It took Bryan Anderson three years to find the perfect spot — and cut through all the red tape — in which to open his new distillery.
When Alberta loosened restrictions on the amount of product a distillery had to produce in order to be in business, Anderson, a tax planner by trade, realized that making gins and vodkas and, eventually, whiskeys, would be the way he’d realize his dream of owning his own business.
Lone Pine has begun production at its new site at 10375 59th Ave, just south of Argyll Road in an industrial part of Edmonton lovingly nicknamed the “Hubcap District.”
“It took a long time to find the right facility,” says Anderson. “It took a lot of consultations with the City.”
It takes three years of aging for a spirit to be called a whiskey. So, it won’t be till 2023 at the earliest when Lone Pine can sell a true dark spirit, though some distilleries have produced amber rye or wheat “spirits” that have been aged less than the required three years.
But, Lone Pine starts with two vodkas — one corn-based, one wheat-based — and three gins, as well as some unaged spirits.
Anderson says that the Gateway Dry is Lone Pine’s take on a classic dry gin. The Earl Grey Gin will have, you guessed it, strong notes of bergamot. And the Rocky Mountain Gin is meant to evoke the smells and sensations of a hike in the mountains.
“It’s designed to evoke the mountain experience,” says Anderson. “The flavours, the aromatics. It will be piney, with rosehip and mint.”
Lone Pine Distilling
Calgary Trail North | 10375 59 Ave NW | 587.469.8099 | LonePineDistilling.ca
