Silver Brothers Spirits Company sits on a rolling Old Chatham farm where sheep once grazed, Angus cattle once roamed, and now rows of rye sway in the wind waiting to become whiskey. The farm distillery, which opens its tasting room to the public on June 6, represents the latest chapter in a property that has spent more than two centuries in agriculture—but its founders are quick to point out that they didn’t arrive through a traditional distilling path.
“We don’t have a background in distilling,” says cofounder Matthew Greitzer, who spent 25 years in New York City working in marketing technology startups before returning to Columbia County, where he grew up. His wife and cofounder, Kim Driessen-Greitzer, comes from an art and design background and previously ran a stationery company.
What they shared was a fascination with whiskey and a conviction to produce exceptional spirits rooted in place. “The older I got, the more I understood what a unique and beautiful part of the world this was,” Greitzer says. “I really wanted to create something that could be a world-class experience that people could enjoy that would be reflective of the area.”
The couple purchased the 220-acre farm in July 2020 specifically with the distillery project in mind. The property had previously operated as the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company and before that as an Angus cattle farm, but Greitzer saw another possibility hidden in the landscape: whiskey.
That vision centered on terroir, a term more commonly associated with wine. At Silver Brothers, terroir means trying to capture the flavor of Columbia County itself—from the grains grown in surrounding fields to the mineral-heavy water drawn from an aquifer beneath limestone and shale bedrock. “If you think of different categories of whiskey—bourbon from Kentucky or single malt from Islay—you get a real sense of place from those spirits,” Greitzer says. “We wanted to create a whiskey with a real sense of place characteristic of Old Chatham.”
Unlike many larger distilleries that source commodity grain or buy whiskey from industrial producers for aging, Silver Brothers controls nearly every stage of production itself. About 70 percent of the grain currently used in production is grown on-site, including rye, barley, and now corn. The distillery focuses primarily on rye whiskey and American single malt, categories Greitzer believes are particularly suited to New York agriculture. “Rye is almost bulletproof in the field,” he says. “It grows exceptionally well in the Hudson River Valley.”
That focus also aligns Silver Brothers with the Empire Rye movement, the state designation created to establish New York rye whiskey as a regional category with standards similar to those governing bourbon or Scotch. The distillery’s first release, a three-year-old Empire Rye whiskey, consists of just 450 bottles.
For Greitzer, the appeal of whiskey lies partly in the sheer number of decisions that shape the finished spirit. Grain variety, fermentation, distillation, barrel selection, and aging conditions all influence the final bottle. That complexity became both obsession and education.
The learning curve was steep. Greitzer started as a hobby winemaker and amateur distiller, then immersed himself in books, conferences, YouTube videos, and distillery tours. He credits local producers like Harvest Spirits, Tenmile Distillery, Hudson Valley Malt, and Klocke Estate with helping him navigate the industry.
Today, the operation remains intentionally small. Silver Brothers employs a head distiller, an assistant distiller, and Greitzer himself, with additional support on the farming side. The long-term production goal is roughly 5,000 cases annually, though the founders emphasize they are in no rush to scale aggressively.
That patience extends to the overall philosophy of the project. While many Hudson Valley distilleries lean heavily into cocktail culture, weddings, and tourism experiences, Silver Brothers positions itself first as a whiskey producer. “We really wanted to focus on making great whiskey,” Greitzer says. “Not necessarily being a restaurant or being a venue or a bar.”
The tasting room opening on June 6 will offer tours and tastings Friday through Sunday, giving visitors a chance to see the farm, the stills, and the fields that feed them. But the deeper ambition reaches beyond hospitality.
Greitzer hopes that years from now, opening a bottle of Silver Brothers will evoke not just whiskey itself, but the landscape that produced it. “We’re really trying to make something that is expressive of the Hudson River Valley,” he says. “That somebody opens a bottle of our whiskey, and it can transport them to this place.”
Silver Brothers Spirits Company is located at 155 Shaker Museum Road in Old Chatham. Tours and tastings Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
