ABOUT

Tenth Ward Distilling Company is a woman owned micro-distillery, locally owned by Monica Pearce (the boss lady) and is located in downtown Frederick, Maryland.

Our whiskey and barrel aged brandy bear our unique approach. We pride ourselves on challenging the traditional style of distillation while making a product which flavor profile is influenced by our local ingredients.

We invite any and all to follow our distillery adventures via social media as we work toward carving out our own unbeaten, booze-making path.

THE STATS
Boss Lady Monica
@monquavitae

Height: 5’1″

You Take Your Whiskey?
On the rocks

Favorite Turtle?
Diamondback (Go Terps!)

If You Could Be A Food…
Mac & Cheese

As a nature lover and wildlife enthusiast, our boss lady built her career in the conservation field. Monica has a BS in environmental science and policy from the University of Maryland and her Master’s in natural resource management from Virginia Tech.

Prior to the launch of Tenth Ward, she worked for a few non-profits and even spent a year in the Galapagos volunteering for a biological station. Monica also has racked up over 10 years experience in the service and bar industry prior to and during her conservation work. With inspiration from the growing spirit industry and all that experience under her belt she chose to make the crazy leap into booze manufacturing.

THE STATS
Verbal
#kittysoze

Height: 10″

You Take Your Whiskey?
In a Saucer

Favorite Turtle?
Ninja

If You Could Be A Food…
Cicada Pie

Verbal is Tenth Ward’s first and only employee to date. His previous owners clearly didn’t appreciate his awesomeness because sadly, when they moved they left Verbal outside to roam Bentz Street here in downtown Frederick.

Lucky for Verbal, Tenth Ward scooped him up, adopted him, and now he has the lucky life of a distillery cat.

Cult classic movie lovers out there will recognize Verbal’s namesake, especially when we fondly refer to him as #kittysoze. Verbal’s skill set includes mouse hunting, cicada batting, front door guarding, and all the snuggles.

HISTORY OF THE TENTH WARD

The name “Tenth Ward” is a reference to the way Frederick City was divisioned during the late 19th century. Our location at 508 East Church Street was part of what used to be the Tenth Ward. Drafted at the Frederick Historic Society, the awesome map on the right depicts the boundaries of Frederick’s Tenth Ward in 1873.

For the history buffs and lovers of everything Frederick out there, you might find it interesting to know that the city of Frederick intentionally built this sector on the east side of town to be the primary location for industry. The reason for this is that the wind in Frederick tends to blow east and our thoughtful city founders figured they could spare their growing town from those offensive industrial smells.

SUSTAINABILITY

With a background in sustainable resource management, the Boss Lady here at Tenth Ward is committed to keeping our environmental footprint minimal and sourcing everything as local as possible. Take a look to see where everything in your whiskey is coming from!

Grain– All of our grain is grown, malted and sometimes smoked by our favorite farmer Rusty at Ripon Lodge Farm out of Rippon, WV.

Cider– Proud to say that we ferment and distill our apple brandy (the base for Applejack and our seasonal liqueurs) using cider from our neighbors right down the road in Frederick, MD at McCutcheon’s Apple Products.

Mead– Distilled mead?! Wha?? Yeah it’s pretty awesome and we call it Honeyjack. The mead is sourced from our industry comrades out at Orchid Cellar Meadery and Winery in Middletown, MD.

Honey– We also use honey to sweeten our seasonal liqueurs. Always picked up at Hay’s Apiary in Smithsburg, MD by the boss lady in her Prius.

Bottles– MADE IN AMERICA! And proud of it. The three major bottling manufacturers out there are located in the US, Europe and China. We’re proud to source our bottles from Piramal’s manufacturing plant in Park Hills, MO.

Labels– Printed out of the Niagara region in Akron, NY, all of our labels come from Niagara Labels.

Barrels– Newly cooped barrels are currently sourced from The Barrel Mill our of Avon, MI. Although stay posted because we are waiting for a brand new cooperage to open up right here in Maryland!

Used Barrels– While barrels tend to get passed around in this industry quite alot, most of our used barrels previously had bourbon in them from A. Smith Bowman Distillery out of Fredericksburg, VA.