Reading Distilling Guild joined the City of Reading in 2016 in a historic factory which once involved the hustle of manufacturing Renbow-brand hair dye. As the owner and head distiller, Chris Flowers forged forward in building out the business and introduced his first molasses-made rums a year ago last July. Vodka and gin are in the works for this summer.
In March, the rums joined the shelves of state-operated liquor stores around Reading and Lancaster. Flowers also sells directly to restaurants, bars and hotels, and he plans to open the tasting room in his distillery by the end of this year after adding a 500-gallon sister still to his 100-gallon still. For now, he sells bottles at festivals and fairs.
A Change in 2012
Paving of this route became possible for Flowers in 2012 after Pennsylvania legalized limited distillery licenses. Having worked in restaurants, bars and casinos around the country throughout his culinary career, Flowers knew he’d one day move home to Reading and open a business. When running a small-scale distillery became an option, the dream shaped into sipping.
Aside from working through a challenging road to becoming fully licensed to operate, Flowers ventured to different states to learn his new expertise from those managing existing craft distilleries. And he discovered that the industry is more about support versus competition.
“It’s a really tight-knit community,” he says about distillers. “It’s the same for me. People call me up and need help on licensing and stills, and I’m more than happy to share what I’ve learned with them.”
Flavor Expansion
When locals who say they don’t like rum dare to try his, they often tell him that they are surprised to enjoy it and that it doesn’t taste like rum.
“What people are used to drinking in the past is not what you get,” he says.
Flowers explains that a few corporations dominated spirits as an industry for so long and had no need to develop new flavors. But he and other entrepreneurs are often more interested in experimenting and creating new, diverse mixes of flavors with local ingredients — following similar footsteps of microbreweries.
“I look at everything from the culinary side,” he says about his approach to producing spirits.
His Rums
“Commercial white rum tends to have more of an alcohol taste — you can smell it, and as you drink it, you get a burning sensation. That’s the main taste you have,” Flowers explains. “When you drink mine, it doesn’t have the burning sensation. It’s still potent but not overwhelming. And when you taste it, it has different levels, like if you’re drinking wine. In the beginning, it’s a bit [of a] sweeter molasses flavor, and on the finish, it’s more peppery like tequila.”
He sold out of the seasonal winter rum he made last autumn.
Spiced rum of commercial origins usually involves vanilla and sugar or caramel to color and sweeten it, Flowers elaborates.
“I am doing it more in a classic sense of a spiced rum in spices giving it flavor,” he says in culinary-speak. “You can smell the spices in it and taste them, too. When it comes out of the still, I collect it and add cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice and vanilla bean to it and let that steep. It infuses the spice flavors.”
