Hollow Spirits Distillery sits in downtown Albuquerque’s First Street corridor, where founders Jason Scott and Mikey Nelson turned their shared obsession with craft cocktails into New Mexico’s first grain-to-glass distillery in 2014. Scott, a former chef, and Nelson, who cut his teeth in the restaurant business, spent two years navigating state regulations to bring small-batch distilling to a state better known for wine and chile. Their 3,000-square-foot facility houses a custom 500-gallon copper still from Vendome Copper & Brass Works, where they produce vodka, gin, and whiskey using New Mexico-grown grains when possible. The operation started with just the two founders doing everything from mashing to bottling, but they’ve since brought on additional staff while keeping production deliberately small. The tasting room occupies the front of the building with exposed brick walls and industrial fixtures, creating a clean, modern space that reflects their cocktail bar backgrounds rather than trying to fake a rustic whiskey heritage. You’re tasting spirits from guys who actually understand how they’ll be used in drinks, not just how they taste neat.
