This Unique Distillery Is Turning Crabs Into Whiskey

Distillers and brewers are an unusual bunch, combining science and art to produce drinkable creations. Over the years, they have given the world such wild concoctions as beer made from yeast found on the chair of Roald Dahl (the "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author) that was dubbed Mr. Twit's Odious Ale. Then there were the folks over at the Industrious Spirit Company in Rhode Island, who created an oyster-based vodka called ​​Osteitra. Not to be outdone, another New England distillery, Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile out of New Hampshire, has created its own seafood-based spirit.

This one is called Crab Trapper Whiskey, and as the name suggests, it incorporates crabs and spices you're more likely to associate with a South Carolina seafood boil than whiskey. The man behind Tamworth Distilling is Steven Grasse, who previously launched Hendrick's Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum. Tamworth Distilling, which Grasse founded in 2015, is a farm-to-bottle distillery that uses local and foraged ingredients. Besides Crab Trapper, the company has created some other pretty wild spirits, like a durian fruit brandy and a whiskey made with venison. And in that spirit, Tamworth Distilling's use of European green crabs, which are an invasive species, stays true to the brand's ethos.

For Crab Trapper Whiskey, Tamworth Distilling worked with the University of New Hampshire to find a use for a super destructive invasive species. While European green crabs have been in New England since the 19th century, because of climate change, their population has exploded and they've become a huge problem there and elsewhere in the United States They don't have many predators, eat native crabs and juvenile lobsters, and outcompete local species for food and space while destroying habitats used by other sea creatures.

Steven Grasse's solution to the problem was to craft a four-year-old bourbon-based whiskey blended with a distilled green crab stock made with neutral grain spirits and then steeped with various spices like bay leaf and mustard seed. If you're wondering what it tastes like, it's been described as a briny Fireball with flavors of seafood, Old Bay seasoning, vanilla, and pepper. It's definitely unique and in line with the experimental side of the booze industry. Look no further than Grasse to find a good representative of the weird and wild side of distillers and brewers. He's in good company with the likes of Fossil Fuels Brewing Company, which created Jurassic Saison beer using 45 million-year-old yeast extracted from a fossil. Indeed, these folks are a different breed.