Hilton Head Distillery-Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
The dream for every beach week is for every day to be all sunshine and perfect weather, but let’s face it, that is not always the case. During our annual Hilton Head Island trip in the summer of 2024 we found ourselves trying to find an indoor activity on a rainy day and decided to take a guided tour of the Hilton Head Distillery. Read on to find out about how we booked our tour, what the experience was Iike, and to decide if this is something you and your family should check out during your next visit to the island.
Booking The Tour
Serving board inside the tasting room.
Typically when looking to book a tour I use my trusty Viator app or a local guidebook to see what is going on in the area. This time I used a good old fashioned google search of “things to do on Hilton Head Island when it’s raining” and stumbled upon the Hilton Head Island Distillery.
You can book a tour or cocktail class directly on their website (link below) and that is exactly what we did.
We booked our tour three days in advance. They offer 4 tours a day starting at 12:00pm, 1:30pm, 3:00pm, and 4:30pm. We chose the 3:00 pm.
Souvenir (free) fans that were available for guests taking the tour. There were also bracelets in the basket.
The bracelets that were also a free take home goodie. They let the folks over at the tasting room know that you were a part of the tour.
Logistics
The distillery is located at: 14 Cardinal Road
Hilton Head Island, SC 29926Contact information for the distillery: (843) 686-4443 • info@hiltonheaddistillery.com • hiltonheaddistillery.com
The tour lasts an hour.
$39.95 per person. (Was $35 when we booked plus taxes and fees.)
Must be 21 years or older to attend the tour.
Arrive 15 minutes in advance to sign in.
As you will be entering a full-functioning distillery, please wear closed-toe shoes. It’s a must for the tour since your safety is our top priority. (You can bring a change of shoes with you for after the tour if you have other plans).
Don’t forget your ID.
There is a restroom on site in the distillery building and in the building with the gift shop and bar.
Tour groups must stay together at all times.
All guests are required to stay within the yellow safety lines while touring.
There is no touching of the equipment.
Masks are not required.
For Cancellations:
Less than 24 hours: No date changes or refunds.
Earlier than 48 hours before availability start time full refund for cancellations.
Customers will also receive a full refund or credit in case of operator cancellation due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances.
No-shows will be charged the full price.
The Tour
Enjoying the tour.
As directed, we arrived about 15 minutes ahead of our scheduled tour time. There was plenty of parking and signs indicating where to go for the tour. There is a building on the main road that is their gift shop and main bar and tasting room, and the tour and distillery is the building in the back.
The waiting area. You can see the distillery through the windows and where the tasting takes place after the tour.
We waited here in the lounge area for the rest of the participants to check in and for the tour to begin. The prior tour was ending and the guide was cleaning and resetting for us. There is a restroom inside as well as in the main building. There is also air conditioning which was a big bonus especially during this humid summer day. They also offered branded umbrellas for guests to borrow in case it’s raining and you need to go to tasting room.
We actually started the tour in here. You can see the distillery through the glass panels and the bar and tables were set up for a tasting that we took part in after the tour. Our guide gave us an overview of what the hour would look like. Off the bat was asked who the distributor was and didn’t know. It says in the confirmation email no open toed shoes and one woman had on flip flops.
Inside the distillery.
As we started walking through the distillery, we were instructed not to touch anything for sanitary purposes and to watch our step. Our guide gave us a history of the distillery and he walked us through the process of how they make rum as we walked by each piece of machinery so that we could understand step by step what each machine was for.
Some of the ingredients used during the process.
The distillery actually started in Greenville SC in 2011. They specialized in bourbon, whiskey, and moonshine. The owner used to vacation on the island and started a rum distillery. They currently make gin, bourbon, vodka, and rum. They made hand sanitizer during the pandemic for hospitals and restaurants.
Rum has the least amount of rules when it comes to production. Traditional Caribbean style rum has molasses and they use molasses in their product.
They get blackstrap molasses from Louisiana and they make their own caramel and simple syrup.
A big old barrel of rum!
After going through the whole process, they end up with about 150 sellable gallons after starting with 2300 gallons.
Our guide also let us look at and smell the product during different phases of production.
The rum during different phases of the process.
The Tasting
After we finished up in the distillery, we went back into the origional room to begin the tasting. It was already all set up with place settings for everyone.
The table set up.
At each place setting there was water for cleaning your pallet (and for cleaning out your souvenir shot glass), crackers (also for cleaning your pallet), a list of what we would be trying and a description of each liquor, as well as a dump pail.
The numbers are the order in which we tasted the shots.
Our guide came around and filled each person’s shot glass with a shot of the liquor we were going to taste while telling us about the alcohol and a little about how it was made, or a reminder if it was something we learned about during the tour.
Loving our shot glasses-which we all got to take home as part of the price of the tour!
The first two that we tried had no sugars in them at all. The flavors were all from the barrels!
The third one was 100 proof. WHEW. The guide suggested adding Dr. Pepper to it or sipping on it. It was REALLY strong but also syrupy tasting.
Bottoms up!
The 4th one tasted like Christmas!! The 5th one makes great pina coladas. They put it over toasted coconut for 24 hours.
The bar setup in the tour area.
The 6th and final liquor we tasted was the sweetest one and their best seller. The guide suggested putting it in coffee or even it a root beer float.
This officially ended the tour. Our guide let us know that we could walk over to the tasting room and gift shop and that we would be welcome to taste more of their alcohol (free of charge except for a few special blends) or get a cocktail if we wanted to continue the fun. We dropped off a tip for him and moseyed on over to the tasting room building.
The Tasting Room/Gift Shop
The front entrance display of the gift shop.
The tasting room and gift shop is open Monday-Saturday from 12pm-6:30pm. Most of the bottles available for purchase are $36.95 (750ml) and they offer a buy 5 get the 6th for free. They also have apparel, glasses, hats, flasks, coasters, magnets, all kinds of things to take home and enjoy. Because we were on the tour, we got a special promotion of $5 off our first bottle, and if we bought two bottles, we would get 50% off the third bottle.
Matt and I were actually attending a birthday party later on during the week, so we purchased the most popular bottle and used our shot glasses to complete the gift.
The bar at the tasting room.
During the tour the guide told us about a few additional rums that the distillery produces while he was hosting our tasting. We were curious, so we decided to give those a try as well.
Tasting over in the official tasting room.
They gave us a little plastic shot glass to use as well as a menu of all the types of rum they had to offer. We got to choose the ones we wanted to try, and the bartenders went around offering samples to the patrons around the bar. Some ordered cocktails, and others left after getting their fill of the samples. Separate from the tour that we took, the tasting room offers a $15 tasting experience. I included some photos of the tasting room and menu below. They have a seasonal cocktail menu on their website (link provided above). They also have some fun cocktail recipes on their website.
In Conclusion
While it was interesting to see “behind the scenes” if you are not really interested in the “making of” stuff-the actual tour of the distillery may not be for you. It was intriguing enough, but the best part was definitely the tasting! Make sure you have eaten in advance, and we brought an extra bottle of water so we could ensure we stayed hydrated. If you really plan to partake and go over to the main tasting room, I would make sure to order an Uber or Lyft or designate a driver. Have a great time and stay safe!
