Head up the concrete steps at Brooklyn’s Union Street Station, turn right on President, and go west towards the smell (provided by the notoriously sludgy Gowanus Canal) beyond the timid bustle of 3rd Avenue. On the right, you’ll see an asphalt gray building with a baby pink garage door. You’ve arrived at Halftone Spirits—the distillery alchemizing Brooklyn’s most intriguing set of gin based on global travel.
At one point or another, everything good goes through Brooklyn. Hip-hop, movies, indie rock, craft breweries—Kings County influenced them all. Now, with the craft spirits movement in full flight, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to see a Brooklyn-based distillery pushing the boundaries of gin. Andrew Thomas, distiller and owner of Halftone Spirits, however, innovates by taking his customers outside of Brooklyn via the brand’s Modular series.
The culinary world often discusses traveling through food, a concept different from terroir—the characteristic taste imparted to a wine or spirit by the environment in which it is produced. Gin, a spirit that offers the best opportunity to try a variety of flavor profiles, remains somewhat one note, and unwilling to travel outside of the distillery making it.
Thomas came up with the idea for the Modular series after looking at the surprisingly uninspired gin space. “Most brands have their one gin, and maybe an occasional seasonal gin, and they all used the same 15 botanicals in varying amounts,” he notes. “When I started looking at the possibilities of what could be used, I was nearly overwhelmed! I asked myself, why is everyone pulling from the same pool of spices when there are thousands of possibilities?” He turned towards the culinary world and investigated “where herbs and spices were being used in various cuisines and how [he] could employ them in a spirit.” And thus, Halftone’s Modular series was born.