Eau Claire Distillery Blog

  1. Where were you born and raised? I was born in Blairmore, Alberta but spent the majority of my growing up in High River. How did you first get into art? I have always been a visual person but it wasn't until Grade 10 art class at Highwood High School that I genuinely started to realize that I loved it as well as had a t... (more)

Tales of the Cocktail 2017 - The Ultimate Mixer! 2017 was Eau Claire Distillery's first year at Tales of the Cocktail. Follow along as David Farran, President of Eau Claire Distillery, tells us about the adventure that is #TOTC. "If there is a sacred pilgrimage for mixologists and bartenders, Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans is it. Thousa... (more)

The Oxen Are Coming! The Eau Claire stable of draft horses and horse farming just got bigger. Welcome to Lion and Bright – two 1800 lb Oxen – who epitomize the expression “strong as an Ox”. They come to us via Nova Scotia, one of the last bastions of the Ox community, where they still raise, train and use Oxen for farm chores, pullin... (more)

Eau Claire Distillery Call for Artist Submissions! Alberta’s first single malt whisky distillery, Eau Claire Distillery is excited to announce a call for artist portfolios. Eau Claire Distillery is looking to commission a local Alberta artist to help with custom art development for special projects. This is an exciting opportunity for em... (more)

Join Us for Afternoon G & "Tea" There is something so splendid about Afternoon Tea; a cake stand full of perfectly cut cucumber sandwiches and delicious scones with jam and clotted cream. Eau Claire Distillery has added a fun new flavour of sophistication to the traditional tea and added their own lineup of innovative teapot cocktails to the... (more)

Experience Eau Claire Distillery's Seven Deadly Gins! Eau Claire Distillery recently launched their new summer 2017 cocktail and food menu which includes Tasting Room Manager, Chelsey Coulson's Seven Deadly Gins Menu. Here's how Chelsey created the concept behind such a sinfully delicious idea; "At Eau Claire we are known for our Award W... (more)

Join Us Saturday, September 17th & Saturday, October 1st! [video width="450" height="338" mp4="http://eauclairedistillery.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ECD_Harvest30_Sec.mp4"][/video]   Come stook grain bundles with Eau Claire Distillery’s majestic Percheron horses harvesting barley at Bar U Ranch National Historic Site. ... (more)

Sunshine and generous spirits together at the Parks Canada Bar U Historic Ranch made for a remarkable annual celebration of harvest time. Volunteers, neighbours and friends helped with threshing organic grain all day using antique farm gear and cherished pitchforks. Young and old, farmers and farmers-for-a-day gathered to learn about true craft spi... (more)

We have been welcoming tourists and locals alike to our newly built visitor centre for a while now, proving popular with Sunday drivers, tour groups and even a few celebrities! But what can one expect when you visit our distillery for a tour and tasting? The good folks at Calgary is Awesome recently paid us a visit and Kirran Bakhshi wrote abou... (more)

Check out Eau Claire Distillery’s own David Farran and good friends from Alberta Carriage Supply – KT Bailey and Dale Befus – as they are featured in this edition of Salt, Fresh & Field Outpost on YouTube. There are some choice quotes in there and provide a keen insight into why we do what we do. Salt, Fresh & Field Outpo... (more)

After the release of Three Point Vodka last summer, there was definitely a buzz in the air and we want to thank those retailers who were among the first to proudly show off Alberta’s first small batch craft spirit on their shelves. Leading into fall, we launched Parlour Gin winning critical acclaim, including a 91 point rating from The Globe and ... (more)

Eau Claire Distillery: Alberta’s first craft distillery has been honoured at the 2015 Craft American Spirits Competition, receiving a Bronze Medal from the American Distilling Institute (ADI) for its Parlour Gin in the ‘Classic Distilled Gin’ category. The Turner Valley based distillery was the only Western Canadian brand recognized amo... (more)

Sparks flying on Valentine’s Day. This is the inspiration to create a cocktail to celebrate our first Valentine’s Day as Alberta’s first craft distillery. We looked North to the Head bartender Tyler Gushaty and the bar team at North 53. This bijoux Edmonton restaurant is known for its exceptional bar program. They were last month awarded ... (more)

In one generation, farming has moved from the horse to the tractor, an improvement in efficiency that has transformed world food production a thousand fold. But that transformation, and its wholesale adoption of modern methods, has left traditional horse farming in the proverbial dust. A means of farming that existed for hundreds of years, along w... (more)

Our friends from Shaw TV stopped by for a tour of our distillery, a bit of tasting, and a quick trip out to the Bar U Ranch to check on the crop. Thanks for the visit. go! Calgary: “Nestled in the hamlet of Turner Valley is where you will find Alberta’s first independent craft distillery… where every aspect of production is from farm t... (more)

Craft Circles In any new and burgeoning industry, questions of definition arise. What exactly constitutes Craft Distilling and how does it differentiate itself from the spirits already established in the market? For us, craft is the embodiment of farm to glass. We believe that a handcrafted product should be lovingly executed in an artisanal... (more)

A Brainstorm As luck would have it, there are more crazy people in the world than just me. Opening Alberta’s first Craft Distillery, while regulations languished in prohibition era legislation, was an undertaking which required a collection of mad entrepreneurs – not just one! For a fleeting moment, the idea of an Alberta Craft Distillery m... (more)