On and Off Distillery Row

WHILE “DISTILLERY ROW” is still a concept in the making, the
roughly half-mile stretch in Southeast Portland from House Spirits
Distillery (2025 SE 7th) to Highball Distillery (610 SE 10th) includes
five shops producing everything from whiskey to absinthe. As we move
into the colder seasons, activity in the distilleries is heating up
with some new releases in the near future.

House Spirits Health Care Plan

I’ve always been a proponent of booze as medicine. Headache? Booze.
Head cold? Booze. Crippling depression and social anxiety? Booze with a
chaser of booze. As far as I’m concerned, the rigorous application of
medicinal alcohol has only made me more robust and handsome.

Should you also be pursuing what I like to call the W.C. Fields
Health Initiative, it would be difficult to find a better dispensary
than the House Spirits Distillery, which late last year launched their
Apothecary series. The idea was to release limited-edition batches of
spirits—outside their main lines of Medoyeff Vodka, Krogstad
Aquavit, and Aviation Gin—that would allow them to explore more
styles and stretch their creativity.

Available from their old-timey tasting room adjacent to the
distillery (and select area liquor stores), the batches are sold in
squat, numbered, 12-ounce bottles, with a run of no more than 1,000
(and often much less), for $20 a bottle. So far there have been just
two releases: a big anisette-hued Oregon Ouzo with plenty of spice and
just enough sweetness, and a very respectable rum.

Co-owner Lee Medoff considers the Apothecary line a way to give back
to the city that helped launch one of Oregon’s most successful
micro-distilleries. “It’s for the local market, specifically,” he
says.

The next couple of months will see House Spirits releasing three
more spirits for the limited line. The first, released this month, is
Gammal Krogstad Aquavit. Gammal is House Spirits’ Krogstad Aquavit that
has been aged for a year in a French oak wine barrel that previously
held pinot noir. The barrel has the effect of tempering the brightness
of the Krogstad, amplifying floral notes up front and adding tones of
honey. Distiller Matt Mount explains it’s similar to original
Scandinavian aquavit, which would often be barreled for transport.

Saturday, October 24, will see the release of House Spirits’
shochu. A recent phenomenon in Portland’s cocktail world,
shochu is essentially a Japanese spirit distilled from
saké. House Spirits’ shochu is distilled from saké made
by SakéOne, “the world’s one and only American-owned saké
brewery.” Considering its Forest Grove source, the limited run of House
Spirit shochu will be the first pure Oregon shochu ever produced.
Distilled from SakéOne’s Peaceful River, Medoff describes it as
having a “bigger, more aggressive, Northwestern pale-ale attitude.”
That is to say it’s not as polite as many Japanese shochus, which have
a tendency to be very light and clean. Finally, December brings a
release of House Spirits’ whiskey. After just under three years in new
American oak barrels, the whiskey is much anticipated… at least, by
whiskey lovers like me. Expect it to go quickly.

Each release will coincide with an evening of celebration. The
shochu release on October 24 will be held at Biwa and include a
cocktail hour followed by a ticketed dinner. The as-yet-scheduled
whiskey release in December will begin with cocktails at Beaker and
Flask and progress to the Simpatica dining hall. Keep an eye on
Blogtown for more details.

If you’re anxious about missing a dose of this small-batch artisan
“medicine,” the folks from House Spirits have created an Apothecary
Club. A $75 membership will include invites to special dinners and dibs
on exclusive Apothecary releases.

New Deal Does Chocolate

“‘Flavored vodka’ is such a fucking awful phrase,” says Tom
Burkleaux of New Deal Distillery. That’s why his chocolate vodka, Mud
Puddle, which will be released in a month or two, will likely not carry
that label.

Another reason Mud Puddle shouldn’t be considered “flavored” is
because the cacao is added before distillation, instead of afterward.
The effect is that the chocolate becomes a distinct part of the vodka.
Mud Puddle starts with big cacao tones, but it lacks a sweetness that
would too easily steer it into “flavored vodka” territory. In that way
it’s much truer to chocolate’s cacao bean roots.

After the palate-filling chocolate hit, Mud Puddle elongates and
warms. The sensation is like drinking unsweetened hard hot cocoa.
Burkleaux has a better way of explaining the flavor. “It’s almost
home-style,” he says. “Like we were making a liqueur but we just
decided not to add sugar to it.”

Mud Puddle will add another distinct vodka to New Deal’s vodka line,
which currently includes Portland 88 Vodka, New Deal Vodka, and the
eye-popping spicy pepper vodka Hot Monkey, but New Deal is also working
on a gin to be named Clawfoot.

The plan is that Clawfoot (as in bathtub) will be an organic gin
distilled from local ingredients. Currently, they’re experimenting with
simple gins made from distilled base spirit and juniper, period. Their
two prototypes, gin #1 and gin #2, are startlingly different,
especially considering that the main difference between the two is the
design of the still.

Gin #1 has an expansive airiness and a distinct drying quality on
the palate. The juniper notes are aggressive and pronounced, though not
unpleasantly so. Gin #2 is much more mellow, with rounder juniper notes
expressing more of the plants piney characteristics.

If these “primitive” gins are where he’s starting, it’ll be
interesting to see where Burkleaux and his crew ends up when their
Clawfoot hits the market in the future. As it stands, Burkleaux plans
to offer bottles of gin #1 and gin #2 at the New Deal Distillery’s
ephemeral tasting “room.” Tipplers anxious to get a sip of Mud Puddle
can also belly up to the tasting-room bar and sample the unreleased
vodka.

The New Deal tasting room (1311 SE 9th) is open Saturdays from 12:30
to 5 pm.

Changing of the Cocktail Season

As seasons change, so do cocktail lists. Bartenders Kelley Swenson of Ten 01 and Kevin Ludwig of Beaker and Flask have kindly offered Mercury readers a sneak peek at cocktails soon to cross their bars.

While damson plums are often made into slivovitz, who really wants to drink the stuff? Kevin Ludwig offers a better way to get the fruit and alcohol into your system.

The Comb Over

2 oz. Aviation Gin

3/4 oz. lemon juice

3/4 oz. damson plum syrup (see instructions)

1/2 oz. Cointreau

3 dashes Regans’ Orange Bitters

pinch of cardamom

To make the plum syrup, split a cup of damson plums (they’re small)
and add to a pot with two cups of sugar and one and a half cups of
water. Cook until the plums break down and the mixture becomes soupy.
Remove from heat, let cool, and strain through cheesecloth. Add to the
rest of the ingredients, shake, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Fall means the start of spiced wine season, but often the
preparation is too much work. Kelley Swenson has learned that adding
bitters to red wine creates a spiced wine effect, quickly and simply.
Add spices, sloe, and gin, and you’ve got a perfect fall cocktail.

The City Solution

1.5 oz. Old Tom Gin

1/2 oz. sloe gin

1/2 oz. simple syrup

1/2 oz. fresh-squeezed lime

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1/2 oz. red wine

1 stick cinnamon

In a cocktail shaker or mixing glass, add Old Tom Gin, sloe gin,
simple syrup, lime juice, and Angostura bitters to ice and shake until
cold. Strain over fresh ice and float red wine and cinnamon stick as a
garnish. The drink is presented in two-tone red with the dark red wine
floating on top, but should be stirred before consuming. The cinnamon
resides on top as garnish.