Stills, Stills, and More Stills: The Great Debate

Before we dive into Crowell’s specific brand of madness, let’s have a quick, oversimplified chat about bourbon stills. Most distilleries fall into one of two camps: pot stills or column stills.

• Pot Stills: Think old-school, artisanal, batch-by-batch. It’s the slow, inefficient way, which is why it often makes the best, richest whiskey. It allows those beautiful, heavy congeners, the real flavor, to carry over. It’s the “low and slow” method, and you can taste it.
• Column Stills: The towering, continuous-flow workhorses of the industry, also known as a Coffey still. Highly efficient, they strip out impurities, yielding a lighter, higher-proof spirit. While great for scale, the critique is valid: sometimes they strip out too much of the bourbon’s character.

Most distilleries pick a side. Crowell Spirits, in a moment of brilliance or temporary madness, decided, “Why not an entire industrial park’s worth of them?”

Crowell’s ‘Column-Pot-Column’ Cycle: Engineering the Perfect Proof

This is where things get interesting. Crowell Spirits doesn’t just use a pot still or a column still; they use a completely custom, proprietary setup they call the “column to pot to column” technique.

Here’s how it breaks down:

1. First Column Pass: The wash starts in a column still. This initial run is a brutally efficient purification step, stripping the harshest elements to create a surgically clean base. Think of it as creating a blank, non-negotiable canvas.
2. The Pot Still Detour: The spirit is then rerouted to a pot still. This isn’t just a trip; this is where the character is built. The pot still re-introduces the complexity and deep, oily flavor profiles it’s famous for. It’s taking that clean canvas and applying rich, textured complexity.
3. Second Column Pass: Finally, the spirit goes back into a column still for a final pass. This isn’t about removing flavor again; it’s a polishing step, a final refinement to ensure exceptional purity while preserving the deep, rich flavors developed in the pot still.

The result is a bourbon that attempts to be the unicorn of whiskey: the crisp efficiency of a column still married to the complex depth of a pot still. It is an ambitious, borderline bonkers approach.

What Does the Science Taste Like?

So, why the technical jargon? Because it dictates the flavor you taste. This process is designed to give the spirit a distinct personality. You get the clean, smooth finish associated with multiple distillations, without sacrificing the heavy-hitting notes of oak, dark cherry, and baking spices that only a traditional process can provide.

Of course, there’s also the four-grain mash bill (60% corn, 20% wheat, 9% rye, 11% malted barley) dating back to the 19th century, the limestone aquifer water, and the New York climate aging. But the undeniable star is the distillation technique.

Finding Your Flavor with OAKR

Here’s the thing about flavor: it’s personal. My “charred oak and leather” might be your “campfire and old books.” That’s part of the fun. But when you’re about to drop cash on a bottle, you want a little more certainty.

This is where an app like OAKR becomes your best friend. OAKR is essentially a bourbon sommelier in your pocket. It cuts through the marketing noise by aggregating tasting data from blind tasting panelists. It shows you the most prominent flavors you can expect before you even buy the bottle.

Instead of just relying on the distillery’s official tasting notes, which are always glowing, obviously, you can see what a wider community of palates is picking up. You can explore the in-depth flavor profiles for Crowell Spirits’ bourbon and see how their “column to pot to column” technique translates into real-world taste. Does it really deliver on that promise of complexity and smoothness? OAKR’s data can help you decide.

Even better, the app provides personalized recommendations based on your unique preferences. If you know you love bourbons with hints of vanilla and crème brûlée, OAKR can point you toward spirits, like Crowell’s, that fit your profile.

So, next time you’re wondering if a distillery’s unique process is legit, do your homework. Crowell Spirits has certainly given us something to talk about with their unconventional still setup. And when you’re ready to see how that translates to your glass, let OAKR do the heavy lifting.