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Green Hat Distilled Gin

Green Hat Gin

News & Press.

Our beloved Fall/Winter seasonal gin has returned after hibernating (ahem…aging) for quite some time. As many of […]

We’d love to invite you to our on-going Sundays in the Gin Garden. Now that the weather […]

GRAND OPENING!!!! Did someone say Gin Garden? It is with great excitement that we, at New Columbia […]

The moment we have all been waiting for! If you have visited our distillery any time in […]

Announcing Batch #2 of Our Green Hat Rye Whiskey!     For those of you who snagged […]

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The Man in the GREEN HAT Washington Bootlegger, Whistleblower, History Maker

When George Cassiday returned from World War I, he needed a job. With the nation gripped by Prohibition, a friend suggested he try supplying bootleg liquor on Capitol Hill. Word spread quickly and Cassiday soon had a number of Congressmen — “wet” and “dry” — as clients.

By 1920 Cassiday went “in-house” with an office in the basement of the House Office Building to supply thirsty lawmakers. On one of his train trips back from NYC with “supplies,” Cassiday set his suitcase down a bit too hard and broke several bottles. A fellow traveler said, “Say, buddy, your clothes are leaking.” The Feds weren’t there to see the spill … but his luck wouldn’t hold much longer.

Eventually word about Cassiday’s cozy setup got out and in 1925 the Capitol Police caught him carrying booze into the Cannon Building. The dapper Cassiday was arrested wearing his signature green felt hat, earning him the moniker “The Man in the Green Hat.” Banned from the House, Cassiday promptly moved his operation to the Senate Office Building.

Cassiday found senators more discreet than their House colleagues, using a page or staffer to make the deal. But the feds caught on and in early 1930 Cassiday was arrested in the Senate parking lot with 6 bottles of gin. But he never spent a night in jail — courtesy, we suspect, of his long-time Capitol Hill friends.

A week before a crucial mid-term election in 1930, Cassiday wrote a series of front page articles for the Washington Post. “The Man in the Green Hat” detailed his 10-year career supplying bootleg liquor to 4 out of 5 lawmakers — and exposed the hypocrisy of a Congress flaunting the rules it imposed on America. The voters threw out the “dry” majority and set the nation on the path to Repeal!

 

Many thanks to Garrett Peck, Prohibition in Washington, D.C. — How Dry We Weren’t and the website of the US Senate Historical Office.



DC: Prohibition's Capital City

Washington had a special place in Prohibition history. New York and Chicago get all the notoriety because of organized crime warfare, but as is the case today, Washington was a little more discreet in its excesses—and never grew a local bootlegging mob. Read about our gin’s namesake, The Man in the Green Hat, the 1920s Bootlegger to Congress.

A few more DC Prohibition facts:

  • Since the District was even more of a Congressional fiefdom in the early 20th century, Prohibition started here earlier and lasted longer than the national ban. It began more than 2 years early in Nov. 1917 and ended 3 months late in March 1934. The Washington Post wrote, “Somehow or another, despite 17 years without it, Washingtonians seemed to hold their liquor quite well.”
  • Prohibition saw the rise of U Street, the “Black Broadway,” with the Lincoln and Howard Theatres, Club Bengazi, and Ellington, Armstrong, Fitzgerald and Calloway headlining a Jazz Age and speakeasy culture that rivaled the Harlem Renaissance.
  • Amateur entrepreneurs thrived under Prohibition … if they avoided jail. Before Prohibition in 1917 there were only 267 bar-rooms licensed in DC, but in 1931 alone, 1155 speakeasies were busted. One well-known speakeasy was the Tune-Inn on Pennsylvania Ave SE. During Prohibition it was a candy store, a fitting front for the real sweets in the basement.
  • If you wanted a quality drink, you got yourself invited to an embassy party. The embassies and their staffs were exempt from the Volstead Act and were able to get supplies shipped from their home countries.

    • Short Film about George Cassiday

Want to know more about Prohibition in DC? Go on one of Garrett Peck’s Prohibition Tours and check out his book, Prohibition in Washington, D.C. — How Dry We Weren’t.


The Craft is Professional THE PASSION IS PERSONAL

New Columbia Distillers is a family business owned by Michael Lowe and his wife, Melissa Kroning and John Uselton and his wife, Elizabeth Lowe.

