Harvest Spirits Distillery

Derek Grout is a third-generation apple farmer and the distiller at Harvest Spirits. He is actively in charge of the distillery and all aspects of the distilling process as well as product development. Derek’s responsibilities range from designing product packaging and website development to scrubbing tanks and promoting the products.

A graduate of Cornell University, Derek began his career as a graphic designer in Boston, MA. After a spending too much time in front of his computer, he decided to return to his roots.

In 2003, Derek moved back to the family apple farm in the Hudson Valley to help his father and to learn the family business of growing apples. Mr. Grout continues to help on the farm, when he’s not in the distillery.

Notoriously hard to make, Grappa is an Italian spirit derived from the grape pressings. A local winemaker recently gave us a load of grape skins to experiment with. Instead of adding sugar and water to the skins, we fermented them by adding sweet cider to the must. Although this will not be considered a traditional grappa, the test trials reveal promising flavors of fresh, New York grapes.

Himbeer Geist is a traditional south German spirit made with raspberries. Our version is a bit different: we use black raspberries that we grow ourselves just steps from our distillery door. Another important distinction is that the spirit is derived from the fermented sugar of apples, not grain. We used our entire 2009 harvest of black raspberries for our test trials and look forward to releasing a finished product after the 2010 harvest. This product is unsweetened and contains no sugar, just apples, black raspberries and water. Available in September.