Junction 56 Distillery is catching the eyes – and taste buds – of spirit lovers all over North America.

The distillery's vodka recently brought home a silver medal and “best in category” award from the American Distilling Institute's Judging of Craft Spirits. The Junction 56 moonshine picked up third place.

“That's kind of new for us, we're pretty proud of those,” said owner Mike Heinz. “We think it speaks to what we're doing in here.”

The same competition awarded Junction 56 vodka a bronze medal in 2016. It's rewarding to see that improvement from one year to the next, Heisz said.

“We retain a little bit of the wheat character in our vodka, which we're getting a lot of good feedback on,” he said.

Junction 56 also entered spirits - the company makes vodka, gin, moonshine and flavored liqueurs - in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and New York International Spirits Competition, with results expected in the coming days.

The business, which opened in September 2015, is seeking out stages on which to test its products as a way to learn and grow.

“Now that we're a little more mature as a company, we're sending our spirits away for judging feedback from different competitions. We get comments from expert judges that tell us how we're doing, and we can use those to improve our products,” said Heisz.

The medals don't hurt, either.

But customer feedback is just as important to Junction 56 as the expert variety.

“We continually improve our products, based on the customer as much as competition feedback,” said Heisz.

Factors like filtration, fermentation, and distillation can be tweaked to alter the texture or flavor.

“There's a lot of variables in there that we can play around with to fine-tune products.”

And some things will remain the same – like the gin, which Heisz said is a fan favorite.

But it's always helpful to get unbiased reviews. So far, the buzz on Junction 56 is stellar. There are even more awards – not yet made public – that are coming to the distillery within the next month.

Read More at source: Stratford Beaconherald.com