Conceived in West Marin, the Elk Fence Distillery is called after a Tomales Bay fence constructed to maintain native tule elk from consuming non-native crops. It’s about as West Marin as you may get, apart from one factor: It’s in Santa Rosa.
When co-founders and co-distillers Gail Coppinger and Scott Woodson initially went to the Marin Civic Heart and requested what it might take to open a distillery in Marin County, they have been met with clean stares. They made their desires come true anyway.
The 2 met working within the trades — Coppinger is a shingler, and Woodson is a painter — and bonded over his love of homebrewing and her love of cooking (she’s a former skilled cook dinner). One summer season night time in 2014, they bought collectively in Woodson’s storage in Inverness.
“We made a mash collectively,” says Coppinger, of Level Reyes Station. “I liked the odor and the chemistry.”
By that point, Woodson, a former barley grower, had already began to look past brewing.
“I began studying about distilling,” he says, “and I spotted that you could’t do a distillery in your storage. You’d go to jail. You can also make beer and wine in your storage, however you possibly can’t distill.”
The 2 of them have been intrigued.
“We have been like new child infants, we knew nothing,” Coppinger says. “We type of dove in and put a down cost on a nonetheless system.”
They ordered a hybrid double pot nonetheless from Trident Stills in Etna, Maine, attended tutorials in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, studied up on distilling and commenced searching for a spot to place it. Marin was out, in order that they regarded first within the East Bay earlier than deciding on a constructing in Santa Rosa.
“We did have a time restrict: The gear was being shipped to us, and we higher have a spot to maintain it,” Coppinger says. “You possibly can’t get a license till you lease a location, that’s the distinction between each different enterprise and distillation. You could have a location first, and then you definitely fill out the kinds. You possibly can’t do it beforehand.”
The price for a sort 4 producer of distilled spirits license is a mere $990, whereas an on-premise, full-liquor gross sales license can run tens of hundreds of dollars. However the license just isn't the place the funding lies.
“Getting the constructing turned out to be the straightforward half,” Coppinger says. “The Tubbs Hearth had simply occurred, after we have been beginning our build-out. We needed to get our plans signed off by the hearth division.”
That took 18 months — and a yr and a half of hire on a constructing they couldn’t use.
“The hearth division is severe about what you might be producing. You might be producing a high-proof distillate, and so they need to be sure everyone seems to be secure — as they need to,” Coppinger says.
They bought their last inspection and opened the doorways on March 14, 2020, simply as COVID hit.
All of that's within the rear view mirror now. Within the intervening years, they started producing 4 merchandise: a vodka ($35), a 90-proof gin ($50), a barrel-aged gin ($50) and a 2-year-old Briny Deep unfiltered single-malt whiskey ($140), all comprised of regionally sourced barley. Elk Fence is now in 30 totally different areas all through California, and so they just lately positioned third in USA At this time 10Best’s record of greatest new craft distilleries.
In a super-saturated discipline of small-batch spirits, Elk Fence’s merchandise stand out. Their White Elk vodka is 90 proof, 10 proof increased than nearly each different vodka available on the market. Their Fir Prime gin accommodates solely three botanicals — coriander, tangerine and grapefruit peel — moreover the requisite juniper. And their whiskey is aged two years, not within the closely charred barrels sometimes used for American whiskey, however in lighter toasted barrels used for wine.
“Char seals the barrel, which makes it tougher for the spirit to age out,” Woodson says. “It takes out impurities however on the similar time, it’s taking plenty of actually good flavors out. In case you are distilling rather well, you don’t need taste to be taken out by the barrel.”
The result's a deeply full-flavored whiskey that oozes spice and caramel. It actually isn’t rye, bourbon or wheat. And at that value, it isn’t for the novice both, however then once more, nice whiskeys seldom are.
“We haven’t paid ourselves a dime but,” Woodson says. “It’s a labor of affection at this level.”
Elk Fence’s tasting room is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 464 Kenwood Court docket in Santa Rosa. Discover extra info at elkfencedistillery.com or on Instagram @elkfencedistillery.
Jeff Burkhart is the writer of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Actual Bartender, Vol. I and II” and the host of the Barfly Podcast. Observe him at jeffburkhart.internet and speak to him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com