vodka is the carbon part,” he said, and explained that even though most people call this process filtration, that’s not what’s chemically happening. “It’s more of a column chromatography process where things get trapped in the carbon based on their electronegativity. Filtering is different, but it’s the common word in usage.” To perform what he calls carbon trapping, there’s another 10-foot-tall column that is five inches in diameter. The process is purposely, agonizingly slow and he runs batches through it five times to fully remove the undesirable compounds left over in distillation. “[The column is] completely packed with a very fine carbon with a very high surface area,” he explained. “It takes about eight hours to send a tank through. We get about 96 ounces per minute flow rate so when the vodka hits the bottom of the column — it pumps from the bottom up — it takes about ten minutes to go ten feet giving it a lot of time interacting with the carbon because it’s a fairly small electronegative force that causes the organic molecules to stick.” The results can be savored in his award-winning flagship products, Hoarfrost Premium Crystal and Hoarfrost Premium Brilliant. For Luick, smoothness is the most important element in what is supposed to be a tasteless, odorless, colorless spirit. “It should just sort of warm you as it goes down and feels like it disappears,” he said. “All of sudden you feel warm on the inside, and if your vodka does that, it’s great.” For Luick, focusing on foreign markets is a better business plan because he says European and Asian consumers will pay more to sip a high-end
Hoarfrost Distilling's vodka infusions and liqueurs. PHOTO BY CARRIE DOW
70
vodka versus average American consumers who tend to buy cheaper vodkas for making cocktails and don’t often appreciate vodka the way they do whiskey. He also believes exporting is a more straightforward process, especially in remote Alaska, rather than dealing with the mishmash of individual state liquor laws. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s easier to export out of the country,” he explained. “It’s simpler and the taxes you’re facing are based more on wherever you’re exporting to. There’s a barrier to entry which you pay mostly in making connections. Not necessarily a money barrier, but a big knowledge and time investment barrier.” While his financial focus is on foreign markets, he hasn’t forgotten about the local community nor the occasional tourist who ventures to the distillery in an industrial area on the edge of Fairbanks. With help from his Russian-born wife Natalya Medvedeva, they make a variety of vodka infusions and liqueurs, using local botanicals like spruce tips, for the tasting room. Another specialty is mountain ash vodka, known in Siberia as Rianbinovka, a bitter herbal liqueur infused with mountain ash berries that soaks for several months on a distillery shelf and is a favorite with local Russian expats. Other botanicals are grown on the couple’s property. “We started with stuff we were growing around the house,” he said, “things like red and black currant and different kinds of cherries, things you don’t see in Alaska a lot. They are so far doing well, but I have to put up electric protection to keep the moose away.” Which is the most Alaskan thing this worldly distiller could have said. — C. Dow
URSA MAJOR DISTILLERY 2922 Parks Highway, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709 (907) 347-8951 www.ursamajordistilling.com
When Brenda Riley’s business partner Rob Borland licensed his distillery in 2011, tasting rooms were not allowed. “Then in 2015,” she said, “the law was changed, and tasting rooms could be a thing, so he opened up in this location.” The location is the municipality of Ester along the Parks Highway that connects Fairbanks to Anchorage with Denali National Park in between. On a Sunday morning before the tasting room opens a group of trail riders gather in the parking lot prepping their bikes to ride the single tracks in the hills above the distillery. When they get back, Bloody Marys, daiquiris, and other concoctions await. Borland, a former firefighter and assistant station chief, was working in the Flint Hills Refinery safety program where he learned about distillation and wanted to distill his own spirits. Wanting to do it legally, he built a distilling shed on his property, applied for and received a distilling license, and using a small still which Riley says he ‘MacGyvered’ with spare and used parts from Amazon, began making whiskey with Alaskangrown barley from Delta Junction. When the refinery closed, it became his full-time job. Riley, the former executive director of the United Way of the Tanana Valley, came on board with her non-profit marketing and financial skills to help W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M