Distilleries
Duluth Distillery Double Header by Women Who Whiskey Twin Cities
Join Women Who Whiskey Twin Cities on the road. Introducing the first event outside the Metro for a Duluth Distillery double header. While the event is open to all, this particular one is intended for women and non-binary folks only, please. All women are welcome.
The first stop is Canal Park’s Vikre Distillery, a woman-owned business and the first distillery to open to the public in Duluth in 2014. Participants enjoy the private Barrel Room with lunch from Northern Waters Smokehaus then embark on a facility tour and guided tasting with founder Emily Vikre. Afterward, enjoy a cocktail and peruse the gift shop to make any bottle and merch purchases.
The next stop is Duluth Whiskey Project. Enjoy a welcome cocktail, then hear from one of the brand’s founders for a tour and tasting. After the program, there will be time for bottle or merch purchases or purchasing additional food or drink.
Tickets include private tours and tastings at each distillery, one cocktail at each distillery, lunch, gratuity, local sales tax, and ticket processing fees.
Parking information and additional details will be emailed to ticketholders prior to the event. Please plan on a safe ride, we encourage our guests to consider shuttle and public transportation options or splitting rideshare services.
Tickets are available at eventbrite.com.
Bootleggers, bring out your kerchiefs!
One hundred years ago, the cellar of what was then the new St. Louis County Jail in Duluth, and now is the Leijona apartment building, was jammed with hundreds of confiscated moonshine stills. It was the time of Prohibition. The March 30, 1925 Duluth Herald reported that storing all the stills was becoming a problem. (more…)
Copper Crow Distillery open near Bayfield
The Arrowhead region’s supply of hooch expanded in April when Copper Crow Distillery opened on the Red Cliff Reservation about four miles north of Bayfield. It joins Vikre Distillery in Duluth as the area’s only makers of alcoholic spirits. (more…)
Vikre distillery wins national award
Vikre Distillery took first place in a USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice award for best craft specialty spirits, beating out major players like St. George Spirits and Koval Distillery.
Joel and Emily Vikre founded the craft distillery in 2012 and started selling gin and aquavit to the public in 2014. With traditional distilling methods, Lake Superior water and the inventive use of local botanicals foraged in the Northwoods, Vikre is creating unparalleled products. (more…)
Entrepreneur eyes West End for distillery
Kevin Evans, CEO of Duluth Whiskey Project LLC, is interested in opening a distillery at the former Franklin Foods facility on the 1900 block of West First St. in Duluth’s West End. The Duluth News Tribune reports the Duluth City Council could vote tonight on a resolution authorizing up to $50,000 for Barr Engineering Co. to conduct an environmental investigation of the former Arrowhead-Kemps dairy operation, which closed in 2013. The property is listed by Holappa Commercial Real Estate at $450,000. (more…)
Vikre Distillery lands #4 spot in Details magazine taste test
The March issue of Details magazine ranks American-made gins in an article titled “The American Gin Renaissance.” Duluth’s Vikre Distillery took fourth place for its Boreal Cedar Gin.
4. Vikre Distillery Boreal Cedar Gin
Duluth, Minnesota
The Gin: Smoky, thanks to red cedar.
Fun Fact: “I developed the Cedar specifically to make my perfect Negroni,” says cofounder Emily Vikre.
The Appeal: For fermentation and proofing, Vikre uses purified Lake Superior water, which is soft and devoid of (taste-altering) minerals. $30
There’s an online version of the article with the more click-baitish title, “10 American-made gins that are too damn good to pass up.”
Another recent honor: Vikre’s Ovrevann Aquavit won a bronze medal in the DSS category at the American Craft Spirits Association’s Distillers Convention & Vender Trade Show in mid-February. (Through exhaustive research — you know, like ten minutes worth — PDD is now able to update this report to clarify that DSS stands for Distilled Spirits, Specialty.)