STILL GETTING STARTED
Adam Smith owns Strathcona Spirits, a 69-square-metre former radiator shop in Old Strathcona that claims to be the smallest distillery in North America.
Strathcona Spirits owner Adam Smith is so keen to put local ingredients in his company’s booze, he flavours the gin with wild juniper berries and sea buckthorn he picks himself.
What Smith claims is North America’ s smallest distillery opened in December in a 69-square-metre former radiator shop on a gentrifying Old Strathcona industrial block, outfitted with a $100,000 custommade still he and a friend drove 10,000 km to pick up in the Ozarks.
Although Strathcona Spirits has been selling 200 to 300 bottles of its gin and vodka each month through 150 liquor stores, bars and restaurants in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the company isn’t yet breaking even.
“I don’t know what I expected. I’m not much of a businessman,” Smith said. “I thought it would be easy to keep the door open, and it’s been more challenging because everything is expensive.”
Smith, 37, worked for an Eastern Canada craft brewery before he decided to start making the hard stuff in a one-storey space at 10122 81 Ave., where he operated the Baby Seal Club music venue.
The province changed the law in 2013 to allow craft distilleries. The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission now lists 19 firms producing spirits.
Smith’s enthusiasm for the spirit world shines through as he talks about the terroir of the juniper berries — harvested on the banks of the Red Deer River — and the farmer who goes out for breakfast with him after delivering the wheat used to make alcohol.
“There’s a resurgence of interest in these artisanally-made spirits using local botanicals, local grains, and it tastes great.”
Strathcona Spirits started with gin and vodka, which take less time to produce and sells for about $50 a bottle.
But it’s releasing a smoky barrelaged gin in early December, and Smith is experimenting with rye flavoured with white willow bark.
As well, after toiling in relative anonymity for the last year without even a sign on the 94-year-old building, the distillery finally has permission to open a retail outlet.
The proposal was initially shot down because of Edmonton’s prohibition on liquor stores operating within 500 metres of each other, but in September the city modified its zoning rules to allow small breweries, wineries and distilleries to sell alcohol manufactured onsite.
Tours and sales started Thursday and run through Saturday.
“It will grow our brand and interest in our brand for people to be able to see that it’s local. We’re not the cheapest bottle on the shelf … but hopefully we will be held up by the community as a locally made product — they will recognize the costs of being local and share them.”