The American Distilling Institute’s 2026 International Spirits Competition saw a number of lesser-known producers take home medals for bourbon.
The five bourbons we are looking at today come from Missouri, Massachusetts, and Michigan, with no Kentucky names on the list, and most are made at small operations that many drinkers will not have come across.
Below, we take a closer look at each of the bourbons that stood out at the ADI ISC 2026, including what we know about how they are made, where they come from, and how they took the top spots at this year’s competition.
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READ THE STORYStilL 630 Distillery Due Process Bourbon
Awards: America’s Best Cask Strength Whiskey, Best of Category, Double Gold Medal
Tasting Notes: Caramel, charred oak, vanilla, brown sugar, toasted grains, cinnamon, leather, dark chocolate, honey, black pepper
Find Your Next Bottle: Coming Soon
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Due Process looks to be a forthcoming release from StilL 630, a downtown St. Louis distillery founded in 2011 by Dave Weglarz and named for the 630-foot height of the Gateway Arch. Bottles are not yet on shelves, which makes the award a particularly strong vote of confidence ahead of release.
According to a listing on huntsmanheritage.com, the bourbon will be bottled unfiltered at a hefty 130.6 proof (65.3% ABV), and StilL 630 has not yet disclosed the mashbill or barrel specification.
The distillery’s broader approach is well documented, however: double pot-still distillation and locally sourced Missouri grain are at the heart of the operation.
This is not StilL 630’s first ADI recognition either, having previously won Best of Category Rye in 2022 for its Double Barrel RallyPoint.
Update: According to David Weglarz, Owner and Distiller at StilL 630, the bourbon has a mash bill of 70% Missouri yellow corn, 20% rye, and 10% malted barley. It is aged for over 5 years. The bourbon is in fact an upcoming release, and will be available at the distillery on June 12 2026, priced at $75.
Joseph Magnus Bourbon
Awards: America’s Best Barrel Finished Whiskey, Best of Category, Double Gold Medal
Tasting Notes: Orange citrus, dried dark fruits, vanilla
Find Your Next Bottle: $65
The barrel finishing on Joseph Magnus Bourbon is likely what earned it this trophy, and it is unusually involved. After primary maturation, the bourbon is finished sequentially in three different cask types: Oloroso sherry, Pedro Ximénez sherry, and Cognac. It is bottled at 100 proof under master blender Nancy Fraley.
The brand has a long history to draw on. Jos. A. Magnus & Co. was originally founded in Cincinnati in 1892, before Prohibition closed operations in 1918.
The company was revived in 2014 by Joseph Magnus’s great-grandson Jimmy Turner after he discovered a sealed bottle of the family’s Murray Hill Club whiskey, with a distillery and tasting room in Washington, D.C.
In 2020, the company relocated production to Coppercraft Distillery in Holland, Michigan. The underlying bourbon is sourced from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and the mashbill has not been publicly disclosed.
Polly’s Still House Double Barrel Bourbon
Awards: Shortlist for America’s Best Barrel Finished Whiskey, Double Gold Medal
Tasting Notes: N/A
Find Your Next Bottle: Visit Polly’s Still House
Another fairly unknown brand here, and another entry from Missouri. Polly’s Still House is a brand operated by Black Shire Distillery in Hermann, Missouri, a small town on the Missouri River with deep German immigrant roots.
The distillery sits on the grounds of Hermann Farm, a 200-acre living-history museum, on what was an active 1840s still site established by the Rasche family, German settlers who farmed the land.
The Double Barrel Bourbon is aged for 5 years in new Missouri white oak, then moved into a second new Missouri oak barrel for years 6 and 7.
Double barreling, where the whiskey is transferred from one new charred oak barrel into another, gives the spirit a second dose of fresh oak extraction and is used by producers to build deeper caramel, vanilla, and tannin character.
It is bottled at 100 proof, in small batches, with very limited distribution outside Missouri. The bourbon is listed on the current menu at Polly’s Still House, a tasting room offering drams of traditional spirits and craft cocktails.
Missouri has a growing craft bourbon and whiskey scene, evidenced by the two Missouri entries on this list. The state is definitely one to watch.
GlenPharmer Distillery American Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Awards: Double Gold Medal
Tasting Notes: Rye spice, vanilla, oak, toffee, butterscotch, malt, gingerbread
Find Your Next Bottle: Visit GlenPharmer Distillery
GlenPharmer Distillery is a grain-to-glass operation in Franklin, Massachusetts, housed in the restored 1883 Brookdale Mill on Mine Brook.
The distillery was founded by husband-and-wife pharmacists Patrick and Beth Downing and opened in 2020. According to beveragebusiness.com, the name GlenPharmer comes from the glen in which the mill is located, and ‘Pharmer’ references the Farmer Distillery license that they must hold to distil, with the ‘ph’ neatly paying tribute to their former pharmaceutical careers.
The American Straight Bourbon is built on a four-grain mashbill of 60% corn, 20% wheat, 15% rye, and 5% malted barley, a still unusual combination that uses both wheat and rye as flavoring grains. It is aged in new charred American white oak, reportedly for two years.
Bottled at 92 proof, the bourbon is sold primarily through the on-site tasting room.
In the same interview with Beverage Business, Beth revealed that the GlenPharmer Bourbon is her favorite end-of-day dram. Neat, of course.
New Holland Brewery Dragon’s Milk Origin Small Batch Bourbon
Awards: Double Gold Medal
Tasting Notes: Stone fruit, citrus, pastries, nilla wafer
Find Your Next Bottle: $67.99
New Holland Brewing was founded in Holland, Michigan in 1997 by Brett VanderKamp and Jason Spaulding and began distilling in 2005, with the brewery’s fermentation expertise as the foundation for the whiskey program.
The Dragon’s Milk name will be familiar to many drinkers from the bourbon-barrel-aged stout that debuted in 2001, and the bourbon program followed later.
Said bourbon is distilled on a century-old American pot-still. When the whiskey first ran off the stills, New Holland Brewery & Distillery became the first legal distillery in Michigan since Prohibition.
The Origin Small Batch is built on a high-malt mashbill, aged at least 5 years in new charred American oak, and bottled at 95 proof. Batches are capped at 100 barrels or less.
Craft Distillers Crafting Award-Winning Bourbons
What stands out about this year’s bourbon winners is that none of them come from the established Kentucky names that tend to dominate this part of the category. All five are modern craft producers, and Joseph Magnus, despite its 1892 origins, is effectively a craft operation in its current form, having been revived in 2014 and now produced in Holland, Michigan rather than at any large heritage distillery.
The list also covers a lot of ground stylistically, from Still 630’s 130.6 proof cask strength bourbon to Glenpharmer’s 92 proof grain-to-glass release, and from Joseph Magnus’s triple cask finish to New Holland’s high-barley mashbill distilled on a Prohibition-era pot still.
Awards like these are worth paying attention to because they shine a light on producers who might not otherwise make it onto the average bourbon drinker’s radar. So, which of these winners has caught your eye? Are there any other craft bourbons you think should have made the list? Let us know in the comments below.
