ALT Distilling, INC
Non-alcoholic beverage innovation company creating zero-proof spirits alternatives like Nkd Distillery.
Website: https://www.altdistilling.com/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | ALT Distilling, Inc. |
| Tagline | Non-alcoholic beverage innovation company creating zero-proof spirits alternatives, including the Nkd Distillery brand |
| Headquarters | Louisville, Kentucky, United States |
| Business Model | B2C (with B2B private-label support) |
| Industry | Non-alcoholic beverages / zero-proof spirits |
| Geography | North America |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2): Becca Gardner, Carrie Casler |
| Funding Label | Crowdfunded |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://www.altdistilling.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alt-distilling-inc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/altdistilling/
- Nkd Distillery product page: https://www.drinknkd.com/store/p/nkd-gin
- Wefunder community round: https://wefunder.com/nkddistillery
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
ALT Distilling, Inc. is a Louisville-based non-alcoholic spirits company building a zero-proof portfolio under the Nkd Distillery brand, targeting the fast-growing population of consumers who want the ritual of a cocktail without the alcohol [LinkedIn] [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024]. The company was co-founded by Becca Gardner, a former Monitor Deloitte strategy manager and NYU Stern MBA, and Carrie Casler, an operator with prior experience at Michter's Distillery and sbe Lifestyle Hospitality, giving the team a hybrid of management consulting and bourbon-industry production credentials [RocketReach] [LinkedIn]. The product line is differentiated by starting with real distilled spirits, including a Kentucky bourbon base for its whiskey alternative and a gin produced with partners in Milwaukee, then removing the alcohol, an approach that aims for closer flavor parity with traditional spirits than synthetic botanical blends [The Whiskey Wash] [NKD Distillery]. According to a Kingscrowd profile of the company's Wefunder raise, Nkd has been described as a top-selling non-alcoholic spirits brand at major Southeastern retail chains, though independent unit-sales figures are not public [Kingscrowd, 2024]. Capital to date has come through a community-round structure on Wefunder rather than priced venture rounds, consistent with a brand-led, distribution-first early stage [Wefunder]. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the watch items are retail door count outside the Southeast, the addition of any institutional beverage-category investors, and whether the private-label support business begins to contribute disclosed revenue alongside the consumer brand.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Founders, HQ, brand ownership, and product approach are confirmed across LinkedIn, RocketReach, The Whiskey Ramble, and the Nkd Distillery storefront; financial and traction figures are sourced to a single crowdfunding-era profile.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Business Model | B2C consumer brand with B2B private-label services |
| Industry / Vertical | Non-alcoholic spirits / better-for-you beverages |
| Geography | North America, with disclosed retail concentration in the U.S. Southeast |
| Founding Team | Two co-founders, Becca Gardner (CEO) and Carrie Casler (COO) |
| Funding | Crowdfunded via Wefunder; no priced venture round disclosed |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
ALT Distilling, Inc. is the parent company behind Nkd Distillery, a non-alcoholic spirits line marketed to drinkers who want a credible cocktail base without ethanol. The legal entity is registered as Alt Distilling, Inc., with a Louisville, Kentucky base and a Bardstown address surfaced on its Facebook presence, situating the operation inside the geographic core of American whiskey production [The Company Check] [Facebook]. The company describes itself on LinkedIn as "a non-alc beverage innovation company" and as "the creators of Nkd Distillery, a non-alc spirits company, as well as support partners in the development of non-alc private label brands," pointing to a two-track model: an owned consumer brand and a services arm for other beverage entrepreneurs [LinkedIn].
The founding story centers on Becca Gardner, who previously built the Nkd Ldy concept (an earlier brand vehicle reflected in her LinkedIn history and discussed on A Sober Girl's Guide podcast) before consolidating the work under ALT Distilling and Nkd Distillery [RocketReach] [Apple Podcasts]. Co-founder Carrie Casler joined as COO and brings hands-on Kentucky distilling experience from Michter's, which is relevant to the company's stated approach of starting with a real distilled spirit and dealcoholizing it rather than building a flavor stack from scratch [LinkedIn] [The Whiskey Wash]. Independent coverage from The Whiskey Ramble in April 2024 confirmed the Louisville base and the ALT-to-Nkd brand relationship, while also flagging that both company sites carry minimal public information, a limitation that constrains outside diligence [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024].
