April & May 2019

Nauti Spirits Distillery won a
gold medal for their vodka at
the San Francisco World Spirits
Competition.
ouflaged Ocean View warehouse that was
once home to Tuckahoe Brewing, Ludlam
Island offers several styles, including several
IPAs and a Kolsh, but I suggest you ask
for Harry’s Coffee Pale Ale. Combining their
Foundation Rye Pale Ale and coffee from
Harry and Beans next door, the crew at Ludlam
resisted the usual math of coffee-plusbeer-equals
porter and provided a unique
and delicious surprise. Rye beers seem to
be a growing trend, and their 5.2 percent
version works fine on its own, but the coffee
adds a nice, buzzy foreground.
Bucket Brigade Brewery
205 North Main Street, Cape May
Court House
What to Drink: Pike Pole Pilsner
The Bucket Brigade Brewery on Route 9 in
Cape May Court House has red ales, Belgian
beers, an IPA and black ale, but brewery
President Karl Hughes recommends starting
with the pilsner. “It’s light and easy drinking
and what most people are used to.” He
and Kurt Hughes – his identical twin and
the main brewer – were homebrewers and
firemen who wanted to take things to the
next level, joining with lifelong friend Mark
McPherson to form the brewing company
in 2016. They bought the old H.B Christman
and Sons building and began their extensive
renovations, opening the doors last year.
Distilleries
Nauti Spirits
916 Shunpike Road, Cold Spring
What to Drink: Rum Daiquiri
“I would get a daiquiri,” suggests Brendan
Wheatley, the vice president and head distiller
at Nauti Spirits, just north of the Cape
May canal. He suggested that more people
drinking daiquiris would clearly bring summer
faster. It stands to reason, right? The
drink includes Nauti Spirits rum, fresh lime
juice and sugar. The distillery has been open
just over a year, serving locally made vodka,
gin and rum, with bourbon on the way. That
one needs more time to mature. The distillery
uses locally grown herbs and produce in
its line of cocktails and grows its own sweet
potatoes that becomes the base for their distilled
spirits.
The company took a long-fallow field,
one Wheatley said needed some love, and
grew 27,000 pounds of sweet potatoes last
year. “It’s a little bit of tilting at windmills,
but it’s the right thing to do,” he said, helping
keep sustainable farming in the area. The
exit zero 121 april-may
locally distilled liquors have been collecting
awards at competitions, including at the San
Francisco World Spirits Competition, and
Wheatley plans to begin a line of liqueurs for
inclusion in their cocktails.
Cape May Distillery
371 Route 47, Cape May Court House
What to Drink: Double Barrel Honey
On a lonely stretch of Route 47, in the far
corner of Middle Township, sits Cape May
Distillery. It’s been open for four years. It
was the first distillery in Cape May County
and the second in the state. It’s meant to
resemble a Victorian speakeasy. Customers
enter through a vestibule that looks like an
old-fashioned phone booth leading to a cozy
bar. On offer are several rums, including
blueberry rums and coconut rum, gin, bourbon
and the Double Barrel Honey, distilled
from the handiwork of local bees. In the glass
and on the tongue, it resembles a whiskey,
with the honey flavor standing quietly in the
background until the after taste. It weighs
in at 80 proof, which is 40 percent alcohol,
and the owners said it mixes well, but sipped
neat, the liquor gets a chance to open up in
the mouth, unveiling each flavor in turn.