BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 12, 2020
The juniper trees that grow on the 160-acre Hermon farm that’s been in Matthew Murphy’s wife’s family for six generations are among the few stands of wild juniper in Maine. Those trees are one of the reasons why Murphy, his father, and a business partner decided that they not only wanted to start a distillery, but that their main product would be gin flavored with their Maine-grown wild juniper berries. Nearly five years after the idea for the distillery was conceived, Devil’s Half Acre Distillery’s first product, Jigger & Jones American Gin, hit shelves. “I’ve always had a passion for really good spirits, and I’ve always loved chemistry, and I’m also really into Maine’s farms and Maine-made products, so this hits all of that,” said Murphy.