Covalent Spirits Distillery and Tasting Room of Westminster earned five medals during the American Craft Spirits Association 2025 American Craft Spirits Competition.

Submitting five products for the competition — bourbon whiskey, gin, gin barrel-finished, oolong vodka and a spiced orange old-fashioned ready-to-drink beverage — the distillery earned three bronze medals, three silver medals and one gold medal for its first-anniversary bourbon, according to its website.

The American Craft Spirits Competition awarded entries in seven main categories – brandy, distilled specialty spirits, gin, ready-to-drink, rum, vodka and grain spirits and whiskey, according to ASCA. The Best of Class distinctions, the highest honor in each of the seven judging categories, were awarded to a mix of both established, award-winning distilleries and younger newcomers. The winning distilleries were presented with hand-carved barrel heads courtesy of Thousand Oaks Barrel Co. and all medal recipients received custom medals.

Spirits were judged by a panel of spirits experts within the industry and were scored on appearance, aroma complexity, aroma intensity, body, character and nature of alcohol, finish, palate complexity, palate concentration and texture, according to ASCA.

Covalent Spirits has been serving a variety of spirits including bourbon whiskey, gin, liqueur, rum and vodka to the community for two years, according to the distillery’s website. Owned by husband-and-wife duo Drew Cockley and Jennifer Yang, it is dedicated to bringing distilling back to the community after the closing of the Sherwood Distilling Company in the 1960s.

Yang, who is known as the distillery’s “chief thinker,” dreamed of opening a distillery for more than a decade. After meeting Cockley, she left her fast-paced life in the Washington, D.C. area and moved to rural Westminster where she shares her passion for whiskey with the community.

Yang learned how to make the spirits by drawing on her background in biology and chemistry and helping at other distilleries. Now making spirits with Cockley, their best-selling bottle is their bourbon whiskey, which is her favorite to make and taste. Yang said what makes her distillery special is its experimental flavors and hospitable atmosphere.

“We want to do more experimenting with different flavor profiles, but we’re also offering a place for the community to get together that we don’t really have here in Westminster,” she said.

Yang said the concept for the distillery stemmed from the chemistry concept, “covalent bonds” or bonds made through sharing. She said she wanted to create a place where people could make connections through something shared.

“Bonding through sharing is the covalent spirit and that’s what we’re all about,” she said. “[We’re] not just striving to make good products, but also to create experiences and create a space for people to come together and share and connect and that’s the essence of our company.”

Yang said she is grateful that her distillery was recognized by the American Craft Spirits Association and plans to use the notes she received from the competition to improve her current spirits and create new spirits in the future.

“We’re very young, we don’t have a huge infrastructure behind us and we’re doing this as a side business,” she said. “For us to win awards, it’s neat to see that what we’re doing is on the right track.”

Covalent Spirits Distillery and Tasting Room is at 118 E. Main St. in Westminster and is open Thursdays from 4-8 p.m., Fridays from 4-10 p.m. and Saturdays from noon-10 p.m.

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