KOVAL Distillery

Fun local distillery. Make sure to make a reservation as they fill up, especially on the weekends. They give you 10% off your purchase of merchandise if you do the tasting. They give you quite a few and you get to learn quite a bit. I like this because it is quick and to the point maybe 45 minutes. The people working there know what they are taking about and very knowledgeable.

For $ 10/​person, we probably did not get more than two shots’ worth of a very nice alcohol, but Tristan the tour guide was funny, knowledgeable, and great at imparting interesting information. This was a great opportunity to try all of KOVAL’s most popular products side-​by-​side and get access to their liqueurs. There was a 10% discount for post-​tour purchases. Definitely a good choice for the whiskey lover (s) in your life.

Nothing else like it in Chicagoland. I learned quite a bit about the process and tasted some unique samples.
Advice — buy a $ 10 tour ticket and enjoy the tastings as well as the history of Koval (it’s a memorable story).
Next time friends come into town, I hope to take them and experience something fresh in our city.

Knew the bourbon to be outstanding (on par with Blantons and others). Learning they were located in Chicago was an incredible bonus. And now having visited and learned the way they go about making their fine products — and tasting those with which I wasn’t familiar — they’ve made a fan for life. Bravo!

Fun and informative tour and a great quality product (although I enjoy their liqueurs and gin more than their whiskeys but I am goofy like that)
I have actually done the tour 3 times in the last few years (fun thing to do with out of town guests) and it is different every time and I have always enjoyed it.

For my recent birthday weekend, I wanted to go to a distillery before dinner with friends, and Koval was the most ideal choice. On the Koval website I learned that they offered 3 Saturday afternoon/​early evening tours. Myself and one of my friends bought our tour ticket ahead of time, but one of my friends waited until a couple days before the tour to buy a ticket online, and they were sold out. Fortunately, when she called Koval directly, they told her she would be able to do a walk in since the two of us had bought tickets for the 3pm already. I am so thankful that they were able to accommodate her so she would be able to join us.
The atmosphere of the Koval Distillery itself is very quaint and charming. Our tour guide went through a nice history of Koval, the distilling process, and unique features of Koval spirits. The products tasted very good and you can tell they are high quality. This would be great distillery to check out whether you have been to other distilleries, or it is your first time at one.

I tried their oat whiskey and coffee liquor during the Taste of Andersonville Dinner Crawl. Yum! I will definitely be back next time we need to restock our bar!

This is definitely a business I hope to never deal with or purchase products from. Out in the front of their building, there is a common parking lot that the neighboring businesses adjacent to them use as well. Anyway, I have been using the services in the professional building next door for many years, and if there wasn’t any parking available immediately in front, we’ve always been able to park in front of Koval with no problems. Until yesterday.
As I left from my appointment next door, I happened upon a parking ticket on my vehicle. The police officer who had just written it was pulling away, saw me, and got back out of his car to tell me that the workers in the Koval business «have been complaining a lot» about cars that apparently are «too far onto the sidewalk» when pulling into a space. I re-​examined my parking job, and decided that this was probably one of the most nit-​picky, senseless reasons to ever receive a parking ticket. Every other time I have parked here, my car has been in the same exact non-​pedestrian-​impeding distance from the rest of the sidewalk – as has everyone else’s – without any problems. The front of my car was not preventing anyone’s passage as far as blocking the sidewalk goes. As I found it odd that a police officer would have the time and gumption to get out of his vehicle during a shift to examine the fronts of vehicles parked at a business and determine whether a violation occurred, I contacted the business I frequent next door to delve a little deeper. The much kinder practitioners in the adjacent building have informed me that Koval and its workers also tried to hog this public lot as their own by attempting to put up a «tow-​zone» sign in order to bogart all the spots. Real, real neighborly, guys. (By the way, they couldn’t legally keep that sign up it turns out). And if you come in the winter time, good luck trudging through the snow they never shovel. Because when I arrive in front of the neighboring building, the walkway has always been salted and the sidewalk is safely clear. It’s like a tale of two buildings.
What a petty, shameful act on the part of a business that shares a lot with many others. I will make sure to tell everyone I know what the priorities are of the people who work here, and what is most important to them – bothering the police who could be out stopping real crime.

