Adventurous Stills resumed serving tastes, flights and cocktails made with its Arizona grain-based spirits to guests over Labor Day weekend. It also restarted tours of the distillery and a grand reopening party is slated for the weekend of Oct. 4.
In late April, an electric bug zapper ignited vapors that were released by a leak in one of the stills, causing the fire, says owner Kelly Lattig. The blaze was kept to a minimum and put out by fire sprinklers and the Tempe Fire Department.
No one was in the distillery, tasting room or single-story building located in an industrial plaza in east Tempe. The only casualties were about a dozen bottles of spirits, with the casks left intact, Lattig says. Much of the cleanup was due to water damage.
Bartender Borka Becsey prepares to make a cocktail at Adventurous Stills. The tasting room is back open following a fire.
Georgann Yara
The cocktail menu offers about a dozen concoctions including a rotating cocktail-of-the-month where bartenders can flaunt their skills with creative libations. There is no kitchen, but customers can bring in their own food or have it delivered.
Tours are 45 minutes and visitors have fun sampling spirits, learning the intricacies of how they are made and see where the magic happens.
The only big change regulars may notice is a new black drop ceiling. Other than that, the decor, furnishings and bar are the same.
“We liked what we were doing and what we had and wanted it to be back to what it was,” Lattig says. “We’re traditionalists.”
Adventurous Stills owner and head distiller Kelly Lattig opened his Tempe distillery in 2015, after retiring from a 20-plus-year career in the semiconductor industry.
Adventurous Stills
After more than 20 years in the semiconductor industry, Lattig retired in 2009. When he opened Adventurous Stills in 2015, it became his second career and post-retirement plan. But Lattig’s interest in crafting tipples goes way back. He started home brewing when he was 20.
“You couldn’t buy beer but you could buy grains and yeast,” recalls Lattig, who grew up in Bend, Oregon, and is a graduate of Arizona State University.
As the head distiller, Lattig develops all the recipes for a lineup of whiskeys, bourbon, gin, vodka and blue agave spirits.
“We’re always going off and doing different things,” Lattig says. “We’ve always got something different hanging around."
Single malt whiskey finished in gin or mesquite casks, barrel-aged gin and the occasional flirtation with a rum has been part of the lineup. The staple North Rim American Single Malt Whiskey is finished in an ex-rye cask. The result is a sip boasting caramel and green apple with kisses of oak, malt and baking spices.
“Single malts tend to be mellow. We thought a cask finish would make it memorable,” Lattig says.
The cosmo is made with Adventurous Stills Picket Post Vodka crafted from locally-grown durum wheat.
Georgann Yara
“The drive to use locally grown grains was just a doubling-down on our drink local effort,” Lattig says. “We're always looking for local suppliers of other items in our process to take this idea as far as we can.”
This includes durum wheat from Casa Grande, gazelle rye from the Verde Valley, barley from Coolidge and corn from the Four Corners region.
“We make things unique, adventurous, local and crafty,” Lattig says. “The local terroir, it’s an intangible thing, but you can taste it.”
Now, with Adventurous Stills back open, tastings have commenced.
