Fort Hamilton is on a mission to bring back America's original whiskey. Before bourbon and corn took over, New York Rye was the most popular spirit in the country and the base of the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, and the Sazerac — and founder Alex Clark, an English expat who found his home in Brooklyn's bar scene and its Revolutionary War history, built the distillery to make it exactly as it was: rye grain, malted barley, yeast, and water, with zero corn in the mash. Named for the nearby army base, with "Hearts of Oak" on every label honoring Alexander Hamilton's first artillery company, the distillery began barreling in 2016 and opened its Sunset Park tasting room in 2021, run by Clark and his wife Amy Grindeland, both bartenders by trade. The house rules are consistent: whiskey enters the barrel at a low 120 proof so the grain speaks over the wood, ages in heavily charred new American white oak in a heated warehouse on the Brooklyn waterfront, and is bottled non-chill filtered with no coloring or flavoring. The Single Barrel Rye — 90% New York rye, rated an A by Drinkhacker — is the flagship; Double Barrel Rye and Double Barrel Bourbon blend the house whiskey with MGP stock for affordable cocktail workhorses; the Single Barrel Bourbon uses 100% Hudson Valley grain. Rounding it out: a corn-based New World Dry Gin with watermelon and cucumber, a vodka, and a cult bourbon-barrel-aged maple syrup. Brooklyn's whiskey, done the old way.

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