If you happen to live in the Ottawa region, give some thought to taking a drive from Gatineau, QC up highway 148 along the Ottawa River. Just before you reach the village of Shawville, QC you will see a sign indicating the road leading to the tiny villages of Bristol and Norway Bay. In Bristol, you will find a small cidery called Coronation Hall Cider. The owners were there when I stopped by on Sept 21 and they treated me to a tour of their small operation. I learned they are pressing up to 4 varietals of locally grown apple. I learned that 40 pounds (1 bushel) of apple yields about 12 liters of cider. They are using a Reisling-type wine yeast to carry out the ferments. The cider is dry and crisp and I think it will pair well with pasta dishes and maybe even with Indian curry dishes. There is more than just cider available too. You can buy cans of carbonated apple juice as well as apple butter, apple BBQ sauce, and my favorite desert – apple pies. Sometimes in our busy world, it pays to take the road less travelled. It pays to turn down smaller side roads to see the sights. Who knows what you might find. Maybe even a cidery……

Today we left PEI heading for Quebec. During our trip we discovered Covered Bridge Potato Chips from New Brunswick. Best chips ever!

As we were driving along the highway not far from Hartland, New Brunswick we spotted a sign for the factory that makes Covered Bridge chips. The sign said we could take a tour. As we peeled off the highway and turned down the road for the chip factory, I spotted from the corner of my eye a craft distillery. Wow! This was shaping up to be a great day…. Oh, and Hartland is also the home of the longest covered bridge in the world – hence the name Covered Bridge Potato Chips.

After learning how potato chips are made, I headed across the street to Moonshine Creek distillery. Co-owner Jeremiah Clark happened to be in the tasting room and we soon struck up a conversation. He offered me a taste of his 3 year old whisky made to a mash bill of 70% rye and 30% barley. I must admit I was reticent to try it because of its young age. As I swirled the nectar in the tasting glass i quizzed Jeremiah as to his distillation technique. My reticence quickly disappeared when I learned that he engaged a 2 X distillation process. First he did a stripping run, next the stripped alcohol was re-distilled through some plates in the column of his still. A wee sip sent my senses spinning. YES! A craft distiller who was making fantastic whisky at 3 years of age. It was smooth and approachable. The earthy/spicy notes form the rye grain were on full display. This is whisky the way it should taste. He then explained that he had just proofed down a tote of corn whisky (70% corn, 30% barley). He offered me a wee taste and again my senses were floored. How could something so young taste so damn good? The answer of course is the 2X distillation technique. And the story got even better. It turns out that in the area around Hartland there is a maple syrup producer. To obtain syrup, a producer will tap the maple trees to obtain the sap run-off each Spring. The sap will have maybe 2% sugar content to it. The producer will have to boil the sap for hours on end to drive off the water content and concentrate the sugars. But, what if that producer decided to capture the steam from the sap boiling kettle? What if that water vapor steam were to be condensed? The result would be effectively a distilled water. Clean, pure, natural. But, let’s not call it just water. Let’s call it “tree water”. Now….let’s use the tree water to proof down the distillate at a nearby craft distillery. The word “sustainable” screams in the back of my head. Jeremiah Clark is a marketing genius!

I could go on and on waxing prophetically, but I will wrap it up. You HAVE TO try the whiskies from Moonshine Creek distillery. You just HAVE TO. You can apparently get a shipping discount if you order on-line from the distillery. Christmas is coming and gift-buying is just around the corner. What better to buy than some very nice whisky that is a pleasure to sip. ( If you need my address to send the whisky to, just email me…). Just kidding! But, if your close friends and family enjoy smooth, well balanced sipping whisky, I am sure they will appreciate a bottle or two from New Brunswick.

It was a pleasure meeting Jeremiah today. I wish him all the best. I am sure Moonshine Creek has a stellar future ahead of it. Oh…and yeah…the potato chips at the factory were good and the covered bridge was cool too. All in Hartland, New Brunswick…..

In a recent post I wrote about potato vodka from Blue Roof Distillery in New Brunswick. Last evening I had a few drinks of the product and I woke up at 3am with a raging headache. So….a more critical analysis of the product is now called for.

This is where I get myself in trouble. This is always where I get accused of picking on the little guy. This is where I get accused of using my M.Sc. education unfairly.

As I point out over and over again in my Distilling workshops, the craft alcohol industry needs to improve its products. Craft operators need to embrace the science of fermentation and distillation. The notion that because a product is craft it will automatically sell in large numbers is a false notion. You can sell anything to anybody one time. But when that person wakes up with a smashing headache, he will not return to buy a 2nd bottle. He will gravitate back to his big-name commercial brand name product.

