Sauced

Woodinville Whiskey Co. Releases Its First Rye Whiskey

While the rye will be a distillery mainstay, the first batch is bound to go fast.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Mar 30, 2012 at 10:00AM 3 Comments

The spirit that will be one of the distillery’s main products debuts April 14. Photo via Facebook.

Woodinville Whiskey Co. is about to debut another product that justifies the use of an alarm clock on a Saturday morning. On April 14, owners Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile will release a rye whiskey, being billed as the first rye produced (legally, anyway) in Washington since Prohibition.

The distillery opens at 7am on the 14th and will be selling 750mL bottles for $50, with a limit of two per person. The first 100 people who show up and stand in line will be rewarded with a Woodinville Whiskey Co. beanie, and coffee will be flowing freely.

The rye will be one of Woodinville’s core products, along with bourbon, says Sorensen. While this first batch is likely to sell out fast, other batches will be released in the coming months. The distillery released its first aged spirits, a bourbon and an American whiskey, back in November, and Sorenson says they sold the entire run of about 4,000 bottles in a few short weeks. The guys are still busy bottling, so Sorensen didn’t have any specific numbers on the rye release, but he estimates it will be about the same size.

Sorensen says the nation is also experiencing a shortage of rye whiskey—another factor that might have people lining that morning. Demand has grown exponentially in recent years, he says, “and distilleries just didn’t have any aging inventory; it was a niche product.”

These days rye is the go-to whiskey for Manhattans and a host of other craft cocktails. “I think people are gravitating toward flavor in general,” says Sorensen. “The rye has more character, more complex more flavor.”

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Tags: Whiskey, Distilling, Woodinville Whiskey Co., Still Life

A Visit to Ballard’s Captive Spirits

A local bartender and third-generation distiller must wait until June 1 to sell his Big Gin on site.

Posted by: Brian Colella on Mar 26, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Photo: Brian Colella

Captive Spirits’ Big Gin can be found in limited releases at a few local bars, but you have to wait till June 1 to buy your own bottle.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Captive Spirits’ Big Gin can be found in limited releases at a few local bars, but you have to wait till June 1 to buy your own bottle.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Shipwreck Design, the local team of Chris Jordan and Megan Leedom, did the excellent design work for Captive Spirits’ bottle labels, business cards, and more.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

The lab where Capdevielle and co. test recipes. Through rounds upon rounds of blind taste testing, the crew eventually came up with a recipe that was consistently picked in the top three, and that’s what you’ll get now if you ask for a Big Gin martini or tonic.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

A plush armchair sits watch over the 100-gallon copper and stainless steel pot still from Vendome. The garage doors roll up to reveal Captive Spirits’ water-storage tanks (the distillery recycles water for the condenser), and a parking lot that will play host to guests during the June 2 party.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

The Vendome still is open-fired, which means it stands above a burner and the liquid inside is directly heated by an open flame. Capdevielle says they wanted to minimize initial overhead and then expand as the business grows, thus the relative simplicity of the set-up.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Well-known Kentucky still maker Vendome provided Captive Spirits with its 100-gallon pot still.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Captive Spirits filters its water down to zero parts-per-million to ensure that it doesn’t affect Big Gin’s taste. It also means there’s incredibly tasty water lying around when someone gets thirsty.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Captive Spirits had just recently finished distilling a batch of gin, these two carboys hold 60 bottles worth. Capdevielle also pointed out that it is an air-powered distillery, using compressed air to blow particulates out of bottles, and a diaphragm pump to move spirits around.

View Slideshow » Photo: Brian Colella

Robinson started this chalk drawing of the Big Gin logo on the chalkboard by the doorway. Keep an eye on the Captive Spirits Twitter feed to find out when and where you can try Big Gin, available for sale at the distillery starting June 1.