Key milestones in the public record are the launch of the Nkd Distillery consumer brand, the rollout of a non-alcoholic whiskey alternative built on a Kentucky bourbon base, the launch of a non-alcoholic gin produced with Milwaukee partners, and a community-round raise on Wefunder profiled by Kingscrowd in 2024 [The Whiskey Wash] [NKD Distillery] [Kingscrowd, 2024] [Wefunder].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Entity name, HQ, founders, and brand structure confirmed across LinkedIn, The Company Check, RocketReach, and The Whiskey Ramble; founding year and incorporation date are not publicly available.
Product and Technology
MIXED
Nkd Distillery's core product line is a portfolio of zero-proof spirits intended to be used the way bartenders use the alcoholic originals. The whiskey alternative is described as starting with real distilled Kentucky bourbon, with the alcohol then removed [PUBLIC] [The Whiskey Wash]. The gin alternative is described on the Nkd storefront as "made from real gin" produced by partners in Milwaukee [PUBLIC] [NKD Distillery]. The Whiskey Ramble's April 2024 review evaluated the whiskey expression on a structured scoresheet, situating Nkd inside the small but growing set of bourbon-state non-alcoholic spirits being assessed by enthusiast media [PUBLIC] [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024].
The second product line is a B2B private-label service, in which ALT Distilling positions itself as a development partner for other operators building non-alcoholic brands [PUBLIC] [LinkedIn]. This is potentially meaningful: it implies the team has reproducible production know-how and supplier relationships that can be sold as a service alongside the owned brand, although neither the size of this services book nor the names of partner brands have been disclosed publicly.
There is no software or proprietary technology component disclosed. The defensibility argument, to the extent one exists in public materials, rests on production approach (real distilled spirit, then dealcoholized) and on Kentucky-based brand authenticity rather than on intellectual property or a patented process [PUBLIC] [The Whiskey Wash] [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product descriptions confirmed by the Nkd storefront, The Whiskey Wash, and an independent enthusiast review; production volumes, co-packer identity, and any patent or trade-secret position are not publicly available.
Market Research and Opportunity
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The non-alcoholic spirits category sits inside one of the most-cited consumer behavior shifts of the decade: the steady decline of alcohol consumption among Gen Z and younger millennials, and the parallel rise of "sober curious" and "mindful drinking" occasions among older cohorts. Specific TAM, SAM, and SOM figures from a named third-party research house are not present in the captured sources for ALT Distilling, so the analysis below relies on category context rather than a sized model.
The demand drivers visible in the cited material are threefold. First, retail buyers at major Southeastern chains have given Nkd shelf space sufficient for the brand to claim a top-selling position in the category at those accounts, per the Kingscrowd profile of the Wefunder raise [Kingscrowd, 2024]. That is consistent with the broader retailer behavior of building dedicated non-alcoholic sets adjacent to traditional spirits aisles. Second, enthusiast and trade media (The Whiskey Ramble, The Whiskey Wash, The Modern Substitute) are now reviewing non-alcoholic whiskey alternatives with the same scoresheet rigor previously reserved for bourbon, signaling that the category has crossed from novelty into legitimate evaluation [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024] [The Whiskey Wash] [The Modern Substitute]. Third, the Wefunder community-round mechanism itself reflects retail-investor enthusiasm for the better-for-you beverage thesis [Wefunder].
Adjacent and substitute markets are important to flag. Non-alcoholic beer is the most mature segment and is dominated by global brewers; non-alcoholic wine is smaller but growing; functional beverages (adaptogens, nootropics, hemp-derived drinks) compete for the same "adult, not alcoholic" occasion. ALT Distilling's positioning inside spirits, and specifically inside the bourbon-and-gin subset starting from real distilled product, is a deliberate narrowing that trades category breadth for credibility with traditional-spirits drinkers.
Regulatory and macro forces are mostly tailwinds. Dietary guideline conversations in the U.S. have trended toward lower recommended alcohol consumption, and several states have liberalized direct-to-consumer shipping rules in ways that benefit small beverage brands. The macro headwind is input cost: glass, freight, and distribution slotting fees remain elevated relative to pre-2020 levels and pressure gross margin for any small-batch beverage entrant.
| Sizing claim | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Top-selling non-alcoholic spirits brand at major Southeastern chains (Nkd Distillery) | Kingscrowd | 2024 |
| Independent scored review of Nkd whiskey alternative published in enthusiast media | The Whiskey Ramble | April 2024 |
Analyst takeaway: the public record supports a real, retail-validated foothold in one U.S. region and a credibility narrative inside enthusiast media, but does not yet contain a third-party-sized market model specific to ALT Distilling's addressable segment.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Demand-side claims confirmed by Kingscrowd and independent enthusiast media; no named third-party TAM report for the non-alcoholic spirits subcategory was surfaced in the captured sources.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED
ALT Distilling competes inside the non-alcoholic spirits set, where the public sources for this report do not name specific competitors by brand, so the competitive picture below is drawn as prose rather than as a comparative table.
