April News & Openings

News

  • Drinks industry site Seven Fifty Daily rounded up a range of business models for craft distilleries in the U.S.  

  • The B.C. Ale Trail site showed some love to its distilling siblings with a guide to five B.C. breweries that also have distilling operations.

  • Spirits accelerator company Distill Ventures hosted a roundtable event on Keeping Whisky Sustainable: access the free recording here.  

  • Calgary hotel The Dorian (named and themed for the forever-young Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray) is producing bespoke craft spirits for guests in collaboration with Eau Claire Distillery.  

  • The Calgary Herald asked some local distillers how having Russian spirits taken off local shelves could provide a boost to their business.  

  • Many distilleries in B.C., Saskatchewan and beyond have been donating proceeds of some sales and creating unique products to support relief efforts in Ukraine.  

  • O'Kenny Craft Spirits in Pembroke, Ontario, is creating a lazy-river style river-tubing experience this summer on its property adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway, on the Muskrat River, CTV Ottawa reported.  

  • A construction industry news site profiled the historic Guelph building holding The Metalworks development (which includes Spring Mill Distillery)—including the copper casks, suspected of belonging to Prohibition bootleggers, found in a crawl space.  

  • St-Ubalde, Quebec, Ubald Distillery won five awards, including a Best in Class, at the Craft Spirits Berlin Awards 2022.  

  • Maritime Spirits, a Fibe TV series about craft alcohol producers in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., has 10 episodes for Bell customers, including episodes about Moonshine Creek Distilling and Deep Roots Distillery.  

  • The Glenora Inn & Distillery got a high-profile nod from a recent Travel + Leisure story about distillery hotels.  

Openings

  • Gnu Craft Spirits is open in Calgary, Alberta. Named for the African herd east and created by three social animals, the distillery so far has a London Dry Gin for sale, plus a lot of silent-”g” puns, on its website. 

  • Snake Lake Brewing in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, is expanding into distilling with 1903 Distilling Company, within a former garage next to the brewery. The Sylvan Lake News reported that the new distillery hoped to release vodka, gin and canned hard lemonade by this spring.