Visitors enter Captive Spirits through an unassuming side door of a nondescript building just off 15th in Ballard; the first thing you might notice is the baby in proximity to the booze. "It’s the most ‘ma and pa’ distillery in town,” says Ben Capdevielle. He doesn’t necessarily mean the fact that his daughter Stella hangs out with him most days at the distillery, but her presence drives the point home.

Capdevielle, a longtime bartender at spots including La Isla, King’s Hardware, and Seatown, continues a family tradition. His grandfather distilled Templeton Rye during the Prohibition Era, and Capdevielle’s father passed along the enthusiasm for spirits. The younger Capdevielle started Captive Spirits with fiancée Holly Robinson, who does events for Bastille and previously worked for Tom Douglas. The third partner, Todd Leabman, is a builder who handles the team’s bookkeeping and navigates Captive Spirits through myriad bureaucratic hurdles.

Currently, production is focused on Big Gin, which can only be found in limited release at local bars. If you want a personal bottle you have to wait until June 1. Captive Spirits, though tiny, is not licensed as a craft distillery, which means no tasting room, and currently no sales except to bars, restaurants, or liquor stores. The state will still do special orders if there’s a buyer, so Capdevielle hopes one of the nearby Ballard stores will partner up with him prior to the June 1 deadline.

This is where the craft license’s 51-percent-locally-sourced rule for ingredients gets controversial. Gin is made by distilling high-proof ethyl alcohol with juniper and other botanicals, and juniper is not something that Washington does well. And unless you distill your own pure grain alcohol, you have to import that, too. Rum, which uses sugar cane, is a no-no as well.

The owners chose to forego the craft license in favor of finding the best ingredients possible, particularly a base spirit that wouldn’t adversely affect the taste. Big Gin starts from a corn-based 190-proof alcohol from Kentucky and is made with traditional gin ingredients (it’s an “Old World” gin, designed to be tasted, not hidden, when mixed).

Capdevielle and Robinson are so enthusiastic about Big Gin that you almost believe that’s all they want to make. When asked about future plans, though, Robinson mentioned an aperitif and, no surprise, whiskey. Robinson called whiskey their passion, which makes sense given Capdevielle’s family history. The overall plan is start small (low overhead) and grow slowly, so those expansions are a ways away.

If you’re planning a visit to Captive Spirits, consider June 2, when Robinson will pull together food, drink, and live music for a release party celebrating open season on sales to the general public. Hit up the slideshow above for more info on the Ballard microdistillery, and learn more about other local distilleries right over here.

Captive Spirits Distilling, 1518 NW 52nd Street Ste A, Ballard, 206-852-4794; captivespiritsdistillery.com

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Tags: Distillery Report, Distilling, Oola Distillery, Still Life, Captive Spirits, Ben Capdevielle

Sun Liquor Spirits: An Addendum

Will bottles be retailed at the distillery on Pike Street? Definitely maybe.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 03, 2011 at 09:38AM 0 Comments

Hedge Trimmer gin, finally out of the box. Photo courtesy Sun Liquor

Sun Liquor spirits are flowing freely at the label’s two Capitol Hill bars—yay—but, asks reader McLean, Will people be able to purchase bottles of the gin and vodka at the distillery on Pike Street?

Last we checked the answer was maybe, but for a more detailed explanation we turn to Erik Chapman, Sun Liquor manager and a lead distiller. The distillery is also the site of one of the aforementioned bars. This complicates things—the hybrid is a first for Washington. “Being the only one in the state, [the Liquor Control Board] doesn’t quite know what to do with us. We are still trying to, but not sure what will happen.”

Also asked reader McLean: Aren’t only craft distillers allowed to sell on site? And didn’t Sun swap a craft license for a regular one so as to dodge regulations regarding local sourcing?

