Rep. Antonio Delgado arrives at Cooperstown Distillery greeted by MacGuire Benton. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
Rep. Antonio Delgado stands in the tasting room of the Cooperstown Distillery. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
MacGuire Benton, left, Rep. Antonio Delgado, center, and Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, right. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
Head distiller Daran Bottger shows Rep. Antonio Delgado the bottles the whiskey are poured into. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
Rep. Antonio Delgado pours whiskey from the taps into a bottle. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
Rep. Antonio Delgado and assistant brewer Mike Deflumere, right, prepare to sample a chocolate flavored whiskey. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
Rep. Antonio Delgado, left, MacGuire Benton, mayor of Cooperstown Ellen Tillapaugh and Daran Bottger outside the Cooperstown Distillery. (Kevin Limiti/Allotsego.com)
The 4-ounce glass bottles arriveD at Cooperstown Distillery this morning, and at this hour Distiller Daran Bottger, assisted by Gina Baldwin, is bottling the Cooper’s Clean hand sanitizer. The distillery will begin distributing Cooper’s Clean at 3 p.m. today at the Cooperstown Beverage Exchange, 73 Main St., next to the flagpole in downtown Cooperstown. (It will NOT be available at the distillery.) (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Cooperstown Distillery Distiller Daran Bottger, center, directs installation of a new 500-gallon still this morning at the Railroad Avenue plant. The still was one of two – the second is 150 gallons – installed to help meet demand, according to proprietor Gene Marra, at left. The distillery also installed three new fermentation tanks. Two lines in particular – Legacy Bourbon and Legacy Rye – sell out every year, Marra said. “It’s going to be a big turning point in who we are, what we are,” he said. The distillery celebrated its fifth anniversary in October. (Larissa Ryan/AllOTSEGO.com)