Thanks to restrictive laws south of the border, some of the world’s great booze barons were Canadian. Today’s craft distillers create for a smaller but more devoted market, using local ingredients that sing of their places. Like our wine and craft beer producers, they’re finding fans all over the world.
A – Z
Eau Claire Distillery
Devoted to hand-crafted, artisanal and fine sipping spirits, Eau Claire Distillery is Alberta’s original craft distillery located in Turner Valley, not far from Calgary. Born out of the founder’s quest to honour Alberta’s riches of the land and set the bar for Canada’s most premium spirits, every small batch from Eau Claire Distillery will be personally tended for perfection, from seed to sip. Eau Claire Distillery uses locally-farmed ingredients — including grain and potatoes — plus clear water from nearby Rocky Mountains. Summer 2014 marks its first-batch release.
The Dubh Glas Distillery
Dubh Glas (dugh-luhs) in Gaelic means “from the dark water” and is reflective of the source water used in the making of our feature spirits. A well on the property is where we source our pure ‘dark’ water, which is fed by an underground aquifer. That source water from the ‘dark depths’ has been filtered through the Okanagan Valley, free of pollutants and surface contamination. It is also reflective of Grant Stevely, the artisan distiller, who has shared the name in his family for generations.
Hansen Distillery
Hansen Distillery is an Edmonton-based family-run craft distillery that prides itself on producing quality products using ingredients sourced from Alberta. All of our spirits are made right, right here in Edmonton.
Their Barn Owl Vodka, End of the Line Moonshine, Trouble Gin and Border Crossing Rye are their staple line of spirits being offered in select liquor stores and available for off-sale at their distillery. Hansen Distillery also produces unique small batch spirits including their incredibly popular Cherry Rye, which sold out in less than one week when first placed on shelves.
Owners Kris and Shayna welcome people to take a walk through time at their facility and experience their quality, handcrafted alcohol in their unique tasting lounge located in West Edmonton.
Sons of Vancouver Distillery
Sons of Vancouver is a really, really small batch distillery of Vancouver’s North Shore. It was born out of a young, foolhardy desire to follow passions and contribute to a growing community of independent distillers. James and Richard are the guys behind the curtain, who have created this selection of dynamic BC spirits using really, really local grains.
Strathcona Spirits Distillery
Strathcona Spirits is Edmonton’s first distillery. We produce fine, very small batch spirits usingtraditional methods in a tiny, sunny boomtown building in Old Strathcona. Our small team isdeveloping an expanding line of fine spirits that will embody the essence of Edmonton and the land surrounding it by using locally grown grains, botanicals and other ingredients.
Born from the ashes of a live arts space, the passion for the distillery came from a strong interest in thealchemy of distillation, the collection of essence, local flora, the fascinating world of aging spirits, andour desire for Edmonton to be a part of this history, being as we sit surrounded by some of the finestgrains available on earth.
Yukon Spirits
Yukon Brewing has been making award winning beers since 1997. Yukon Spirits has been producing since 2009, as an extension of the beer making skills at Yukon Brewing. They have been selling the Two Brewers Single Malt Whisky since 2016. They have sold 4 different batches since March of last year. All batches are very limited and can never be reproduced. Two Brewers were awarded with 3 Silver medals at the Canadian Whisky awards in January of 2017.
Yukon Spirits also produce a line of small run specialty spirits, called Concepts. Each Concept is different, with each bottle numbered. We will be pouring samples of our single malt whisky at Northern Lands for the first time.