True, Sun does operate under a regular permit but not for sourcing reasons, says Chapman. (Sixty percent of the ingredients in Hedge Trimmer are from Washington, for example). Two motivators prompted that decision: Again, there’s the uncertainty of whether bottles will be retailed at the distillery—“one of the biggest perks of having a craft license.” Secondly, “We didn’t want a limit of 100k gallons per year. This way we can produce more than just gin and vodka,” adds Chapman, hinting at seasonal small batch releases and forthcoming liqueurs.

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Tags: Gin, Vodka, Microdistilleries, Distillery Report, Distilling

You Can Now Consume Sun Liquor Gin and Vodka

Try the long-awaited spirits at either of Sun’s Capitol Hill bars.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 01, 2011 at 09:36AM 3 Comments

Sun Liquor’s Hedge Trimmer gin: go forth and try it.

Before she departed for D.C., Sauced mama Jess Voelker snuck a sample of Sun Liquor ‘s gin, Hedge Trimmer. She described it thusly: "A nice floral nose… round-bodied and easy-going on the palate. If you eschew super junipery gins you’ll be happy, the juniper was surprisingly subtle."

Now you, too, can sip the house hooch and its compatriot, Sun Liquor Vodka. Over the weekend the original Sun on Summit Ave and the Pike Street distillery (where both are made) popped bottles of the booze.

Currently those are the only two spots pouring the spirits. Says bartender Chelsea Anderson: “We have not yet received our permit to sell bottles at both bars but that process is in the works. For now you will just have to let us do the mixing.” She added other Seattle bars aren’t yet stocking the Sun Liquor labels “but hopefully they will soon.” Those wishing to buoy their home bar can special order the spirits through Washington State liquor stores using order numbers #975506 (gin) and #975507 (vodka).

“We are producing more every day then selling it to the liquor control board, so once they have it it will be available for bars or anyone else to purchase.”

What’s the best way to taste Trimmer? If you’re at the Summit Sun, try it with a Pink Gin. If you’re on Pike, go with an Alaska. Those are on the bars’ respective new fall/winter menus.

And for the booze nerds: here’s some background on Hedge Trimmer and the tireless tweaking of its master distiller, Erik Chapman.

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Tags: Gin, Vodka, Microdistilleries, Distillery Report, Distilling

A First Taste of Sun Liquor Gin

The distillery’s signature spirit—Hedge Trimmer—is just about to be bottled.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 27, 2011 at 10:16AM 1 Comments

Photo: Jessica Voelker

The Hedge Trimmer bottle, designed by Michael Klebeck.

Last Friday, I had the chance to do something I’ve been waiting a long time to do: I got to try the Sun Liquor gin.

When the Pike Street distillery and bar opened in February, bar manager Erik Chapman was still working on the recipe for the brand’s flagship spirit, an American gin called Hedge Trimmer.

To label Chapman a perfectionist is to understate the situation. For a year he’s been working all day in the distillery trying to perfect the recipe, then spending his nights managing both Sun Liquor bars (the original is on Summit). “My dog doesn’t know me any more,” says Chapman, laughing.

Finally, however, he is almost ready to bottle the gin, a blend of 10 botanicals—including juniper from Eastern Europe, fresh orange, coriander, and one top-secret ingredient about which Chapman was particularly excited—that’s made with 100 percent organic wheat. The grains come from Eastern Washington, though Sun Liquor is not subject to the pesky 51-percent-of-product-must-come-from-in-state law; Chapman says the operation traded in its craft license for a regular one, paying more in fees in order to free itself up from such regulations.

Photo: Jessica Voelker

Botanicals

Chapman and his boss Michael Klebeck, who designed the bottle, planned to have one final confab before settling on the exact formula. The alcohol will wind up between 42 and 44 percent, and there was conversation over whether or not to include marshmallow root among the botanicals.

To arrive at the near-complete product, Chapman experimented with just about everything you might put in gin including blueberries, which he said left the gin oily. The experiments that proved successful but too far-out for a signature product may wind up in limited-release and seasonal gins.

