Shaken, not stirred...!!

Thanks again to Craig, Manager of Yaletown Distillery.  We enjoyed a tasting of gin and vodka, a tour of the facility, and a great education from Craig about distilling in general and their products in particular.  Yaletown Distillery produces craft vodka (Traditional Eastern European Style Twice Distilled) and gin (Traditional London Dry with 8 botanicals).  It also produces Eau Vie ("water for life"), a sweet fruit product similar to brandy (today's special was pear).  The facility is based on a hand crafted, hand bottled, manual winery system.  The process starts with BC grain delivered to the grain room (at the brewhouse next door).  The grain is milled, then sent to a mash tub where it is heated to produce grist, then stirred to produce wort (for beer) and wash (for vodka/gin), and travels to the distillery through a pipe system.  The fermentation process takes about three days and the final product is distilled using copper stills and distillery columns.  Vodka is the cleanest distilled product.  Gin is made by adding botanicals (juniper berries, lemon, bitter almonds, etc.) to the wash.  We learned all about Heads, Hearts and Tails (part of the process).  Yaletown Distillery sells its products at its facility and also in 60 restaurants and liquor stores in Yaletown and on Vancouver Island.