ASW has three locations in Atlanta, GA. The main distillery is at 199 Armour Street. This is the location where all their bourbon is distilled. They have a rickhouse at 100 White Street ASW Whiskey Exchange) which also doubles as a tasting room. And they have a gin/vodka distillery the Battery Atlanta (at 900 Battery Avenue SE).

It seems odd that a company would distill at two locations but according to co-owner Chard Ralston, they ran into two problems at their main distillery that forced the issue. The first was space, they just didn’t have enough room to set up a column still for the gin and vodka. The second was fire regulations. Even if they could find the space, the city fire codes prohibited them from adding a third still (they have two pot stills at their main distillery).

If you make it to Atlanta and want to visit ASW you should stop by their main distillery. There you’ll see how they make their bourbon and have a chance to sample their offerings.

During my visit, Chad and their assistant distiller, Justin Manglitz, were very forthcoming. They showed me every aspect of their operation and let me sample many of their regular and experimental distillates. They double pot still their product. According to Chad, they use a ‘tight out’ (I didn’t ask the specifics as I thought it was proprietary) which means they have more heads than normal and so fewer hearts. They make up for this by re-distilling the heads along with the tails. Still, it shows the distillery is committed to producing the best bourbon they can.

ASW has experimented with several different malts and have come up with some very interesting whiskeys that are currently ageing. Their Fiddler Soloist (see below) has malted wheat, malted rye, and two different barley malts in the mash bill.