Boatwright Mule Cocktail Recipe

Boatwright Bourbon Mule

This recipe was created from our friend Maya, author of Alaska From Scratch and is a twist on a Moscow Mule, which is traditionally made using vodka. The Boatwright Bourbon gives this cocktail a bold kick. The combination of the citrus, ginger beer, and Bourbon served in a copper mug results in a fun, refreshing cocktail that can easily be enjoyed any time of the year.

Recipe:

1.5 ounces Boatwright Bourbon

1 lemon wedge

3 ounces ginger beer

Combine ingredients and serve with ice in a copper mug.

Rye Manhattan Cocktail Recipe

Wrack Line Rye Manhattan

Our bold and spicy Wrack Line Rye really shines when made in a Manhattan. Our Sales and Media Representative, Rose, very much enjoys her Manhattans, so this one is for her! It’s a simple 3 ingredient drink with an added touch of a homemade bourbon soaked cherry. We took some cloves, vanilla, and cinnamon, along with some sugar and our Boatwright Bourbon and soaked some bing and rainier cherries in the liquid. They turned our nice and sweet with a nice mellow boozy finish and really compliment the flavors from our Rye.

Recipe:

1.5 oz Wrackline Rye

.5 Sweet Vermouth

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

1 Boatwright Bourbon Soaked Cherry

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir will and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Flaming Fireweed Cocktail Recipe

Flaming Fireweed

This week’s special is bringing the heat. With a jalapeno infused 12 Volt Moonshine and a flamed orange peel for a fun garnish, this one will surely not go unnoticed. With the help of the fireweed growing behind the Distillery we make a nice floral syrup that works well with the Moonshine and adds some great depth to this drink. Even with the warmth and mild spiciness this drink is still nice and refreshing, perfect for your summer days!

Recipe:

1.5 oz Jalapeno Moonshine

.5 Fireweed Syrup

.75 Lime Juice

½ Teaspoon Cherry Syrup

3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Soda Water

Add all ingredients to a collins glass. Stir well. Top off with soda water and give one more quick stir. Garnish with a sliced Jalapeno and flamed orange peel.

From herbs to Absinthe

From herbs to Absinthe

When herbs like wormwood, lemon balm, and anise hyssop are thriving in gardens within the Chilkat Valley, it’s time to make a batch of Green Siren Absinthe. Based on a recipe from the 1700s, the process of producing our Green Siren Absinthe is tedious. We skip the artificial color and sugar syrup, and, instead, soak these locally grown herbs twice. Once it takes on its distinctive licorice flavor and magical jade hue, we strain it, bottle it, and make it available to you.

Many thanks to the Mosquito Lake Community Center and Melina of Flat Bay Farms for the recent fresh herb delivery. Sourcing locally plays a significant role in the flavor of our spirits, adding an authentic taste of the local love that circulates through our small, remote Alaskan community.

Blueberry Basil Smash Recipe by Alaska from Scratch

Blueberry Basil Smash

Full of fresh ingredients that highlight both our 50 Fathoms Gin & Green Siren Absinthe, this recipe is a real treat for summertime sipping. Time to use some of that fresh basil from the greenhouse!

1 oz 50 Fathoms Gin
1 tsp Green Siren Absinthe
2 large Fresh Basil Leaves
2 tbsp Blueberries
.5 oz Lemon Juice
.5 oz Simple Syrup

Muddle, shake with ice, and then strain into glass.

Crystal Clear Cocktail Recipe

Crystal Clear

This drink is a bit of a mystery to the drinker. With no visual cues from a garnish or color to anticipate any flavors, this one will surprise you with how much flavor it has. The compliment from the pineapple infused Icy Strait Vodka with the 50 Fathoms Gin is vibrant with depths of flavor. We used a bit of molecular gastronomy with the clarified lemon juice, which is a fancy word for food science, and we used agar powder to suspend the solids within the lemon juice. Then we strained it through multiple filters, leaving us with an almost clear liquid bursting with a beautiful lemon flavor. Did I mention we are using our house made spruce tip syrup to really round off the citrus kick?