John and Michael come to their passion for craft distilling by wearing many hats in the restaurant and liquor business—not to mention the military and legal worlds. From Houston to Boston to Washington, John has worked in all capacities of front-of-house restaurant work—from humble busboy to award-winning bar- tender to savvy manager. Michael spent a couple of years on a Navy submarine and a few more at private DC law firms. He retired from the law in 2008, bought himself several cocktail books and started investigating the art and science of distilling.

In 2011 John and Michael were the first to bring craft distilling to DC. After a brief apprenticeship with Dry Fly Distillery, they located a home for their distillery in a 90-year-old warehouse near the Art Deco landmark Hecht Co. warehouse on New York Ave. When they learned the history of The Man In The Green Hat, they knew they had a name for DC’s own signature gin.



A Blend of STYLE and SUBSTANCE

Our gin is a truly unique artisanal spirit. Each batch of Green Hat Gin is crafted in our small DC distillery. The result is a super-premium gin that excels both in the finest cocktails and with a small cube in the gin-lover’s neat glass.

We mill the highest quality soft winter wheat fresh for each batch and mash it in a temperature-controlled process to release the sugars needed for fermentation. The mash is then fermented to create the “beer” that feeds our distillation process.

After being concentrated and clarified in our traditional copper pot still, two more distillations transform the crystal spirit into a refined and gently aromatic gin. In the final distillation, we suspend our hand-selected botanicals inside the still to allow passing spirit vapors to gently extract the right flavor and scent notes.

Finished with chill filtering and bottled by hand at the distillery, Green Hat Gin is a Washington original. Cheers!

Distilled by Hand from 100% Grain and Select Botanicals in Small Batches in a Copper Pot Still. This classic spirit is the modern gentleman’s perfect life-style accessory.

Hand-made from grain to glass, each numbered batch of Green Hat Gin is crafted step-by-step over a one month period, featuring a clear juniper nose, hints of citrus lightness and coriander spice, a vague recollection of root botanical earthiness, a subtle note of grains of paradise pepperiness, an herbal whisper of celery, and a rewarding complexity. The result is a super-premium gin that excels both in the finest cocktails and with a small cube in the gin-lover’s neat glass.

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Distilled by Hand from 100% Grain and Select Botanicals in Small Batches in a Copper Pot Still. This limited edition gin is the essential seasonal addition to your bar.

Hand-made from grain to glass, this seasonal edition of Green Hat Gin is a unique expression of gin, featuring a clear juniper nose, floral cherry blossom and clover notes, the aromas of sun-baked rosemary, and a bright zestiness from fresh citrus. The result is a seasonally appropriate super-premium gin that makes a worthy limited addition to a gin-lover’s bar.

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Distilled by Hand from 100% Grain and Select Botanicals in Small Batches in a Copper Pot Still. This limited edition gin is the essential seasonal addition to your bar.

Hand-made from grain to glass, this seasonal edition of Green Hat Gin is a unique expression of gin, featuring the distinct scent of juniper, powerful earthy notes of caraway and rye grain, exotic spicing and the mellowness that only barrel aging brings. The result is a seasonally appropriate super-premium gin that makes a worthy limited addition to a gin-lover’s bar.

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Summer Cups (or Summer Fruit Cups, or Fruit Cups) are a traditional British gin-based drink. There’s a famous brand that starts with a ‘P,’ but in our minds there should be a lot more than what’s out there. Made by infusing our Navy Strength gin with tons of citrus, rosehips, cucumber, black tea, verbena, lavender and other herbs and spices, the spirit is then combined with Capitoline White Vermouth and lightly sweetened. The result is a bright, complex mixer that’s perfect with lemonade or ginger ale–just add some fruit and cucumbers for a classic cup!

