IN GOOD SPIRITS
Craft distilleries hope to find a place among top-shelf liquors BY EVAN MARCZYNSKI evan@bbjtoday.com
Backwoods tech today Smith said by mid-February his self-designed stills will start producing 80-proof vodka and a 100proof legal version of moonshine. Though moonshine is notorious for its high-alcohol content and its popularity among bootleggers, a few licensed distilleries in the U.S. have recently begun producing the once-illicit liquor. Smith’s concoction uses a corn mash, which produces what is essentially a raw, unaged whiskey.
Year 20 No. 2 $2
Business calls on state to stop cuts BY EVAN MARCZYNSKI evan@bbjtoday.com
T
hree 15-gallon stills fashioned out of repurposed beer kegs line a wall in the future distilling room at Mount Baker Distillery. The silver kegs, a few with small dents and discolorations, would be unassuming if not for the large copper cylinders sticking out of their tops. “We’re kind of like extreme home brewers,� distillery co-owner Troy Smith said. “Everything we do is handmade completely.� Mount Baker Distillery, located in Suite D2 of the Haskell Business Center at 1305 Fraser St. in Bellingham, is one of three new facilities that will bring Washington state’s expanding craft distillery industry to Whatcom County in 2012. The other two are Chuckanut Bay Distillery at 1115 Railroad Ave., and a distillery in the building being constructed at BelleWood Acres farm on Guide Meridian Road just north of Bellingham.
FEBRUARY 2012
BARGAINS & SKILLS, PG. 10
tillery with its do-it-yourself character and its use of locally made ingredients.
Mount Baker Distillery co-owner Troy Smith stands with a beer keg that will be repuprosed as a still for producing either vodka or legal moonshine. All products will be produced by hand. BRIAN COREY PHOTO.
The decision to produce moonshine was made to not only be unique, Smith said, but also to have an immediate product available for customers. “That’s the great thing about moonshine, we can bottle it right
Industry in transition
away, which for a small producer is important,� Smith said. “We can’t sit around for a few years waiting for a product to come out.� Smith said he plans to attract customers to Mount Baker Dis-
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The passage of Initiative 1183 last November, which will close state-run liquor stores and allow private retailers to sell spirits instead, has prompted the liquor board to modify craft-distillery laws. Four years after the state first began issuing craft distillery licenses in 2008, 40 distilleries have been approved, and 17 applications for new producers are currently pending, according
As state lawmakers enter the year with another partisan budget battle, the Main Street Alliance of Washington is bucking the cliche that every small business owner wants lower taxes and less government spending. “Washington is a great place to live, work and run a business,� Joshua Welter, the alliance’s director, said. “We want to keep it that way and make it better, not see how quickly we can race to the bottom.� In January, the alliance sent an open letter to Gov. Gregoire and the state Legislature. It called for an end to further budget cuts, and a renewed investment in health care, infrastructure and education. Such investment would help rebuild the state’s economy by allowing small businesses to grow and create jobs, according to the alliance. The Main Street Alliance is a public policy advocate that supports and promotes small business owners. Lawmakers opened the 2012 legislative session facing a familiar scene: a state budget still deep
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