We’ve set the goal of releasing it in under 5 months, so that you have the perfect base for your summer cocktails.

Resolution #2: Break the internet. We’re on Yelp and we just launched our TripAdvisor site, so if you’ve been in to see us for a tour and tasting, make some online noise and give us a review. We need you to help us spread the good word about drinking local and craft made grain-to-glass spirits! If you haven’t been in for a tour yet, COME SEE US…we’re very friendly.

Resolution #3: Total Charlotte Takeover! We want to make sure we’re in your favorite bars and restaurants. If you’re out on the town and hit a spot that you think should definitely be serving Doc’s, shoot us a tweet and we’ll add them to our call list. Obviously, now that you’re a Doc’s drinker, we don’t want you to ever be without it, so let us know where you need us!

That’s it for resolutions, now on to planning your weekend. This Saturday at 2:30 PM Mixology with Bob Peters is at Earl’s Grocery in Elizabeth and will feature Doc Porter’s. If you’re interested, come learn from the one and only Bob Peters of The Punch Room. As far as Saturdays go, yours is shaping up to be stellar.

August '15 update

Time for another progress report from Doc Porter’s, and this one’s a big one! We’re official…meaning, we have received our NC ABC permit as well as our certificate of occupancy! What does this mean, you ask?

We’re legally allowed to start producing local, NC spirits for you as soon as we tie up a few loose ends…or in our case, solder a few more pipes. Andrew is hard at work in the distillery, and the plan is to hand craft our first batch of vodka over Labor Day weekend! Once it’s Cleverly Crafted and sufficiently taste tested (we know…rough job, right?), we’ll be bottling it up and presenting it to the ABC Commission. After that, our next task is to hit the pavement and get Doc Porter’s into an ABC store near you. We’re so close, we can almost taste it – literally!

In other news, the UPS guy has been a delivery machine over the last few weeks and some cool new toys have arrived. Special deliveries include our vodka bottles, labeler, labels and chiller. Apart from the production supplies, we’ve also spent some time hunting around to outfit our tasting room. We road-tripped to Locust, NC to hand pick some reclaimed barn wood for our bar and came across some other cool finds to bring some vintage flavor to our space. You know we love all things local and these finds from just a few miles down the road are what it’s all about. If you know of any great picking spots, give us a holler on Twitter and tip us off. One of our coolest finds has to be a vintage gurney that we’re turning into a table. We know the Doc would be proud of that one. We’re also working hard to design some Doc Porter’s gear for your purchasing pleasure. We’re talking hats, tees, shot glasses and even some spirited reads on distilling and cocktailing that we think you’ll enjoy.

From Dream to Distillery

As a kid, I was always torn between a future as a chef or an engineer.  I had serious thoughts of culinary school but was also very into math and science. In the end, chemical engineering became my career and cooking became one of many hobbies. Somewhere at the intersection of my love for food, drinking and engineering is where this all started.

I spent a few summers in college doing undergrad research and since I was a poor college kid, I opted out of cable, internet and A/C to save a few bucks. I should also mention that this was in South, so opting out of A/C was not my most sound decision. Without the entertainment basics, I looked for other ways to fill my days and started brewing. That led to studying distilling. I wish could tell you about experimenting with different moonshines, whiskeys and rums but home distilling is highly illegal so,  clearly, I did what any responsible college student would do and vigilantly obeyed the law…for the purposes of thisblog.

Fast forward to 2013.  I’m married, working at my second job out of college and my wife and I are sitting at Heist talking about how we love the brewery boom happening in Charlotte. I tell her about my summers of brewing and “studying” distilling (remember…highly illegal) and a couple of weeks later, the idea takes shape. For me, a distillery is the perfect blend of science, engineering, and culinary arts.  It’s what I was meant to do.

Getting Doc Porter’s from dream to reality is where my engineering side jumped in.  I researched, laid out a business plan and determined if we could make this happen. We finagled the numbers, figured out how much we must sell to stay afloat, scaled the equipment and decided to take the leap. Right in the middle of the leap, we had our first child, a little girl named Quinn. New baby, new business…yeah…things are hectic but life is good.

So here we are.  Over 2 years later, and we’re about to open and share our craft with the world, or at least Charlotte.  It’s been a roller coaster ride, but we can’t wait to taste that first drop off the still.