A Date With the Green Fairy at Great Lakes Distillery

While on a recent trip in Milwaukee I took a tour of Wisconsin's oldest maker of shine - Great Lakes Distillery. Founder Guy Rehorst and his crew have been making fine spirits there since 2004.





The place was steamy and pretty packed when we got there. The Dulcinea and I were accompanied by our friend Pam and Pam's daughter, Neko. There is a bar that serves cocktails right by the entrance and an adjacent wall lined with bottles just waiting to be bought by some thirsty souls. We signed up for the tour and the adults paid $5 for a tasting flight. There were also some shelves with t-shirts as well as bitters from Milwaukee's Bittercube and a small selection of cured pork from Bolzano Artisan Meats.





Small distilleries by definition don't have that much for you to see. You've got some tanks for mashing, a distiller, and then barrels for aging. Oh, and some kind of bottling area. Since you're not walking very far and there is only a modicum of things to see, hopefully you'll get an interesting tour guide. And and Great Lakes Distillery, we did.

He explained how Prohibition killed off Wisconsin distilleries and that GLD is now the oldest in the state even though it went into business in 2004. There is a small display of old bottles from Milwaukee's distilling past as well as an old home distilling unit. After explaining how it all works, he went into some detail about the various spirits they make and their histories. For example, he dispelled the notion that vodka was originally made from potatoes. The drink goes back to at least the 1400s in Poland and the tuber is a product of the New World. And unlike vodka and whiskey, rum is made from sugarcane.

At the tap, he explained that the first thing you get when distilling is acetone. Due to prohibitive costs, however, they do not sell locally grown, organic nail polish remover. After a time you then get your booze followed by the essential oils from whatever your ingredient is. The potable stuff comes out at 195 proof so it is watered down, aged, flavored, etc. after it comes out of the spigot.





At the aging part of the place there were barrels and more barrels. Bourbon was aging in charred oak barrels; rum was there too. Plus a few labeled "Bierschapps". This is their Pumpkin Seasonal Spirit just waiting for autumn to arrive. Apparently some folks from GLD were imbibing adult beverages with some of the crew at Milwaukee's Lakefront brewery when one of them piped up and said that GLD should distill some of Lakefront's Pumpkin Lager. A test batch was done using the beer and it was promising enough that they gave it another go but this time they used some of the beer that had not been hopped.





With the tour done, it was off to the tasting area. Our $5 got us five tastes.





Not being a big vodka drinker, I found theirs to be alright. It was pretty smooth but I'm one of the last people on Earth to consult on what makes good vodka. However, I did like the Citrus & Honey vodka. It had a nice citrus tang and a mild honey sweetness to it. The gin was very surprising. While the typical juniper berry pine flavor was there, it was balanced with more botanicals giving it a very sharp herbal flavor. It tasted very fresh, if you will. Oddly enough, the Kinnickinnic Whiskey wasn't much to my liking, although I'd definitely try it again. To my palate, it tasted overly woody in a bad way. Like my tongue got slapped against a board as opposed to gently licking it.(?!) I liked the rum a lot and it is named after Roaring Dan Seavey, the only man to ever be arrested for piracy on the Great Lakes.

And then there was the Green Fairy. Absinthe got a bad reputation in the early 20th century due to poor research and an abundance of Post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning and was banned here in the States in 1912 with the chemical thujone from wormwood being blamed for sending people into psychotic rages. Absinthe was given the green light again in 2007 when the ban was lifted. GLD makes both traditional green absinthe and a red variety made with hibiscus. We sampled the green.

The older I get, the more I like the flavor of anise. GLD's version was very tasty with the licorice flavor but there also a herbal quality to it that gave the drink a very clean flavor.

Here's one of them demon wormwood plants:





With the tour over, we headed to the bar. I had a Bare Knuckle Boxer which was Roaring Dan's Rum along with juices of lime & grapefruit, and some simple syrup. Very tasty and highly refreshing. Pam had the red absinthe which was also very good. I liked the addition of hibiscus.

If you're a connoisseur of spirits, a tour of the GLD is a must. But even casual consumers of spirits will enjoy it. You learn a little bit and get to enjoy some fine drinks. The staff there was very friendly and willing to take on any and all questions. I found out that Wisconsin now has seven distilleries. I didn't know at that AEppelTreow now distilled. They make brandy and a sorghum spirit. A big surprise for me was the existence of Lo Artisan Distiller up in Sturgeon Bay. It was found by Po Lo, who is Hmong, and he makes a Hmong rice spirit called Yerlo which supposedly has a nice jasmine aroma. Sounds good to me.