Recipe:

1 oz Pineapple Infused Icy Strait Vodka

.5 oz 50 Fathoms Gin

.5 oz Clarified Lemon Juice

.5 oz Spruce Tip Syrup

3 Drops Lemon Extract

This drink will be stirred to keep it silky smooth and as clear as possible. Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir well for 20 seconds. Strain into a couple glass.

If you want more information about clarifying drinks, and other great insight to the science behind crafting amazing cocktails, check out Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence book.

Meet Rebecca

Meet Rebecca: Business Operations & Supply Chain Manager

Her official title is Business Operations and Supply Chain Manager, but she helps manage all kinds of projects at the Distillery: marketing, sales, merchandise, distribution,— you name it. Rebecca has an MBA from Georgia State University and worked at a few Fortune 500 companies before moving to Haines from Atlanta last year. Landing in Haines is the culmination of a long-held dream to move to Alaska. She sold her house in Atlanta, constructed a camper truck to live out of, and set off for a road trip without any definite time stamp. Haines was far from her first (or final) destination, but upon arriving on the ferry, she said aloud to herself “I have to live here.”

It didn’t take her long to settle into life in Haines, or to find herself working at the Distillery. While vastly different from working at a large corporation, she emphasized how much she enjoys the diversity of her work here, having the freedom to create and execute ideas and constantly learn new skills. But, “First and foremost, what I enjoy most about working at the Distillery are the people I work with. My co-workers make it fun and lighthearted here,” she added.

What does Rebecca do outside of work? You can probably already guess, based on her story, that her free time is full of adventure. Biking and hiking, of course, but also baking the perfect homemade croissants!

Rebecca’s favorite Port Chilkoot Distillery spirit is the Wrack Line Rye and her favorite cocktail is Garrett’s Whiskey Sour with egg white. If you ever see her sipping on one in the tasting room after work, make sure to say hello! She has miles of stories that are best shared over cocktails on the porch, overlooking the canal that brought her to first step foot here in Haines.

A deeper look at the 50 Fathoms Gin

50 Fathoms Gin

You may have wondered what exactly the meaning is behind the name of our 50 Fathoms Gin. While Haines is home of Port Chilkoot Distillery, it is also the home of many sport, subsistence, and commercial fishermen. If you were to take a look inside of any local’s freezer, we can almost guarantee you’d find a piece of delicious halibut ready to be thawed, cooked, and devoured. It’s a staple here in Southeast Alaska. What does that have to do with 50 fathoms? Well…you’ll want to remember this for your next Alaskan fishing excursion, so write this down! 50 fathoms is the ideal depth to catch halibut in Southeast Alaska (a fathom is a unit of measure equal to 6 feet). This means you are likely to catch a halibut right around 300 feet. Plus, we think sipping on a gin & tonic is a pretty rewarding way to conclude a long day of fishing!

Through the Grapevine Recipe

Through the Grapevine

This weeks special is Through the Grapevine. The
grapefruit syrup is mellow and compliments our 50 Fathoms Gin’s bright, botanical flavor while also adding a little kick from some fresh ginger. This is a nice light and refreshing drink. Also, to incorporate all of the grapefruit, we candied the peels and are using them as part of the garnish!

Recipe:

1.5 oz 50 Fathoms Gin

.75 oz Grapefruit Syrup

.50 oz Lemon Juice

½ teaspoon Ginger Mix (We mix equal parts fresh ginger juice, lime juice, and simple syrup. Or you can substitute with 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ginger juice.)

Combine with ice and stir. Garnish with lime peel twist and candied grapefruit peels to finish it off.

Grapefruit Syrup Recipe:

1 ½ cups Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

½ cup Water

2 cups Sugar

Add strained grapefruit juice, water, and sugar to a pan. Stir until sugar is dissolved and bring to a boil. Once it has boiled remove from heat and let cool.

