Humboldt County may have a boutique distillery in its future.
The Blue Lake Rancheria Tribal Council is holding a public hearing Sept. 7 to discuss the possibility of establishing a production facility — called the Spirit Water Distillery — to make gin, vodka and rum.
“We’re a long ways from being ready to talk,” said Arla Ramsey, vice chairperson of the tribe, reached by phone Monday.
There’s a three-step process, starting with the Tribal Council’s consideration of a liquor permit, she said. “Once we have that, then we can go for the federal and state permits. … It’s a massive amountof paperwork.”
The tribe’s distillery business plan envisions a high-end target market of consumers willing to pay more for handcrafted distilled or redistilled spirits with natural flavoring.
Potatoes from Idaho could be used to make vodka that could then be redistilled with local blackberries for flavor instead of artificial additives, Ramsey said. Gin is produced from grains, with juniper berries for its distinctive flavor component.
“But people are also using cinnamon and caraway, black pepper – a whole array of spices,” Ramsey said.
There will certainly be other hurdles ahead for the project. Karen Locken, an investigator for the Eureka office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department, said California is one of 18 states that have a three-tiered system, trying to keep producers, distributors and retailers separate.
“We keep making exceptions, however,” Locken said. “We have brew pubs that make beer and sell it in their restaurants, like Six Rivers [in McKinleyville]. Robert Goodman manufactures wine and now he’s applied for a retail restaurant.”
John Carr, public information officer for the ABC in Sacramento, said he is not aware of any other tribe currently in the distillery business. California has licensed 70 distilleries statewide, but none are in Del Norte or Humboldt counties. The closest distillery is Germain-Robin in Ukiah.
This article appears in Whose Arcata?.
Win win
GASP! It is a shame we don’t have more micro-distilleries around here. I just took a trip to Portland’s Distiller’s Row, and–wow. Those guys are having fun.
P.S. Blackberry-infused gin sounds disgusting. But I get the picture.
Too bad it won’t be in the USA or follow US labor law.
The idea and location sounds great!
”Gin is the cause and solution to all of life’s problems.” ~Homer Simpson
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the gin, beer, and vodka I drink I feel ashamed.
Then I look into the glass and think about the workers at the Spirit Water Distillery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink their blackberry infused gin, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered.
Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink their gin and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my diabetic liver.
And even though a number of people have tried, no one has yet found a way to drink gin for a living. The Blue Lake Tribal Council is onto something.
Yes, I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy. And no, I’m not so think as you drunk I am.
In South Carolina they’re distilling “vodka” from muscadine grapes and flavoring it with sweet tea.