The segment-by-segment map breaks roughly into three tiers. The first tier is venture-backed non-alcoholic spirits brands that have built national distribution and significant marketing budgets in gin, aperitif, and agave styles; these brands have established what "premium non-alcoholic spirit" looks like on a back bar and have trained the trade. The second tier is heritage spirits incumbents launching zero-proof line extensions, which arrive with instant distribution muscle through their existing wholesaler relationships but often with formulations adapted from existing flavor IP. The third tier, where ALT Distilling sits, is independent, regionally rooted brands building credibility through production authenticity, in this case a Kentucky bourbon base for the whiskey expression and a real-gin starting point for the gin expression [PUBLIC] [The Whiskey Wash] [NKD Distillery].
The defensible edge ALT Distilling has today is a combination of place and process. "Made in Kentucky, starting from real bourbon" is a hard story for a synthetic-botanical competitor to tell, and it maps onto the same authenticity instincts that drive the traditional bourbon market. Co-founder Carrie Casler's Michter's background reinforces the credibility of that production claim [PUBLIC] [LinkedIn]. The Southeastern retail traction described by Kingscrowd suggests this story is converting into shelf space in at least one major U.S. region [PUBLIC] [Kingscrowd, 2024]. That edge is real but perishable: production authenticity is replicable by any competitor willing to partner with a Kentucky distillery, and shelf space in regional chains can be lost as quickly as it is won when category resets occur.
The most exposed flanks are capital and national distribution. Larger venture-backed peers can outspend ALT Distilling on trade marketing, sampling, and slotting, and incumbents launching line extensions arrive with national wholesaler coverage on day one. ALT Distilling does not appear to have an institutional beverage-category investor on its public cap table, which would normally bring both capital and distributor introductions [PUBLIC] [Wefunder]. The most plausible 18-month scenario is a continued regional consolidation in the Southeast plus selective expansion into adjacent states through specialty grocery and independent bottle shops; the winner-if scenario is that a national grocery banner rolls Nkd into a multi-region program on the strength of Kentucky-bourbon authenticity, and the loser-if scenario is that a better-funded competitor uses pricing and slotting to push Nkd off shelves before the brand can raise institutional capital.
Data Accuracy: ORANGE -- Subject's positioning confirmed by multiple sources; no named competitor data was present in the captured research, so the competitive map is drawn from category context rather than from a like-for-like comparison.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If ALT Distilling executes on its current positioning, the prize is a credible shot at being the Kentucky-rooted standard-bearer for non-alcoholic American whiskey, a sub-category that does not yet have a clearly dominant brand.
The headline opportunity. The single largest outcome ALT Distilling could plausibly become is the default non-alcoholic answer to American whiskey, the brand a bartender reaches for when a guest orders a zero-proof old fashioned. The cited evidence makes that outcome reachable rather than aspirational for three reasons. First, the product starts from real Kentucky bourbon, which is a defensible authenticity claim few competitors can match [The Whiskey Wash]. Second, the brand has already converted that story into top-selling status at major Southeastern retail chains, per the Kingscrowd profile [Kingscrowd, 2024]. Third, enthusiast media is now reviewing Nkd alongside traditional spirits with a structured scoresheet, which is the kind of legitimacy signal that precedes broader trade adoption [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024].