Candied Grapefruit Peel Recipe:

1 Whole Grapefruit

½ cup Sugar

Remove the peel and part of the pith. Cut the peels into smaller strips. I cut mine into gummy work size strips. Cover the peels in a pan with water and bring to a boil then drain. Repeat the
previous step. Add ¼ cup of water and ½ a cup of sugar to the grapefruit peels and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes.
The peels will begin to turn translucent. Drain the remaining liquid and move to a wire rack to dry. You can also put them in a dehydrator to speed up the drying process. Once dry toss in some sugar.

Pina Colada Recipe

Pina Colada

As people around the country raise the flag for Independence Day, we join them by raising a glass of the perfect summer beverage – the Pina Colada. Originated in Puerto Rico, this drink traveled all the way up to beautiful Haines for an Alaskan twist. Usually made with a mixture of light and dark rum, we substitute with our 12 Volt Moonshine and Boatwright Bourbon to mimic these flavors. Rum is traditionally distilled from sugar cane. That rum is then bottled tp be clear rum (think Bacardi). That same rum can then be aged in once used bourbon barrels to extract a nice amber color along with the imparting some of the whiskey’s characteristics. This was a fun drink to make and even better to drink on this sunny Fourth of July week!

Recipe:

.75 oz 12 Volt Moonshine

.75 oz Boatwright Bourbon

.75 oz Fresh squeezed pineapple juice

.75 Coco Lopez

.5 oz Lime juice

Garnish – Pineapple leaf and Pineapple Cherry Flag

Combine ingredients in a mixing vessel with ice and shake. Strain into an ice filled glass and enjoy.

Meet Rodney

Meet Rodney, our Facility & Production Manager

Rodney grew up moving around quite a bit, living in Texas for several years, South Carolina, and even Mexico, but he moved to Haines in 2019 after 10 years or so of residing in Juneau. He lives "out the road" now, which in Haines' terms, means about 30 miles outside of town, a seemingly long commute full of gorgeous mountain views and the occasional moose encounter.

Rodney joined our team in March and quickly jumped into helping us produce hand sanitizer for the Haines community. The process was a bit different from the tasks he had anticipated: cooking mash for our Alaskan whiskeys, bottling up our Gin and Vodka, and shipping all of our spirits throughout the state. Despite the changes in our daily operation, he grew to be a staple here in our production building quite quickly.

What's his favorite Port Chilkoot Distillery spirit? Boatwright Bourbon in a classic Old Fashioned. In fact, our Boatwright Bourbon is also the spirit he enjoys producing the most. “I really enjoy observing the smells, the tastes, and everything that goes into learning the correct whiskey cuts,” he mentioned as he moved around the still. If you saw him routinely running around our production building, you’d never guess that he’s only been working at the Distillery since the spring. We're really glad he joined our team (and has been such a good sport about us interrupting his process to photograph him).

Sidecar Recipe

Sidecar

This boozy beverage is a fun variant of a sour style cocktail. Sours consist of 3 ingredients: liquor, citrus, and a sweetener. You may have had a whiskey sour before, which ranks continuously in the top 10 of favorite cocktails over the years. This drink yet stems from an even earlier drink the Brandy Crusta, which is a fun and simple drink and gets the Crusta from putting a sugar rim on the glass prior to drink service to let it harden and form a crust on the glass, and also to act as a sweetener for the cocktail to balance out the acidity. Usually prepared with brandy, we are substituting our Boatwright Bourbon to had some
smokey and vanilla notes to this drink.

Recipe:

1.5 oz Boatwright Bourbon

.5 oz Orange Liqueur (We make our own, but you can also use Cointreau)

.25 oz Lemon Juice

.25 oz Simple Syrup

2 dashes Orange Bitters

Orange Liqueur Recipe:

2 Large Oranges

1 750 ml bottle Icy Strait Vodka

1 oz Boatwright Bourbon

3 Cups Simple Syrup

Slice oranges into quarters and add to large mason jar. Pour in vodka and bourbon. Shake once a day for 3 to 5 days. When straining, catch the oranges into a nut milk bag, or cheese cloth, and squeeze all the juice out. You will want the final portion of liquid free of pulp, so strain again through a fine mesh strainer if necessary. Finally, add 3 cups of 1:1 simple syrup.