Oola…la. Another Craft Distillery Coming to Capitol Hill
The Oola Industries tasting room will be “right near Pike/Pine corridor,” says distiller.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 30, 2010 at 02:59PM
5 Comments
Following in the gin-drenched footsteps of Sun Liquor’s Michael Kleeback, Kirby Kallas-Lewis plans to open a Capitol Hill tasting room for his distillery—Oola—within 60 days. And he hopes to have a vodka and a gin listed in Washington State liquor stores by Christmas (provided there are still WS liquor stores in which to list them).
Yes, all you people who care about such things, he makes his own mash. And not just for the aged spirits. “Even with vodka, there’s a lot that happens in fermentation that affects the product,” says Kallas-Lewis. Amen to that, Kirby.
Future plans include a pisco-style brandy made with wine from Eastern Washington (Kallas-Lewis has a yet-to-open boutique hotel in Waitsburg, Washington). The wine he’ll use in the brandy was originally slated for bottling but got repurposed as bulk thanks to the sad economy. Sad economy=good wine for pisco. He also plans to roll out an Irish-style whiskey.
Kallas-Lewis learned the distilling dark arts at the Dry Fly apprentice program in Spokane, and at workshops around the country.
I will update you on the exact address of the tasting room as soon as I get the go-ahead.
Tags: Capitol Hill, Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Pisco, Microdistilleries, Tasting Rooms
Irish whiskey comes from Ireland.
That’s true. It should say Irish-style whiskey. I’m going to change.
I am suprised that Kallas-Lewis took the Dry Fly apprentice program, since in a previous article posted here he bashed on their packaging…even though it won an ADDY for best packaging. Sounds off to me.
This is my mistake. I misread the article thinking it was the man from Sun Liquor you were writing about. He is the one that bashed Dry Fly.
So exciting! Just a correction: this distillery will be on the Central District area (south of madison with east of 12th is part of the CD).