There are three ways to review this:
The whiskey/​spirits/​brandy/​liqueurs: across the board they are all fantastic. My top three are the gin, the plum brandy and the Toasted Oat whiskey (a little hard to find so settle for the regular oat whiskey). This is quickly becoming a go to drink for me when I go to a bar and see it on their menu. I only hope more bars start to include this in their roster of whiskeys.
The Tour: the tour of the distillery is the main pull for this location. You don’t go just to buy a bottle. You can do better in pricing by going to Binnys or any local liquor store that sells Koval simply because the Koval retail store has the highest prices on their products. (Not uncommon for places like this to do that as to create good relations with the local retailers who are also selling their product). The tour is only $ 10 for an hour of learning all about the various products, the history of Koval and how they make their products. The place is small– if you spin in a circle in the middle of the room you have seen the whole place. Don’t go expecting to see a lot and get a ton of pics. Go to learn about their process and history. You get to sample most of their products throughout the tour which even with the thimble sized portions of each liquor is pretty great for the price. At the end of the tour you can feel free to ask to try a sample of any of their other products you didn’t get to try on the tour which is very generous.
The retail shop: to go to the tour you must enter their retail shop first which is the size of a large walk-​in closet. It’s pretty bare bones and simply has the liquor displayed on a wall. I’m not sure what is lacking but I feel a little more could go into the look and layout of this particular part of their space. One thing I thought would be great is if they had hand written descriptions from the owners about each of the products taped to the shelves. If you’ve ever been to Pastoral they do something similar where the staff writes about the various products and while it doesn’t always influence my opinion on what I’ll buy, it’s just a nice personal touch.

Fantastic tour! I live in the neighborhood and have always been curious about the tiny little neighborhood distillery, I’m so glad I checked it out!
The staff are VERY knowledgeable about the distilling process from start to finish. I have been on several winery tours, but never a distillery. They explained everything and didn’t make us feel ignorant when asking questions. I’ve even come away with some trivia I have impressed my friends with!
The highlight is naturally the tasting. You get to try about 8 varieties of whiskey, plus their vodka (surprisingly refreshing), gin (AH-​MAZING! I bought a bottle!) and a couple of their liqueurs. The tour is a great value, plus you get 20% off your purchase that night. I highly recommend checking it out!

As a holiday gift (2014) I received a ticket for a tour of the KOVAL distillery with my son. We went on a Sunday afternoon in January.
As far as distilleries go, Chicago has lacked them since prohibition. KOVAL claims to have started the return of the Chicago distillery and several others have followed. They have this location, where they do make some spirits, store barrels as they age, and have a liquor store/​gift shop.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the distilling processes and their products. During the tour, he explains the mechanics of the distillation process. All throughout, you sample a variety of items including whiskeys made with several different grains, rye, bourbon, vodka and gin, as well as a few liqueurs.
I have to say, I did enjoy the tasting immensely. When done, if there was anything they didn’t have for sampling in the tour, they would pour for you. We walked out of there with a T-​Shirt, a bottle of Bourbon and a bottle of Vodka.
This was a great experience, and one I would really recommend that people try. If you are a drinker, at least occasionally, or have ever wondered how spirits are made, they do an amazing job of showing you and keeping you entertained at the same time.
If you do go, plan to eat afterwards. They serve you the samples in a shot glass and only fill it a little but, but you probably go through at least 10 of these throughout the one hours tour. Before you hop into a car, it’s a good idea to let the alcohol work through your system.

I love that this distillery is off the beaten pack and in a semi industrial corridor. It also helps that their products are all high quality and unique. While you can get their liqueur in many shops around here, I find that this small store usually has more of a selection.
Do their distillery tour (You can usually get a deal on the many deal sites out there). You will learn a lot and have a good time. Just keep in mind that this location is more of a storefront and storage instead of the actual production facility. They moved to a bigger space and only distill clear alcohol here now. You get to try most of their stuff during the tour and they are gracious enough to let you sample more after the tour. Plus you get a discount after your tour on anything they sell.
I’m a big fan of their product and how they conduct their business. And its very local — it started here before the boom in craft whiskey and still makes a quality product.

It’s cool that there’s a distillery in Chicago again, they had to get some laws changed that had been in place since prohibition. They stick to local Midwestern ingredients as much as possible, althogyh some things like coffee just don’t grow in the Midwest. Their stuff isn’t cheap, but it’s not ridiculous for nice smallbatch drinks. Their tours, when you can get one, are really good. It’s not fluff information, and we learned about the machines and the process and what double-​distilled, etc., means. We smelled heads vs. hearts vs. tails. They make drinks from a few different types of grains, including spelt. Their liqueurs are very tasty, especially the coffee. The building where they do sales and tours is very small, with some storage, but they do most of the work in a building down the street. Oh, and everything they make is kosher, so that’s kind of neat. It’s nice to support a real local business, which this is. They have a little parking area, and there’s plenty of free street parking.

