Vodka

Vodka

Our small-batch Vodka is pear-based, remarkably smooth and inviting.

Try it on the rocks or in your favorite cocktail.

Crab season is here!

Crab season is here!

crab seasonThe First of July marked the opening of crab season on the Hood Canal. It is one of the best things about summer.

There is nothing better than warm summer evenings, out on the deck or by the fire pit, made even better with fresh crab. And now, I can relax even more with my Pink Gin and my Crabby Ginny.

 

Bee’s Knees®

Bee’s Knees®

Our Bee’s Knees® is unique.

It’s a distilled honey mead–80% honey and 20% fruit. We are one of the very few distilleries making a distilled mead, and our Bee’s Knees® are created with only the finest Washington honey and fruits.

peach-bees-knees-web

Peachy Keen

Distilled from honey and peaches, Peachy Keen has a distinct yet smooth peachy flavor that you’re bound to fall in love with.

 

 

Other Bee’s Knees®:

  • Plum Bee’s Knees
  • Raspberry Bee’s Knees
  • Fig Bee’s Knees
R Gin

R Gin

R GIN is the second in our series of seasonal Pacific Northwest gins.

It is a distilled, slightly smokey, dry gin, which is best when enjoyed with oysters. The Hama Hama Oyster Co. was very generous is letting us smoke the barley for our R Gin in their oyster smoker. They cold-smoked the barley, and the result is a subtle smokey taste.

R Gin is named for the discredited, but lively, old wives’ tale that oysters are best in months with the letter “R.”

We have a limited edition of this R Gin.

 

Whiskey

Whiskey

Our small batch whiskey is distilled from water from Mount Olympus and the Hood Canal watershed on the Olympic Peninsula.

It is hand-crafted in a copper pot still, and has breathed the salt air from the shores of the beautiful Hood Canal.

Mike Nicolson, third generation master distiller from Scotland, is helping us create an outstanding whiskey. As he says, it’s easy to make whiskey, but it’s really hard to make good whiskey. Ours is a Scottish lowland grain style whiskey. We can’t call it scotch because we’re not in Scotland, but in all respects it is a scotch because we’re starting with good water and using a similar aging process. It’s a process that can’t be rushed, and we hope to have a baby whiskey (un-aged whiskey) ready by Thanksgiving 2013.

Crabby Ginny

Crabby Ginny

Crabby Ginny is distilled especially to be paired with crab from Hood Canal. Its underlying flavors of pear, orange, and cranberry make a perfect accompaniment to seafood.

 

Pink Gin Cocktail

  • Fill glass with ice
  • Two shots Crabby Ginny gin
  • 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
  • Tonic water
  • Shave of lemon rind to garnish

(Please note: Crabby Ginny is not suitable for a Gin and Tonic.)

Pink Gin trivia (from Wikipedia)

  • In the 1953 film adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat’s book, The Cruel Sea, Lockhart (Donald Sinden) meets Ericson (Jack Hawkins) at a London hotel where they both drink pink gin. In a somewhat rewritten scene in the BBC Radio 4 Extra adaptation of 2013, the pair drink gin and tonic.
  • A horse named after the cocktail competed in the 1997 Grand National steeplechase finishing fourteenth.
  • Pink gin was drunk by Hattie (Jean Simmons) in The Grass is Greener (1960). She liked her bitters to be burnt with a match prior to adding the gin.
  • Lottie Cassell offers a pink gin to Logan Mountstuart in Episode 1 of Channel 4’s Any Human Heart (TV series). 2010 (UK), 2011 (US).
  • Bigelow (Alec Guiness) orders “Two pink gins, full measure and don’t skimp on the Angostura” in the movie “Raise the Titanic”.
  • Pink gin is a popular drink in Graham Greene’s ‘The Heart of the Matter’.
  • In the James Bond novel The Man With the Golden Gun, agent 007 orders a pink gin with Beefeater and “plenty of bitters” in the bar of the Thunderbird Hotel in Jamaica, which is operated by his nemesis Francisco Scaramanga.
  • In Agatha Christie‘s Poirot, episode Triangle at Rhodes, some of the characters drink Pink Gin, one such cocktail being used as the delivery method of a deadly poison.
  • Pink Gin is the drink of choice of Jerry Westerby in the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
  • The drink is repeatedly ordered in Patrick Hamilton’s novel The Slaves of Solitude.
  • In the Nevil Shute novel, On the Beach, several of the main characters drink pink gin.

 

Where's-my-gin

Aquavit

Aquavit

Being a fjord, the Hood Canal is perfectly situated for the production of aquavit.

It is similar to Scandinavia, the birthplace of aquavit, in climate and topography, and we expect an excellent aquavit to come from our waters.

Aquavit is a holiday treat in Scandinavia.It is one of the older liquors, and there are records of aquavit dating back to the 16th century. Like many of the older spirits, it was named “Aqua Vite” for “water of life” and was considered to have medicinal properties.

Aquavit is also spelled “akavavit” or “akevitt.” It is associated with many traditions in Scandinavia. It is popularly believed to help digest rich foods, and it’s enjoyed at holiday time and celebrations throughout the year. It is often drunk while singing a traditional drinking song.

Like gin, the recipes and flavors of aquavit vary among brands and are kept secret. Also like gin, there is a dominant flavor. In aquavit the dominant flavor is caraway. Other botanicals found in aquavit recipes may include cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel, and lemon or orange peel.

Aquavit is usually aged in barrels, but it does not have to be. Norway has a unique tradition of sending barrels of aquavit in ships from Norway to Australia and back again. The steady movement of the waves, the humidity and the mercurial temperatures cause the aquavit to extract more flavor from the barrels. Upon returning to Norway, the ocean-aged aquavit can be labeled as “linje” aquavit. Because this process has not been successfully reproduced in simulated circumstances on land, boats loaded with barrels of aquavit continue to set sail from Norway to Australia and back again.