Rowley's Whiskey Forge: Gather ‘Round, Ye Distillers

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Gather ‘Round, Ye Distillers

Two distillers’ events are coming up and I’m superbummed that I can’t make either of them. The first is nearly on us.

Up the coast in Portland, Oregon, the 2009 Great American Distillers Festival is gearing up. For a measly $16, attendees get two days of festivities and a fistful of tickets for samples. I always enjoy rubbing elbows with my friends who forge whiskey, brandy, and other less recognizable spirits, but throw in a cocktail mixing contest hosted by the Oregon Bartenders’ Guild and I shake my head in wonder for not packing a bag. A total of $1750 will be dispersed as prizes, so you know the bartenders will be flexing their shaker guns.

October 24-25th. Full details at The Great American Distillers’ Festival website.

The second shindig is the American Distilling Institute’s hands-on whiskey distilling workshop at Stillwater Spirits in Petaluma, CA December 7-11th. The price tag is little heftier ($3500), but Bill Owens promises tours of Anchor Distilling, St. George Spirits, and various “whiskey bars.”

Whiskey bars?

The five-day class includes:

Five night stay at the Metro Hotel (one block from Stillwater) and all meals (we have a good cook for the week)
Tuition, room & board
Tours of St. George Spirits Distillery, Anchor Distilling Co. and the finest San Francisco Whiskey bars
Distiller Jordan Via (Stillwater Spirits) on brewing, distilling and maturation
Brewer Bill Owens (ADI) on mashing and fermentation to create wash
Moylan's Brewery & Restaurant creation of wash in action
Legal session on how to obtain a DSP
Learn how to operate a Moonshine-style pot still and a five-plate Christian Carl Still
Whiskey, bourbon & moonshine tasting daily
Proofing session and hands-on bottling experience

Full details at the ADI website.

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1 comment:

Max Watman said...: I shadowed the inaugural ADI workshop, and let me tell you: If you are serious, it's money well spent. It's not for tourists, but anyone thinking about starting a distillery should go. Everyone I asked agreed that it saved them thousands. Throw in a pile of dungeness crabs (no guarantees, I'm sure the menu changes), and a day spent going to Cask, Bourbon & Branch, Alembic, and so forth -- how could you loose?; October 8, 2009 at 2:08 PM

Rowley Who?

I'm Matthew Rowley. I wrote the book on moonshine. No, for real.

I'm a contributor to Whisky Advocate, contributing editor for Distiller magazine, a former board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and an erstwhile museum curator. After a life of living in bitterly cold and unspeakably hot places, I'm lucky enough to be working my tail off in southern California. Can't beat that with a stick.

Email me: moonshinearchives (at) gmail (dot) com

My day job is freelance writing for business, government, and academic clients. When I’m not helping others get their stories out, I’m eating and drinking, planning to eat and drink, or, relying on my training as an anthropologist and museum curator to reflect on what I’ve eaten and drunk. I travel whenever I can, visiting distillers, artisan food producers, secondhand bookstores, and farmers’ markets. Sometimes I manage to write about it here.

Since 2001, I've traveled around the world interviewing extra-legal distillers to debunk the notion that moonshining is a dead or dying craft. You can check out the results in my 2007 book Moonshine. For fun, there are plugs and interviews at the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired.

It's warmed my heart that modern "very small batch" distillers, far from being a dying breed, continue to send and bring me bottles and jars of hand-cranked whiskeys and brandies.

Click here for my disclosure statements and directions for sending samples.