Peter Cornillie, Better Man Distilling Co

Bringing craft gin stateside

When Peter Cornillie, Head Distiller at The Better Man Distilling Co, in Long Island, New York, was inducted as a member of the Gin Guild in 2022, he was back at a building which has a place in his family’s history.

The ceremony was held at London’s Guildhall, a place where Peter’s ancestor John Miller – a prominent 18^th century journalist – had stood trial for contentious articles he had written about important figures, including King George III, before emigrating to America.

“He got acquitted from that trial, but would later be sentenced to pillory and cropping where he would lose his ears,” Peter explained.

“It was a little weird being in a building which had a place in our family’s history.”

Peter and distillery founder Anthony Gruppuso were welcomed into the gin industry member body during the ceremony, and he said it was an honour to be with a who’s who of the spirit world.

“Everyone was so sweet and accepting and just so, so interesting,” he explained.

“If there was time, you could’ve had an incredible conversation with every single person.”

And being part of the Gin Guild, has given The Better Man Distilling Co huge advantages when promoting their products locally.

“The market for gin is different here and we don’t have the reputation of a Bombay Sapphire, Hendricks or a Beefeater,” he said.

“Sometimes if we have a new gin which we want to place in a liquor store they say ‘we’ll think about it’ but we can point to the fact we are part of the Gin Guild alongside all of these other illustrious names and they are on board.

“It’s a hallmark of quality and been great for us to get a foot in the door.”

Before becoming a renowned distiller, Peter was making his own beer in his college dormitory at Wesleyan University in Connecticut after being inspired by the taste of an English pale ale.

He went on to become the president of the home brewing society and one day got talking to Abby Grupusso, now Head of Operations at Better Man Distilling Co, and saw him move to Long Island from his home in Detroit to take on the challenge of being their Head Distiller.

“Abby’s father, Anthony, was interested in opening a distillery on Long Island and wanted to know whether I would be interested in switching from beer to distilled spirits.

“In America, right now, craft spirits are still a pretty new category so I saw a lot of opportunity for growth.

“We are so lucky to have an industrial-sized distillery in a space which is within walking distance of metropolitan downtown.

“So we have people who live in houses who walk down Main Street and pass our distillery.

“Other distilleries have to be out in more rural areas and are harder for people to access.”

To ensure the quality of his gin, Peter and everyone at the distillery is thorough about the juniper they select.

“It’s not as simple as saying I’m just going to buy a lot of juniper, because depending on the year, depending on the place, who procured it, and even the wholesaler, that juniper can have a different taste to it.

“So we have a lot of meetings to discuss the consistency of the juniper and just making sure that we get the right flavour for our gins from that juniper because it is the most important botanical for gin making.”

Peter said his favourite gin to create changed on a daily basis, but that he was particularly fond of the Cosmic Soul – a versatile, dry spirit made for the American palette.

“Our Cosmic Soul is an American-style gin which is different from a European gin. It is much more botanical focussed than juniper focussed and can range from being very floral to very citrussy.

“Juniper is still the centrepiece, but like with a lot of American spirits, everything is louder.

“The other great thing about is you can make an outstanding martini, gin and tonic and a Negroni with it, and the gin stands up in all three of those cocktails.

Peter said gin was slowing increasing in popularity in the USA and that there was huge potential to grow the craft market.

“The top three spirits in America right now are vodka, tequila – which is getting more and more popular – and bourbon.

“Americans like fruity and sweet things, as a rule, the concept of anything bitter, herbaceous or sharp makes us think it is high quality, but we still don’t enjoy it – which I appreciate is a strange contradiction.

“With gin, the people who really love it are the people who know their stuff like bartenders, and if you give them a choice between vodka and gin, they are going to choose gin.

“More and more people are definitely starting to enjoy gin and we purposely make outs in that American style.

“People who have thought they don’t like gin have definitely tried ours and enjoyed it.”