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THE CLASSICS Gin Cocktails.

the Classic

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 2 1/2 oz
  • Capitoline Dry Vermouth 1/4 oz
  • green olive/a twist of lemon peel
  • ice cubes 6

Directions
Into a mixing glass, toss a handful of ice cubes, then pour in the Gin and the Vermouth. Stir well. Strain and pour into a martini glass. To finish, either drop a green olive into the bottom of the martini glass OR arrange a twist of lemon peel on the edge of the martini glass.

the Rickey

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 1 1/2 oz
  • fresh lime 1/2
  • handful of ice
  • carbonated water or club soda

Directions
Add ice to a highball glass. Squeeze in lime juice and drop in half of lime. Add gin and top off with club soda.

the Fresh Gimlet

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 2 oz
  • fresh lime juice 1/2 oz
  • simple syrup 1/4 oz

Directions
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. May also be served on the rocks, if preferred. Garnish with a lime twist.

the Pegu Club

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 2 1/2 oz
  • orange Curacao 1/2 oz
  • fresh lime juice 1/2 oz
  • dash Angostura bitters
  • dash orange bitters

Directions
Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into a chilled glass.

SIGNATURE MIXES Gin Cocktails.

the White Negroni

JP Fetherston, Southern Efficiency.
Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 1 1/2 oz
  • Salers  Gentiane 3/4 oz
  • Orchard Pear Liqueur 1/2 oz

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Stir and strain into chilled glass. Garnish with fresh sage leaf.

the Cuore

Kat Hamidi, Etto

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 1 3/4 oz
  • Cynar 1 oz
  • Capitoline White Vermouth 3/4 oz
  • Seville OrangeJuice 1/2 oz

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Shake gently and strain over ice. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Blue Bonnet

Joe Croson Red Oak Bistro

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 1.5 oz
  • Agave Necter 1 Tbl
  • Meyer Lemon Juice 1 oz
  • 20 Blueberries
  • 5 small Individual Fennel Fronds

Directions
Shake all the ingredients hard with ice until blueberries are macerated completely and gin turns light purple. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a small fennel frond skewered through a blueberry.

the Fascinator

Erin Lingle,

Ingredients

  • Green Hat Gin 1 1/2 oz
  • Cointreau 1/2 oz
  • Campari 1/4 oz
  • Fresh Lime Juice 3/4 oz

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into chilled glass.

FALL SEASONAL Gin Cocktails.

Cyn Cin

Ingredients

  • Green Hat ‘Ginavit’ 1.25 oz
  • Capitoline Rose Vermouth (Sweet Vermouth) 1 oz
  • Cynar 1 oz

Directions
Stir well with ice and serve up on the rocks. Garnish with orange twist.

 Ginavit 75

Ingredients

  • Green Hat ‘Ginavit’ 1.5 oz
  • Lemon juice .5 oz
  • Burnt sugar simple syrup .25 oz
  • Millstone cider

Directions
Combine gin, lemon juice, burnt sugar simple syrup and shake. Pour mixture into ice-filled glass, top this delicious drink off with Millstone cider.

Martinez

Ingredients

  • Green Hat ‘Ginavit’ 2 oz
  • Red Vermouth .75 oz
  • Aromatic bitters

Directions
Stir all ingredients very thoroughly and strain into a chilled cup. Garnish with a strip of orange zest.

 Nordic Lady

Ingredients

  • Green Hat ‘Ginavit’ 2 oz
  • Orange Liqueur .75 oz
  • Lemon Juice .5 oz

Directions
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. See, not everything needs a lot of preparation!

SPRING & SUMMER SEASONAL Cocktails.

Derby Day 

Ingredients

  • Spring/Summer Gin 2 oz
  • Capitoline White Vermouth .5 oz
  • Capitoline Dry Vermouth .5 oz
  • tonic water

Directions
Stir well with ice and serve up on the rocks, top with tonic water. Garnish with lemon twist.

  Traditional Summer Cup

Ingredients

  • Summer Cup 2 oz
  • Freshly made Lemonade 2 oz
  • mint
  • strawberries
  • cucumber

Directions
Add Summer Cup Cordial, lemonade into shaker with ice. Shake and strain into iced glass. Add cucumber, strawberries and mint. :For added flavor, muddle berries, cucumber and mint before shaking ingredients:

           A Hot Summer’s Night

Ingredients

  • Spring/Summer Gin 1.5 oz
  • Rosemary Honey Simple Syrup .75 oz
  • Meyer Lemon Juice 1 oz

Directions
Add Spring/Summer Gin, Rosemary Honey Simple Syrup and lemon juice in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well, strain into chilled coupe, garnish with rosemary twig.

