Inside Sweet Home Spirits’ new distillery with founder Austin Creel

Last week, the Bham Now team got a sneak peak inside Sweet Home Spirits‘ new distillery in Leeds. Founder Austin W. Creel showed us how their products are made PLUS gave us a tour of the new tasting room, which opens May 11.

Keep reading to learn more!

About Sweet Home Spirits

Established in 2021, Sweet Home Spirits makes high-quality spirits right here in Alabama. Austin W. Creel, an Alabama native, recognized his unique position to craft Alabama spirits while traveling around the world.

“Several years ago while on vacation in Spain, I noticed that people’s eyes lit up every time I mentioned I was from Alabama. They love ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, Forrest Gump and Alabama football. That made me think—why don’t we have an Alabama whiskey?”

Austin W. Creel, Founder and President, Sweet Home Spirits

Currently, Sweet Home Spirits offers five distinct products:

• Sweet Home Whiskey — A blend of 75% sweet corn, 21% rye and 4% malted barley, this bourbon-style mash is finished with varying American toasted oaks. Each sip contains notes of clove and vanilla with hints of maple syrup, spice, earth and smoke—plus a short and snappy finish.
• Sweet Home Vodka — This 100% corn vodka is filtered three times after a 10x distillation process, creating a vodka that is as smooth as it is delicious. Expect the taste of fresh mountain air with faint hints of floral and sweet notes, leading to a soothing finish.
• Sweet Home Divided Bourbon — Austin W. Creel’s pride and joy, this Alabama-style whiskey is made from mashed yellow corn blended with malted rye and barley on the family farm in Hamilton, Alabama. The whiskey is finished by charring pecan wood chips after pulling the juice out of American White Oak barrels to bring a sweet, unique front note and finish that makes it a whiskey like no other.
• Sweet Home Campfire Whiskey — Reminiscent of gathering around a campfire with friends and family, this whiskey is make by soaking real cinnamon sticks—with no sugar added. The finish brings the cinnamon flavor home with little to no burn involved.
• Sweet Home Limoncello — A limited edition run, this limoncello is sweet to the nose, a sugary tart to the taste and an easy finish to create an enjoyable aperitif, Alabama style.

“I take the most pride on the Sweet Home Divided Bourbon because it’s 100% my recipe with my family’s corn, mashed, milled and distilled all here in Alabama. But all of our products are unique. Our Limoncello uses all-natural lemon zest with a little bit of oil to bring that flavor out, and we seep natural cassia cinnamon in our Campfire Whiskey to give it that authentic cinnamon flavor—no sugar added.”

Austin W. Creel, Founder and President, Sweet Home Spirits

Opening a new distillery in Leeds

For the first years of Sweet Home Spirits’ existence, Austin Creel worked out a deal with downtown Birmingham’s Dread River Distilling Company to make his products using their distillery. Now, Sweet Home Spirits has its very own distillery in Leeds—complete with a tasting room.

“All future products made at our Leeds distillery will be made with products 100% sourced in Alabama, such as our local honey moonshine, Birmingham roasted espresso bean vodka and small batch whiskies.”

Austin W. Creel, Founder and President, Sweet Home Spirits

Sweet Home Spirits’ tasting room can hold around 20-25 guests and will be open to the public Thursday through Sunday, from 12PM to 8PM.

“Our tasting room is a nice, cozy environment where we can tell our story as a distillery, offer tours and serve cocktail tastings with our distillery manager, who is very passionate about making cocktails. We’re starting off small, but my vision for the tasting room includes cocktail classes and musical artist features several times a month. Our tasting room will be a nice place to sit back, relax and see our process.”

Austin W. Creel, Founder and President, Sweet Home Spirits

Sweet Home Spirits’ distillery opens May 11-14

You can check out Sweet Home Spirits’ new distillery and tasting room during their Grand Opening weekend, May 11-14 from 12PM to 8PM. Visit their website, Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date!

• Sweet Home Spirits: 8316 Parkway Dr, Leeds, AL 35094

Have you tried Sweet Home Spirits’ products? Tag us @bhamnow to let us know your favorite!