Northampton Community College (NCC) students worked with distillation runs at Doan Distillery in Quakertown recently to complete their craft distillery program.

The students in the class each brought their own recipe for a gin to Doan Distillery, where owner Christopher LaBonge helped them navigate the process. LaBonge teaches the distillery and maturation operations course for NCC’s new craft distillery program.

Students added their botanicals, flavors and ingredients to mason jars to create their own special concoction for gin. The students start with a grain neutral spirit distilled with no added flavors or aging. After adding the botanicals from their recipes, the ingredients macerate and ferment before going through a process where the alcohol is pulled from the spirit to a drinkable level and then finished in the final step.

“Every gin must have some level of juniper. That botanical makes it a gin,” said NCC student Denise Pierson-Balik. Adding anything else, she says, will connect flavors in a way that’s unique to each student’s recipe.

The students learned to identify important steps in the distillation process and homed in on the key qualities of the spirit.

NCC partners with several local area distilleries that offer internships and help teach courses in the program, including Doan Distillery, Eight Oaks Farm Distillery, Silverback Distillery, Wardog Spirits, and County Seat Spirits. McCall Brewing and Franklin Hill Vineyards help students learn about fermentation.

“We really are one of the only colleges in the region to offer a craft distillery program,” said David F. Schweiger, director of NCC Culinary Arts, Hospitality & Sport Management. “It’s a growing business and extremely popular in our area, and students can put their skills to good use in the industry after completing the program. Our goal is to have programs for wine, beer and distilling.”

Learn more about the program at https://www.northampton.edu/craft-distillery.htm.