            The Sun is Shining

Ingredients

  • Spring/Summer Gin 1 oz
  • Summer Cup 1 oz
  • Meyer Lemon Juice 1/2 oz
  • Fresh Grapefruit Juice 1/2 oz
  • Ginger Beer

Directions
Combine Spring/Summer Gin, Summer Cup Cordial, lemon and grapefruit juice and shake well with ice. Strain into glass over ice, and top with ginger beer. Garnish with grapefruit wedge.

News

Our beloved Fall/Winter seasonal gin has returned after hibernating (ahem…aging) for quite some time. As many of you may know, we release our Ginavit every fall in October, but our XO only gets let out every other year! These petite 375ml bottles are filled to the brim with flavor that can only come from resting in an apple Brandy barrel for 16 months! (YES, 16 months!)
We’ll throw a mini release party this Saturday, November 2nd, so come and grab a bottle before they run out. We’ll have Cipolla Rossa Mobile Pizza oven out to help us celebrate the special release.
We took some of the traditional Aquavit botanicals, including caraway, dill and star anise and put our gin twist on it, including some of our prominent gin flavor profiles. These little Ginavit bottles are filled with extra hugs and kisses, so make sure you grab a bottle or two this upcoming Saturday. There are a very limited amount of bottles, so don’t miss out, otherwise you’ll have to wait another two years.

We’d love to invite you to our on-going Sundays in the Gin Garden. Now that the weather is lovely, you should spend your relaxing Sunday Fundays with us, as you sip on refreshing cocktails, hear some great tunes, and relax under our colorful sail shades. And if the weather is not in our favor, don’t worry we have a lovely bar to belly up to with a brightly lit view of the outside. Every Sunday from 2-6pm. As always, check our social media for updates on hours, events, and food vendors.

GRAND OPENING!!!! Did someone say Gin Garden?

It is with great excitement that we, at New Columbia Distillers, announce the Grand Opening event for our brand new bar & Gin Garden!
It’s been several months in the making but we have finally opened our doors and patio space.

We would love it if you would join us on Saturday, August 24 from 1:00-8:00 for seasonal cocktails, delicious BBQ and veggies by our friends at Smoke & Ember, plus corn hole, great tunes, and general good vibes. As always we will offer free tours & tastings of all Green Hat & Capitoline products.
We sure do hope to see you there! I mean, what could possibly be better than this?

#smokeandemberbbq #gingarden #grandopening #flowers #cocktailtime #saturdaysWeGin @capitoline_dc @smokeandemberbbq

The moment we have all been waiting for!

If you have visited our distillery any time in the past year, you may have overheard that we acquired the little space next door. You then probably heard that we were going to build a pretty swell bar in said space. And finally, you might have heard word that there was going to be an attached gin “summer” garden.

Well, all of those things are absolutely TRUE! After what seems like an eternity waiting on inspections and approvals, we can finally announce that our space is ready for the public.

We would like to formally invite you to the VERY SOFT OPENING of our New Columbia Distillers Bar this upcoming Saturday (7/20/2019).

We are extremely excited to be able to offer a COOL space (literally and figuratively) to our wonderful patrons and loyal gin drinkers. That’s right folks! We will have air conditioning and just in the nick of time for the scorching 100 degree weekend expected.

Are you officially PUMPED!?!?! WE ARE!

Here are some things to know for your visit on Saturday:

This is a VERY SOFT opening, so bear with us as we move into the new space and work out any potential kinks.

  • We will be open for our regular hours of 1-4pm.
  • The tastings and happy hour cocktails will  be our consistently delicious offerings, but will take place in the new space, and tours of the distillery will be announced as normal (about once every 45 mins-1 hour).
  • Our “Gin Garden” will NOT be officially set up for this Saturday, but if you would like to brave the elements, you are welcome to grab a chair outside, but please don’t overheat.
  • The entrance will be marked by our welcoming sandwich board located on Fenwick Street. You will be entering through the outdoor area on the left side facing the building, again, we will place a sign out outside denoting where to go.
  • As always, please bring your I.D.s.
  • We will continue to update the public on future hours, openings, and goings-on via our social media (just click the links at the bottom of the page).