The major concern with the Hedge Trimmer, though, was that it be balanced. Chapman tested prototypes in cocktail upon cocktail to create a spirit that was versatile. The results (I tried two variations on the almost-complete recipe) had a nice floral nose and were round-bodied and easy-going on the palate. If you eschew super junipery gins you’ll be happy, the juniper was suprisingly subtle in the samples I tried.

Hedge Trimmer will retail for $29.95. It will be available in Washington and Oregon and at Cask in San Francisco. How everything will work inside the Pike Street distillery and bar is still something of a mystery. Sun Liquor is itself a prototype for Washington—the first real distillery/bar hybrid. And the Liquor Control Board will have to figure out just what it can and can’t do on the premises. For instance, the way the law reads now if you went into Sun Liquor during the day and tried samples of gin, it would be illegal for the bar to serve you a cocktail later that night. That’s sort of ridiculous though. So we’ll see.

Chapman says he plans to begin bottling the first week in October.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Gin, Microdistilleries, Distillery Report, Distilling

Soft Tail Spirits Opens Second Woodinville Tasting Room

…and plans to release new products in the coming months.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 18, 2011 at 07:53AM 0 Comments

Soft Tail’s original tasting room.

Photo: Facebook

Grappa and vodka maker Soft Tail Spirits will host a grand opening party this weekend at the microdistillery’s second tasting room, says part-owner Dennis Robertson. The company has expanded into a single-occupancy house at 14356 Woodinville Redmond Road for two reasons.

First: Soft Tail has grown out of its current space on Woodinville Drive. At liquor stores, products are selling faster than they can be made, reports Robertson. The company also hopes the new 1,000 square foot space, which has two outdoor patios, will be booked for private parties. Inside, there’s a 20-foot marble bar for tastings that Robertson procured through his other business—a stone company. There are two new stills on their way to the new space, which will double Soft Tail’s distilling capacities.

Second: The new digs are right in the middle of Woodinville’s tourist district and Soft Tail hopes to pull some of that sweet, sweet street traffic away from the wineries. “We don’t have a lot of money for advertising and marketing, so we have to grow organically,” says Robertson, who says Soft Tail has some new releases planned for the coming months that include an oaked grappa, a viognier grappa, and a “cognac-style product” that has rested on oak for two years. (As one of the oldest microdistilleries in the state, two-year-old Soft Tail will also be one of the first to release aged products.)

If you want to check out Soft Tail II, stop by this Saturday, May 21 when the distillery is hosting a pig roast at its Woodinville-Redmond Road tasting room from noon to 5pm. There will be pork sliders, potato salad, baked beans, and of course some bracing brandies to wash it all down.

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Tags: Woodinville, Vodka, Microdistilleries, Distillery Report, Distilling, Grappa

Circumventing Distillation Laws Via the Miracle of Science

A must read for gearheads and basement distillers.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 30, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Over at the Atlantic.Com, unrepentant illegal distiller Dave Arnold, Director of Culinary Technology at The French Culinary Institute, experiments with a rotary evaporator (rotovap) and a cold-finger condenser to circumvent the laws against DIY ethanol distillates.

From his post:
"I started by using one of my standard liquor recipes but distilling it with the cold-finger filled with liquid nitrogen (about -200 C) instead of my tube condenser at -20 C….During distillation, I noticed that a thin layer of frost formed on the cold-finger almost immediately, even before the distillation proper started. Then I thought—hey, what if I ran water-based flavors through this thing? Maybe the super-cold condenser would capture flavors that are lost in water-based distillations made with a standard condenser? The immediate formation of frost, and its implied condensation and capture of flavorful vapor, was encouraging. If I could get water based distillation to work it would be LEGAL!"

Okay, for those of us whose last name isn’t Einstein, it takes a few reads to get it. But it’s cool stuff. Check out the full article.

Oh and if you want to read about illegal distilling in Seattle, try this one on for size.

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Tags: Alchemy, Distilling, Stupid Draconian Booze Laws