Kinmont’s Pisco Pro

For mixologists, getting selected to attend Encanto Pisco’s “Distiller’s Apprentice” program in Peru is tantamount to being selected to participate in The Amazing Race. But considering the experience that Kinmont’s Jason Brown recently had in Peru, the pisco apprenticeship sounds even more amazing. One of a very select handful of bartenders in the world in attendance for the apprenticeship, Brown was flown down to Peru for the harvest to learn the art of pisco distilling up close and personal.

After being carefully selected by a panel of judges, Brown embarked on a life-changing, eye-opening journey to South America for his pisco endeavor. Flying into Lima, Brown and co. then took a bus about three hours south to Ica, a desert-like destination Brown describes as a small oasis. Here they set up shop and worked at a production facility. “Running a cocktail program gave me availability from the ground up to see where a product comes from,” says Brown, who got as hands-on as it gets by picking grapes and seeing the distilling process go from start to finish, including lots of blending and tasting. “I’ve never had a chance to really help with that process and get my hands dirty.”

Naturally, Brown has a distinct fondness for pisco, which is what inspired his voyage in the first place, to get more invested in this product. Brought up from South America, a drink popularized amongst coal-miners, pisco caught fire in San Francisco, which is where Brown was working pre-Chicago. At the apprenticeship, he got to put his fingerprint on a spirit he admires. They aged pisco in neutral containers in an open-air warehouse, each batch garnering different nuances due to climate and sun exposure. On the last night of the apprenticeship, Brown and the group went to dinner, only to find themselves in a surprise cocktail challenge throwdown. Divvied into teams, the bartenders were tasked with creating on-the-fly pisco cocktails. Brown’s team came out on top, making for a nice finale to an epic adventure.

Brown has had at least one pisco cocktail on the menu at Kinmont since opening day. Right now, he’s eager to get working with more spring-y, seasonal pisco cocktails, like drinks made with strawberries. 

Kinmont
419 W. Superior Street, Chicago
(312) 915-0011
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