Over the recent holiday weekend, my family spent a day in the Floyd area, one of our stops was to the 5 Mile Mountain Distillery which two of us had not visited yet and were excited to check out! The distillery is located just a very short drive from downtown Floyd. I did not have any idea what I should expect prior to getting there, but I really like the set up they have. The distillery is in a small older industrial type building. Definitely nothing special, but they have done a great job making use of it. The stills and production area is located downstairs where you cannot go, however from the bar area inside there is a window so you can look down into the area! In the bar area there is probably enough room for 8 or so people around the bar as well as another small room to relax in and more room outside. It never got crowded while we were there but there was always a nice group of 10 or so people at most times.
Our bartender was a very pleasant laid back man that took great care of us while we were there. He was knowledgeable of the products they had as well as of the Floyd area in general, which was nice. He gave us the rundown of the handful of winter cocktail drinks they had available and also told us they could do a tasting of all of their whiskeys. My dad and I opted to do the tasting while my mom and girlfriend got different cocktails. I should mention that, due to state laws, they are only allowed to serve each person a set amount per day, which I believe he told us was 3 ounces. Not an issue at all if you are coming to have a drink or do a tasting, but it is not the type of place where you could sit at the bar all night if that is what you were looking for!
Since it was Christmas time, their drinks reflected that with the options our group had being an Eggnog drink as well as Apple Cider. The Eggnog was very good, but the Apple Cider was absolutely awesome. The drink consisted of Cider, ground ginger, 5 Mile Mountain Lemon Ginseng Whiskey, and Rosemary. If you are there and in the mood for a warm drink I cannot recommend it enough. I imagine the Lemon Ginseng Whiskey would be great in just about any warm cider or tea.
During the tasting I believe we tried 5 different whiskeys. Of course a plain corn but they also had some other creative flavored whiskeys. The two that really stood out to me were Vanilla Plum and the aforementioned Lemon Ginseng. The Vanilla Plum was definitely the sweetest and I think would work very well in many different mixed drinks especially for someone who was looking for something without a real strong whiskey taste (this was also used in their eggnog cocktail). My personal favorite was actually what I believe was a newer option of a Rye Whiskey. I love a good Rye Whiskey to make old fashioned's with but this was nothing like I expected. Every other Rye Whiskey I have had has been aged but this one was a clear version. Where I believe most Rye's normally have a little more of a "bite" to them, this did not have that at all and had a very different distinct flavor. Definitely worth a try and we wound up taking a bottle of the rye as well as the Lemon Ginseng home with us.
For the size of the town, Floyd certainly has a lot of options for things to do and neat places to visit and I would add this to the list for anyone to check out while they were in town. I hope the distillery continues to do well and come out with unique products and I will definitely keep returning! read more