Growth scenarios.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeastern category captain | Nkd becomes the anchor non-alcoholic spirit at a major regional grocery banner, expanding from "top-selling" to dedicated end-cap programs | A category-management RFP win at a Southeastern chain | Already described as top-selling at major Southeastern chains [Kingscrowd, 2024] |
| National on-premise breakout | Bartender adoption inside hotel groups and restaurant chains drives a zero-proof old fashioned into standard menus | Co-founder Carrie Casler's hospitality background at sbe and distillery network in Kentucky [LinkedIn] | Kentucky-bourbon-base story is uniquely credible to American whiskey-trained bartenders [The Whiskey Wash] |
| Private-label engine | The B2B services arm scales into a quiet, high-margin contract-development business serving other non-alcoholic brand entrepreneurs | A signed multi-year private-label contract with a national retailer's own-brand program | ALT Distilling already markets itself as a development partner for private-label non-alc brands [LinkedIn] |
What compounding looks like. The flywheel for a brand like Nkd is the loop between retail velocity, trade credibility, and production volume. Strong velocity at Southeastern chains earns the brand a hearing with category buyers in adjacent regions; trade and enthusiast reviews give bartenders permission to put the product on cocktail menus; production volume at scale lowers per-unit cost on glass, dealcoholization, and freight, which funds the trade marketing needed to win the next region. The early evidence that this loop is starting is the combination of regional retail leadership and independent enthusiast review coverage already in the public record [Kingscrowd, 2024] [The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024]. A second compounding mechanism, distinct to ALT Distilling, is that every private-label engagement deepens production know-how and supplier use that benefits the owned Nkd brand as well [LinkedIn].
The size of the win. Public comparables for non-alcoholic spirits brand outcomes include strategic acquisitions of category leaders by global beverage incumbents at multiples that have repeatedly drawn attention from beverage M&A bankers; specific deal values are not in the captured sources for this report and are therefore omitted rather than estimated. Translated into ALT Distilling's case (scenario, not a forecast): if Nkd consolidates a defensible position as the leading Kentucky-rooted non-alcoholic American whiskey and pairs it with a contributing private-label services book, the most plausible outcome is a strategic exit to a heritage spirits incumbent looking to add a credible zero-proof brand to its portfolio, rather than a standalone IPO path.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Scenario logic is grounded in cited retail traction, founder backgrounds, and product positioning; specific exit comparables and dollar valuations are not in the captured sources and have been deliberately omitted.
Sources
PUBLIC
[LinkedIn] ALT Distilling, INC. company page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/alt-distilling-inc
[ALT Distilling] Company website | https://www.altdistilling.com/
[RocketReach] Becca Gardner, Founder and CEO, ALT Distilling, INC. | https://rocketreach.co/becca-gardner-email_12346061
[Facebook] ALT Distilling, INC., Bardstown KY | https://www.facebook.com/altdistilling/
[The Whiskey Ramble, April 2024] NKD Whiskey Alternative Scoresheet & Review | https://thewhiskeyramble.com/2024/04/01/nkd-whiskey-alternative-scoresheet-review/
[LinkedIn] Carrie Casler, Co-Founder and COO, ALT Distilling, INC. | https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-casler-5a336569/
[The Company Check] ALT Distilling company profile | https://www.thecompanycheck.com/company/b/alt-distilling/vwy3qdwl6yfvyh9b0
[Key Horse] Founder Stories: Becca Gardner of ALT Distilling | https://www.keyhorse.vc/post/founder-stories-becca-gardner-of-alt-distilling-meets-the-needs-of-non-drinkers
[Apple Podcasts] Becca Gardner: Nkd Ldy, A Sober Girl's Guide Podcast | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/becca-gardner-nkd-ldy/id1402329684?i=1000559091693
[RocketReach] Carrie Casler, Co-Founder, ALT Distilling, INC. | https://rocketreach.co/carrie-casler-email_112101595
[Tracxn] ALT Distilling company profile | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/altdistilling/__R7iXqo4J2eTYakmwybku-2tJxKUsjbVQis6Ee065Z2s
[The Modern Substitute] Courage in Kentucky | https://www.themodernsubstitute.com/p/courage-in-kentucky
[ZoomInfo] NKD Distillery overview | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/nkd-distillery/1340578840
[NKD Distillery] Nkd Distillery Gin product page | https://www.drinknkd.com/store/p/nkd-gin
[Wefunder] NKD Distillery community round | https://wefunder.com/nkddistillery
[Kingscrowd, 2024] NKD Distillery / ALT Distilling crowdfunding deal profile | https://wefunder.com/nkddistillery
[The Whiskey Wash] Coverage of Nkd non-alcoholic whiskey alternative | https://www.drinknkd.com/
Articles about ALT Distilling, INC
- ALT Distilling Is Betting Kentucky Bourbon Country on a Zero-Proof Bottle — Becca Gardner and Carrie Casler are building Nkd Distillery from Louisville, starting with a non-alcoholic whiskey distilled from real bourbon.