Announcing Batch #2 of Our Green Hat Rye Whiskey!
    For those of you who snagged a bottle of our first batch in December, we hope you are thoroughly enjoying it. But, if you were one of the unfortunate few who couldn’t make it that day, not to worry! We have Batch #2 coming out just in time to be your Valentine.
We will be dropping two more 53 gallon barrels from the three year old stash, which has the same mash bill as the first release (73% rye, 27% malted barley). If you would like to read a very detailed description of our whiskey, please refer to this newsletter.
This new batch will be freshly bottled on Friday, just in time for our Saturday tours and tastings time slot (1-4pm). The perfect time for Valentine’s Day gift buying. So be the Bee’s Knees and pick up a bottle for your special friend, your loved one, your date, or just treat yourself this February, because booze is truly the best gift.
Bottles of Batch #2 Green Hat Whiskey will be available on February 9th, from 1-4pm. Come and have a taste, a cocktail and take a bottle (or two) home. RSVP here.

The moment you’ve all been waiting for. We will be releasing our 3 year aged Straight Rye Whiskey on Saturday, December 1st. 12.1.2018

Rye from our NoVa farmer, distilled grain to glass; 100% made by us, in our distillery. Bottles will be very limited.

Opening hours and further release day details coming soon.

#graintoglass #DCsfirstDistillery
#actuallymadeinDC #greenhatwhiskey #themanintheGreenHat #georgecassiday #ryewhiskey #staytuned #notsourced

The devil made us do it! As DC’s first distillery since Prohibition, we are excited to celebrate our 6th year anniversary of the first bottle of Green Hat Gin. We haven’t had a party since our 2nd anniversary, so let’s make up for lost time. Combining our 2018 edition of our Apple Brandy barrel aged Ginavit with our 6th anniversary seems like the most fitting of celebrations. We like this six theme so much, that we will be extending our Saturday hours from 1-4pm to 1-6pm!!! And on top of that, all of our drinks will be $6, and you know we have the best cocktails in Ivy City. But wait, there’s more!! Not only will we be open until 6pm, and we will have $6 cocktails, but we will also be running a special anniversary sale, $6 off EVERY SINGLE bottle of Gin AND Capitoline Vermouth that day! WHAT?!?!?!?!??!

Come, be festive, celebrate with us! Spend your afternoon with us!

#dcsfirstdistillery #graintoglass #ivycitydc #666thedevilmadeusdoit#weloveOctober

Today is the official release of the newest product in the Capitoline line. Tiber is a bitter liqueur meant to be enjoyed in any of your favorite cocktails, such as a Negroni or a Bouldevardier or simply over ice with seltzer. The release will go from 1-4pm, so visit Ivy City DC and check out our newest product.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! The distillery will remain closed today, December 26th and 27th. We will be open Thursday and Friday (28th & 29th) for production, bottles sales and orders/deliveries only. There will be no tours, tastings, or cocktail hours this Saturday, as we will be closed Saturday the 30th through January 2nd. If you have any questions or need to contact us, you can email us at cheers@greenhatgin.com.  Again, we will be closed the following dates: 26th, 27th, 30th, 31, 1st.  Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR and we will see you in 2018 for GINuary!

Eau de Brau is back this year with some help from a whiskey barrel. Join us on Saturday, December 9th for our 3 annual collaboration with DC Brau, our Eau de Brau. Corruption + Public Beers take a run through our still creating a sipping spirit, perfect neat or on the rocks…or in a stocking.
@dcbrau #collaboration #distilledbeer #drinkdc #greenhatgin#givethegiftofbooze

Contact Us.

New Columbia Distillers LLC
1832 Fenwick St. NE
Washington DC 20002
202-733-1710

Give us the third degree:
cheers@greenhatgin.com

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Keep up to date on upcoming bottling parties, big events, and exciting new products.

Visit us at the Distillery:

We would love to see you for Sales, Free Tastings and Free Tours

(Free Tours Saturday only at 130pm, 3pm & 430pm)

Cocktail Bar & Gin Garden

Saturdays 1-8pm, Sunday 2-6pm

No Reservations Required

 

If you are a local business who wants to order our gin, we self-distribute in DC: Send your order requests to:
cheers@greenhatgin.com

 

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