We heard their story but we bought in when we tasted their results.

Good Libations™ was founded in 2016 and built our company on the concepts developed by food science leaders Devin Peterson PhD and Smaro Kokkinidou PhD for optimizing distilled spirits.

Early on, we were fortunate to be able to create samples of distilled spirits using an array of proofing waters. Needless to say, distillers were pleasantly surprised by what they tasted.

A few patient distillers gave us a chance. We got our first break when a distiller wanted us to develop water for two of his spirits. We were thrilled. Little did we know that one of the spirits provided was in the distiller's opinion the worst he had ever made. It took over a year of work on multiple rounds of formulation development and tastings for each of the products. We were eventually able to take bad to good and the other from good to great. However, by the time we were ready he indicated the one "bad" product was just intended to test us and the other was phased out of the market. We were greatly appreciative for the opportunity and were able to enhance our process flows and development cycle times.

Our next opportunity was with a distiller with a heritage brand who desired to introduce a new product and appeal to a different market segment, the formulation and development work was completed the product ready for market in 6 months.
The next had been barreled for 2 years and needed a different proofing water to bring out the desired taste characteristics, the next had been barreled 4 years...

In 2019, one of the distillates that uses one of our water formulations was awarded a Gold Medal! Given the pandemic we have also created a proofing water to take the smell out of alcohol used to make hand sanitizer.

Thank goodness distillers who believed water might be able to make a difference and gave us an opportunity.

Good Libations is committed to improving the state of the art of craft distilling.  We have invested in and presented research at the American Distilling Institute in 2018, 2019, and 2020. 

Our research has advanced the understanding of the impact of water used during the proofing process on the aldehyde and ketone chemical composition of distilled spirits.   Our scientists suspect aldehydes and ketones are key drivers of the aroma, taste and smoothness associated with distilled spirits. 

More work needs to be completed but preliminary thoughts resulting from our work include: 1) aldehyde and ketone levels continue to be modified when exposed to increasing levels of minerals found to be naturally occurring in water, 2) changing the mineral composition of water while holding the concentration constant will create distinctly different chemical compositions from the same base spirit and result in significantly different tastes, 3) there are numerous aldehydes and ketones that are commonly found across classes of spirits and the aldehydes and ketones in a different spirit (vodka vs. whiskey) do not respond in a similar manner when proofed with the identical water. 

We are excited by what we have learned and even more excited by the potential opportunities associated with proofing water to contribute to the craft distilling industry.

Skeptical?

Our customers have stated: "this can't be true" until they taste the difference! If you are willing, we will conduct a taste test using your distilled spirit to demonstrate our capabilities.

Tasting is worth a 1000 words – contact us today if you want to taste the difference.

We look forward to working with you!

CLICK HERE if you would like us to produce up to 3 samples to demonstrate our ability to enhance your spirit - FOR FREE!