Photo: Great Lakes Distillery
Junipre
Junipre
Until recently, non-drinkers were often left out of the party. Non-alcoholic (NA) beverage options didn’t go much beyond soda, juice or a couple of brands of NA beers. Although “sober-curious” became a thing several years ago, the coronavirus pandemic has inspired a renewed priority on health and wellness. A Nov. 3, 2021, Business Insider report states that, “Non-alcoholic beverage sales increased 33% to $331 million over the last 52 weeks, according to data from Nielsen.”
Local craft distillery pioneer Guy Rehorst, founder of Great Lakes Distillery, recognized a growing need in the marketplace for quality non-alcoholic beverages. The result is Junipre (pronounced “juniper”), a botanical spirit featuring natural flavors derived from juniper berries, ginseng, orange zest, cardamom, chili pepper and coriander. It is the first botanical spirit developed under the Sans brand by Boundless Beverage, an offshoot of Great Lakes Distillery.
“There are people that are abstaining or want to cut back on their alcohol intake, and other people, for medical reasons, that cannot have alcohol,” Rehorst affirms. “We spent nearly 20 years producing award-winning spirits, so we knew we should use that expertise to produce products for other people who are not necessarily wanting to, or are able to, drink alcohol.”
Developing a Quality Spirit, Sans Alcohol
Juniper berries are known for imparting the traditional pine note of gin. Rehorst says Junipre has a lot of the same ingredients as his distillery’s line of Rehorst gin, but there are some extra ingredients in Junipre that are not in the gin.
“We decided we wanted it to be a little more flexible and make not just a gin, but a botanical spirit. It works very well in non-gin cocktails. We want people to experiment with it, try it and not be afraid of a gin—and a lot of people are,” he laughs.
Complex flavors emerge with each sip of Junipre, from a slight peppery bite that mimics the warm sensation of alcohol, to subtle orange notes. Junipre is versatile and works for everything from an NA gin and tonic to an NA old-fashioned. An NA Moscow mule can be achieved by mixing 1.5 ounces of Junipre with ginger beer over ice.
Developing an alcohol-free spirit was a very different process, Rehorst says. “That’s why it took us two years to develop this. We learned that when you’re trying to make a spirit that’s water-based versus alcohol-based, you don’t get the help of the alcohol on many levels, from providing flavor to being a preservative, and you have to come up with other answers.”
Rehorst and his team started doing extracts of various botanicals at the distillery, but once they had a recipe, they realized it was not something they could produce in their facility because NA spirits are treated very differently by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) than a distilled spirit would be. (Great Lakes Distillery is the first distiller to open in Wisconsin post-Prohibition; for more on Rehorst’s advocacy to change Wisconsin’s liquor laws, see https://shepherdexpress.com/food/dining-preview/room-tasting-great-lakes-distillery).
“To make a non-alcoholic, botanical spirit safely, a distillery environment isn’t the greatest place for that because of the fermentation process, so there’s wild yeasts growing in the atmosphere, which can get into a non-alcohol product and cause some problems down the road,” Rehorst says.
Once Rehorst had a recipe perfected, he worked with a co-packer that has the necessary equipment and FDA criteria in place. He continues to experiment with botanical spirits, so Junipre will likely be the first of an interesting line of botanical spirits appealing to the sans-alcohol crowd.
For more information, visit greatlakesdistillery.com.
RECIPES:
Tom Collins
- 1.5 ounces Junipre
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- .5 ounce simple syrup
- club soda
Add Junipre, lemon and simple syrup to an ice-filled Collins glass, stir to combine and top with soda.
Dry Martini (low alcohol at 2% vs 35% w/gin)
- 3 ounce Junipre
- .5 dry vermouth
Combine Junipre and vermouth in an ice-filled mixing glass, stir thoroughly and strain into a chilled glass.