At issue with the Blue Roof product is the very obvious aroma of what I call “pear drop”. When I tasted the vodka at the Blue Roof tasting room I immediately spotted the defect. I warned the lady in the tasting room that I am a harsh critic of distilled alcohol and that I would be taking the bottle to my next workshop in Kelowna, BC. She did not seem too fussed by that suggestion. When I did get to speak to the distiller I quizzed him as to what %abv he stopped collecting at during his rectification run. He said he did not distill using the %abv approach. Rather he stopped collecting when the temperature at the column top exceeded about 79C.

Where far too many distillers err is in their understanding of alcohol. There is actually no one single substance called alcohol. Hard to believe – because bottles of beer, wine, and spirits all tell us a % alc figure. When yeast ferments a fermentable sugar (potato starch, grain starch etc..) the metabolic pathways generate molecules with anywhere from 2 to 6 carbon atoms in their structure. These assorted molecules all will have an -OH attachment to their tail ends. Collectively, all these molecules are called “alcohol” by virtue of the -OH attachment. Fermentable starches will also contain a substance called pectin. Proteolytic enzymes within the yeast cell will transform these pectins into methyl pectate which has the aforementioned “pear drop”, solvent taste. Potatoes evidently are prone to expressing more of the pectates. These pectates have a lower boil point than the alcohol molecules. To rid the distilled alcohol of the solvent aroma, a distiller must make a conscious effort to discard the first runnings in both the stripping run and the rectification run. Another approach I have seen is to have the still fitted with a de-methylyzer. This is a device in which the temperature is set at around 68 C. Methyl pectate molecules typically vaporize around 64-65C. Ethanol vaporizes at 78.5C. A vapor stream entering the de-methylyzer will see the alcohol molecules condense and fall back down the still column. The pectates will remain in vapor form and will be directed away from the process into a separate condenser where they are discarded.

I think I will leave it at that for now. In your travels if you happen to be given a chance to sample some craft vodka, take a bit of it in the palm of your hand and rub your hands together. Now smell your hands. A properly made vodka should have NO aromas. It should be neutral, it should be clean. If your nose detects any “pear drop” or solvent hints, then you can immediately begin to question the distillation process. In my opinion, the craft spirits industry needs to embrace the science that underpins “booze”. As more and more customers also start to embrace the science, these customers can exert influence on the craft distilleries. Selling anything to anybody one time just does not cut it. The big name commercial operators continue to rub their hands in glee. Craft distilling is not the threat they were afraid it would be.

I will conclude with a standing invite to attend one of our workshops in Kelowna in the near future. These workshops are NOT just for people interested in starting a distillery. I assure you, after attending a workshop you WILL become a more discerning consumer of “booze”. You WILL understand in detail how whisky, gin, and vodka are made. And who knows….you might even take up the hobby of home distilling. I hear rumors that it is a wonderful hobby……

Will your travels take you to Prince Edward Island in the near future? If so, as you are driving along the road heading towards PEI and getting near to the Confederation Bridge, keep your eye on the left side of the road for a large building with a blue steel roof. This is Blue Roof Distillery.

When I stopped in for a visit in early September, 2022 I learned that the team behind the distillery are actually potato farmers. I learned that the largest potatoes they grow are bought by McCain’s who cut them into french fries. Medium sized potatoes are sold to grocery store chains who retail them to consumers in 5 pound bags. The smaller and unevenly shaped potatoes are not so lucky. They end up (hopefully) getting sold at cheaper prices through other retail channels.

When a farming operation is growing near 1 million pounds of potatoes, it tends to be a shame when the smallest sized potatoes do not generate much revenue. So what to do?

The answer is – use the small potatoes to make Vodka. Buy some mash tanks. Buy a stripping still. Buy a packed-column still for rectification runs. Put an eye-catching blue roof on your building….and the next thing you know tourists will beat a path to your door for some of your Blue Roof Vodka. On the day I stopped by in early September, I was the only person at the facility. Tourism season was pretty much over. This gave me a chance to spend some time with the distiller who answered my technical questions. (and yes….it does take about 4 kgs of potato to make 1 liter of vodka).

This bottle will be making its way across the country in October to Kelowna, BC where I will be delivering another workshop to people eager to learn about distilled beverage alcohol.

If you are curious to try some of this Vodka and will not be in eastern Canada, fear not. The Blue Roof team tells me that if you order 3 bottles, they will ship them to you via UPS at NO cost!

So, skip the french fries. Consume your potatoes in liquid format. Give the Blue Roof folks a call. Order some of their vodka.