San Antonio held its annual cocktail conference (SACC) over the weekend at St. Anthony's Hotel, bringing together people from all walks of life to enjoy creative and great tasting cocktails.

The event started on the 14th of January and lasted until the 20th, but over the weekend is where the fun and tasting of delicious cocktails was more present. As soon as you entered the tasting suites, you can feel the energy of vendors showcasing their most prized drinks and educating enthusiastic tasters on how they're prepared and what their drinks are all about.

Jerome fromDrumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gineagerly displayed his unique cocktail with an interesting backstory. The name Drumshanbo, Jerome says, comes from a small town northwest of Dublin, Ireland where the distillery was first created.

Perhaps the more intriguing, is the use of the name, "Gunpowder, it's a common nickname in England and Ireland... for Chinese green tea. It's the second largest ingredient in the process of making gin. Right up there with juniper berries and coriander."

Jerome explains the distillery launched Drumshanbow a year ago at SACC, making its debut in the United States.

"Now, it's in every bar in east Austin... and it's starting to take off here in Southtown, San Antonio."

One of the more local San Antonio distilleries,Dorcol celebrated their fifth year with SACC. The distillery showcased its inaugural spirit, an apricot brandy. Mirko Kalusevic, a partner, co-owner and shareholder of the distillery mentioned that while the headquarters are located in San Antonio, the spirit originated in Serbia.

"When we were kiddos, my brother and I would always talk about doing something out of our family tradition (our grandpa used to distill back in Croatia.) A couple years back, we got some investors together. The founders, Chris and Boyne (Kalusevic's brother) met in college along the way and we decided to start making some brandy."

Kalusevic mentioned that Dorcol is expanding their distillery by making beers and other liquors.

"We started making some beers a couple years back," explained Kalusevic. "We picked up a brew-master named Randy Ward, and he's been rocking it. We have about eight different beers on tap right now. So we're looking to expand as much as possible. We also have some whiskey aging and some grape aging. So hopefully we'll be making some brandy and whiskey in the future as well."

Aside from the fun from drinking, vendors agreed that the SACC is also a time for learning. And one of the most intriguing lessons came from Fawn Weaver, founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest 1856.

"The inspiration for the drink overall comes from Nathan "Nearest" Green. Those in Lynchburg, Tennessee referred to him by Uncle Nearest...1856 is the year. We believe he perfected Tennessee whiskey as we know it today."

Weaver explains that Uncle Nearest wasan ex-slave, who trained the founder ofone of the most recognizable Tennessee whiskey brands.

"The only difference truly between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey is a process called 'the Lincoln county process' ...a filtering of traditional bourbon through sugar maple charcoal. That is the process that Uncle Nearest did and that he also taught to Jack Daniels, which would be the most famous Tennessee whiskey maker that we know of today."

Weaver explains the story is not your traditional narrative, "The story of their relationship wasn't about a slave who had been dishonored, or a slave whose invention had been taken... It was very much so, an honorable relationship. Nearest not being known was not because of Jack Daniels. Daniels made it clear who was making his whiskey. Nearest' name was lost later long after Daniels was gone."

Weaver says while she is not related to Uncle Nearest, she is responsible for giving agency to his legacy, with respect to Jack Daniels.

"We learned the foundation of this story in June 2016... and we began to build on that and launched in July 2017. It was a very fast turnaround, but a part of that was, we weren't sure how Brown-Forman , (owner of Jack Daniels) would respond. We had to make sure that if we were going to launch a whiskey, we would have to do it quickly. And thankfully, once they learned of the research and the brand, they were supportive."

Indeed, support and camaraderie, seemed to be the watchword of San Antonio's Cocktail Conference. It was a time for people to connect with local distilleries and try new things.