While it adds something to our ability to give recommen- dations on how to enjoy our products, at the end of the day people are going to use them how they choose. In many ways, our recommendations are not for the mixology crowd; rather they’re for people who are looking for direc- tion and for something new. These are people who want to be educated; they want to learn how to enjoy spirits in a more refined way. They don’t want to just put a gin and tonic together; they want to learn how to build a drink and how to use ice properly. “The ‘Kin’ in Kinsip speaks to the idea of family and friends; the ‘sip’ speaks to cocktail culture and enjoying fine spirits with friends and family.” You know, it really is. We’re actually at a place right now where we’d love to do more – it could be a business by itself right now it seems. People are always looking for venues. The buildings and barns are well suited for events. We have a hops barn, for instance, that’s similar to an old tobacco drying barn. We’ve hosted one wedding and a handful of parties and from time-to- time a stretch limo willth arrive with bachelor or bachelorette parties for tours. Jeremiah, your white spirits are available in more than 30 provincial liquor stores, LCBOs. Is it safe to say that the grain-to- glass paradigm is gaining ground? JS: Without a doubt. We have an 80-acre farm that we are actively growing our own wheat in. We’re getting some help to do that now, but we will be growing more and more of our own grain in the future. In fact, in the late 1800s Prince Edward County was renowned for its barley and hops and we’re looking at restoring that reputation. When we talk about grain-to- glass, it’s really quite simple: we start with the raw grain right here in Prince Edward County and we’re with it every step of the way to the bottle. We’re consistently influencing the spirit; we’re trying to makeing it better. Our tour is designed to let people look under the hood, so to speak, of the distilling world. We want to let the consumer know that we’re not making something “crafty” like so many of the big brands that use neutral grain spirits, which is highly concentrated ethanol, in their recipes. We’re definitely going to host more of these events in the future. The property, the farm, speaks for itself. Hosting events must be a real pleasure.
People largely don’t understand the alchemy involved turning these ingredients into a high-quality spirit – and that’s no fault of theirs. Right now in Ontario there are 10 times as many craft breweries as there are craft distilleries. The 10 percent, or so, of people who come who have visited a distillery before have only visited a big one in Scotland or in the US, which aren’t nearly as thorough and educative. There’s a lot to take-in on the tour. We have a combina- tion of whites and darks, but I would have to say that our flagship spirit is our gin – we actually struggled to keep it in stock this past summer. Our vodka is also quite good and very popular. All of our white spirits are made using whole wheat, which is unique considering that so many gins and vodkas are made with corn. In craft distilling you want to be different – but not too dif- ferent. You’ve got to have vodka; you’ve got to have gin, but you have to find other ways to stay fresh. Once you’ve proved that your core products are solid you have a bit more of a leash to experiment with interesting supple- mentary products like we have with our barrel-aged maple syrup and bitters. We’ve also found success with infused vodka – it’s pine-in- fused – and it’s somewhat similar to a gin both in flavor and how we produce it. It’s important to note with products like this, that it’s not flavoured but infused. Flavoured spirits simply have something added to them after they’ve dis- tilled; our infused vodka become very herbaceous, rather than sugary, flavoured vodkas from the big brands. Coming from the Atlantic Provinces, I feel obliged to ask you Jeremiah: Does Kinsip have rum in the lineup? Our rum falls on the dark side of our product line. All of our dark spirits are bottled at a pretty high percent. Our rum, for example, is 45 percent alcohol by volume. We actually have some of the oldest craft rum in the province, but I have to say that the rum is the only thing we make that isn’t truly made entirely from local ingredients. What is interesting is the history of rum running in this area. We’re so close to Lake Ontario andto New York State, so you can imagine this was a pretty busy county during Pro- hibition in the US. The whole wheat provides a sweetness that is unfor- gettable.
In addition to the rum, we have a blended whiskey, com- prised of corn, wheat rye, and barley.
The barley is peated or smoky, which is essentially Scotch, so the flavour profile is familiar yet unique.
There’s also our straight rye whiskey. We actually use a pinot noir barrel to finish the whiskey, which gives it a nice subtle flavour. It’s turned out so nice that we’ve committed
When we make gin, for example, it’s gin from start to finish.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2017
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