The KOVAL tour in a nutshell: $ 10 per person, ~20 spots per session, and it lasts ~45 minutes.
Mallory was our tour guide. She did a good job with her speech and answering questions, however her presentation manner was somewhat disinterested and unenthusiastic. Late-​comers were allowed to join the group (Mallory clearly found it annoying to answer the door to get these people), but none of the tour was made up for their sake.
During the tour, we tasted 4 whiskeys and 2 liqueurs, each of which we received a very small sample (on the order of a few milliliters). Products not shown during the tour were not available to sample afterward. There was no pressure to purchase KOVAL’s products.
The samples were integrated into the tour fluidly; I especially liked the head/​heart/​tail samples. As a chemist, I can say that the scientific details were presented well enough for a lay person. Since I have some deeper knowledge, I can say that some parts of the tour weren’t quite true if taken at face value. Compared to the tour of FEW in Evanston, KOVAL’s tour was much more polished and catered to a general audience. FEW’s tour was given by the distillers themselves (it was unclear if our tour guide was involved in the production of KOVAL’s products) and tended to be more technical and detailed.
TL;DR? If you’re new to the concepts of distilling and want an overview, go on KOVAL’s tour. If you’re more experienced and want more details, go on FEW’s tour.

I would not recommend touring Koval at all. I have been on many distillery tours. We paid $ 30 per person to tour the Distillery. If i could rate my experience on the product itself, it would be a 5 star review. All I felt was gauged by the experience. The facility is very clean and is well set for a large group tour. When we arrived we were greeted at the check out stand by a lovely girl. I cannot remember her name. She was it, There were multiple people already waiting for the tour to commence. I had inquired about the Bourbon and was informed there was only one bottle left. I quickly secured the bottle and paid $ 52.99. Lovely girl started the tour and we all shuffled into the room closer to the equipment where she could explain how it all works. This was fine and good but her delivery came across as a little bored and rote… No humor at all. there were multiple samples of all the product but not the bourbon. All samples were two sips at the most.
I have since discovered that I can buy the very same bottle of bourbon at Binnys for $ 49.99 and at Mariano’s for $ 44.99.
Lesson learned. Do your research before hand. Do not buy bourbon at the distillery unless they do something personal like engraving or numbered or signed by the master distiller.
No tasting glass or souvenir provided for the $ 60 we gave this business.

Koval makes some darn good liquor and everything is organic which is fabulous. That being said, the tour is A-​OK but not something I’d really recommend to others. It’s interesting if you’re really into hard liquor and distilling but if you’re not so much (like moi), you may not be overly interested.
KOVAL has some parking right outside the distillery so that part of things is nice. My tour had about 30 people on it and with just one person working (reception /​tour guide /​I’m sure many other duties), when people came late, it meant she kept having to stop to let them in & check them in. The tour itself is quite informative, prob just 30 – 45 minutes long. I’ve been on a couple of distillery tours before and still picked up some new information.
Throughout the tour, you get samples of each liquor available. The sample, mind you, is a quick pour, each pour equal to just about ¹⁄₈ of a shot. So when all is said and done, you’ve maybe had what equates to one shot though I think it’s even less than that. One reviewer said they got as many samples as they liked at the end, not the case for our group.
I loved the dessert liquors we sampled — orange blossom & rose hip — yum, yum, yum!
Good liquor, not so good tour, stick to buying their boos to go.

Very cool local distillery. I took a tour with some friends and we highly enjoyed it. The tour is in their smaller «touring» distillery, complete with copper distiller and oak barrels.
I’m a big fan of their dessert liquors, not so much the whiskeys (though didn’t get a chance to try the bourbon whiskey which is more my taste). The Rose Hips liquor is excellent. The tour guide seemed a little tired, but I had plenty of tastes. Plus, Hopleaf is blocks away for afterwards!

The Tour is about education, information and understanding the legacy of Koval.
I am a fan of Koval due to its commitment to community, cooperative betterment for all and quality (organic, kosher, gluten-​free) ingredients.
The Tour makes you appreciate Whiskey, Bourbon and Liquor.
An excellent strategic tasting of 8 products, totaling 1 oz. So, you don’t come here to get drunk! *wink* But, a wonderful break-​the-​ice conversation on a first date that leaves good lasting memory.
Seats requested due to 1 hr lecture type tour. The mock-​up distillery doesn’t have the wow effect of a working/​operating distillery.

What a cool local business! Founded by a couple of ex-​academics in 2008, Koval makes organic, kosher whiskey from locally sourced grain in small batches.
The tour/​tasting at their first distillery on Ravenswood is awesome! It’d be a fun date or a cool outing for a group of friends. You get a tour of the facility, learn about how whiskey is distilled, barreled, aged and bottled, and taste lots of their delicious products. So fun.
A+

We came for a tour on Wednesday at 7. Our tour guide, Karen, was very good. She made it interesting and she was very knowledgeable. The tour lasted about 40 minutes, and there were 6 of us there. One couple showed up just a few minutes late, and the tour guide was annoyed and they missed out on 3 tastings. So try to be early! Plus, if you are early, you can park right out in front.
In total, we tried 2 white whiskeys, 2 aged whiskeys, 1 Brandy, 1 Bourbon, and 3 infused liqueurs. With everything combined, we probably had about 2 shots. Overall, the tour was very informative! I would recommend wearing comfortable shoes though, as you will be standing the entire time!
They also sell teeshirts, and of course, all their alcoholic drinks. They also sell whiskey soy candles!