Peoria distillery earns two medals in 'prestigious' spirits competition

Two Peoria-made products were awarded medals at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

BLACK BAND Distillery’s Straight Wheat Whiskey earned gold, while its Peoria Bourbon secured a silver medal.

“(Getting) a nod from San Fran World Spirits Competition at any level – meaning like of any medal – (is) fantastic,” said Chris Ober, founder and principal distiller at BLACK BAND. “So, we're really happy with the outcome this year.”

The competition – held by The Tasting Alliance – was founded more than two decades ago in 2000. Possible awards for submitted products include bronze, silver, gold and double gold medals.

More than 5,000 submissions were received in 2024, according to The Tasting Alliance. Distilleries in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Kenya, South Korea, Guatemala, Fiji, Turkey, Denmark and dozens of other countries entered products.

Ober described the competition as “the most prestigious in the beverage industry.”

This is not the first time BLACK BAND Distillery participated in the long-running competition. In 2022, Ober said the business submitted six products and earned six medals – including double gold for its bourbon and its coffee liqueur.

For the 2024 competition, Ober said both of BLACK BAND’s entries came from the product’s first batch.

“A lot of brands that submit for judgment on their, like, batch one of something typically don't win anything…” Ober said. “Usually, it takes several years of basically refining that product or allowing it to mature for a greater length of time or tweaking it year over year and then submitting for judgment.”

Even then, a medal is not guaranteed, so Ober said he was glad to see the results.

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Along with being batch one products, he said the Straight Wheat Whiskey and the Peoria Bourbon are the first to be made “all in Peoria, under our roof.” Both, he said, are also kosher and organic certified.

“It's a really pretty big departure from our previous whiskey products…” he said. “I call it on brand for where we're at and where we're headed in the future, as far as what our style of whiskey is and will be.”

Ober said bottles of the Straight Wheat Whiskey can be found at various retailers, as well as the distillery. At The Bar at BLACK BAND, customers can find an old fashioned cocktail featuring the whiskey – which is named Freshly Foraged.

In total, less than 300 bottles were released for batch one of the Peoria Bourbon. Ober said the product is only available at the distillery. He said future batches will be released twice a year.

While BLACK BAND aims to offer consistency with many of its products, this is not the goal for the Peoria Bourbon. Instead, Ober said the goal for each batch is “to depart from the last batch significantly.”

“That’s part of the fun in whiskey making and blending,” Ober said. “That you do what you want to do, and you hope that people love it. But it's up to every person has their own palate and can make that decision for themselves. And to me, that's fun.”

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria distillery earns two medals in 'prestigious' competition