John Emerald Distilling Company

On North Railroad Avenue in downtown Opelika, John Emerald Distilling Company has built a following well beyond Lee County for its small-batch spirits, and its distillery tours are one of the more genuinely educational things to do in town. The company is named for John Emerald Sharp, honoring a family legacy that traces back to three Sharp brothers who left Scotland for America, descendants who founded the distillery with an explicit intention of honoring both their forefathers and a family ethos built around honoring God, their fellow man, and their family, carried into how the business is still run today.

Tours run throughout the week, led directly by one of the distillery’s own distillers rather than a hired tour guide, a detail that shapes the experience considerably. Visitors get a walk through the actual distilling area, not a roped-off viewing gallery, with explanations of the mash, fermentation, and distillation process from someone who works the equipment daily. Tours last thirty to forty-five minutes and are offered at 1 p.m. on Mondays, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and at noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A tour with tastings runs fifteen dollars per person and includes three half-ounce pours of the distillery’s spirits, while a tour without tastings runs ten dollars, with additional tastings and cocktails available for purchase separately in the on-site tasting room. Children under eighteen accompanied by a parent do not need a separate ticket.

The distillery’s signature product is its single malt whiskey, made entirely from malted barley, with a portion of that barley smoked over peach and pecan wood, a distinctly regional touch that ties the spirit back to Alabama rather than imitating a Scotch or Kentucky bourbon profile. The rest of the whiskey lineup includes a Double Oak Bourbon and a Double Wood Rye, and the distillery also bottles two rums, Spurgeon’s Rum and a spiced expression called Gene’s Spiced Flavored Rum, along with Hugh Wesleys Gin. The distillery has drawn attention from national outlets including USA Today, The New York Times, Esquire, Food Network, and Alabama Living, along with distribution that now reaches nine states, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, New York, California, Colorado, and Illinois. For a business built in a small downtown Opelika storefront, that reach says something about how the distillery has positioned itself within the broader American craft spirits movement.

Beyond the standard tour, the distillery runs a membership program called the Barrel Club, offering members the chance to claim personal ownership of an aging barrel with a minimum four-year aging commitment. Members receive a sample from their barrel starting in its first year and then again each consecutive year, including a side-by-side sample of the current and previous year for comparison, a level of engagement that goes well past a typical tasting-room visit. Alabama regulations cap Barrel Club purchases at six bottles per twenty-four-hour period, a detail the distillery is upfront about with members. Groups of ten or more are asked to contact the distillery in advance to arrange private tours, and the distillery recommends buying tickets ahead of a visit rather than walking in, since tour slots can fill, particularly on weekend afternoons.

Press coverage of the distillery has tended to focus on the same qualities that stand out on a tour: the full-bodied character of the spirits and the distillery’s insistence on regional ingredients over imported grain or imitation of established whiskey styles from Scotland or Kentucky. That approach, paired with the story behind the Sharp family name, is part of what has made the small North Railroad Avenue storefront a stop that draws visitors well beyond a typical downtown Opelika afternoon.

Located at 706 North Railroad Avenue, the distillery sits within easy walking distance of Red Clay Brewing, Resting Pulse Brewing, The Gallery on Railroad, and the rest of downtown Opelika’s restored historic business district, making a distillery tour a natural centerpiece for an afternoon spent exploring the area on foot.