FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.
It's pale pink, 70 proof, and surprisingly smooth. Prickly pear flavored vodka, made with the fruit of the prickly pear cactus and produced at ''the only legal still in Arizona," hit the shelves just before Christmas and has been wildly popular, according to Dave Williamson, owner of Arizona High Spirits Distillery.
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''Bashas' [an Arizona grocery chain] gave us statewide distribution, and we sold over 1,200 cases in two weeks," Williamson said. Williamson and Dana Kanzler, owners of Mogollon Brewing Co., decided in 2002 to add a distillery, the first in the state, to their microbrewing operation, which operates at 7,000 feet at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks. They had a state-of-the-art still custom built by Arnold Holstein, a distillery equipment company in Markdorf, Germany. ''It arrived in several crates, with no instructions," said Steve Hendricks, the head brewer, flipping through a photo album chronicling the assembly of the huge, hand-hammered polished copper contraption that looks like a spaceship. From assembling the still to rewriting the law books (''There was no law saying you couldn't operate a still in Arizona, but then again there was no law saying you could," Hendricks said), it has been a long haul from concept to market.

For now, you can buy prickly pear vodka only in Arizona, but High Spirits has filed applications to distribute in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Texas, and Florida. The company's next product, a traditional American vodka, will be available next month, Williamson said, and the company is working on a mesquite-flavored whiskey for next year.
Arizona High Spirits Distillery,
15 North Agassiz St.,
Flagstaff, Ariz.
928-773-8950.
www.arizonahighspirits.com.
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Handcrafted hooch: Prickly Pear Vodka from Flagstaff By Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
October 11, 2005

FLAGSTAFF
In a corner of the popular Mogollon Brewing Co. brewpub, a gleaming two-story copper and chrome contraption that resembles a Jules Verne rocket ship is dispensing a clear, 190-proof liquid into five-gallon Sparkletts bottles.

This legal still is producing what’s thought to be the only prickly pear cactus-flavored vodka in the world.

Microbrewery owners Dave Williamson and Dana Kanzler found the market going flat for their $8 a six-pack beer and hope to cash in on the booming demand for expensive flavored vodkas. They are on the cutting edge of what could be the next big thing in alcoholic beverages: small boutique distilleries that turn out pricy, handcrafted hooch.

For Williamson, 48, and Kanzler, 39, a 3 ½-year struggle to get their $115,000 state-of-the-art German still legalized and High Spirits Prickly Pear Vodka approved for human consumption is almost over.

The partners are one small federal approval away from stocking their product in liquor stores and supermarkets across the country. One of the nation’s top liquor distributors has agreed to handle the vodka, and 600 cases of it are ready to be shipped.

In the meantime, Williamson and Kanzler can only offer free samples. Tasters have remarked on the vodka’s flavor and smoothness.

“It has a sweet bouquet that’s hardly noticeable across the palate,” said Flagstaff resident Mark Tosh. "I'd compare it with Ketel One or Stoli."

"It has a unique flavor and is extremely smooth," said Flagstaff artist Patrick Smith.

It took a year and a half to convince the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control to issue Arizona High Spirits Distillery a license, although there were no state laws against it.

"Everywhere we turned, someone threw up a roadblock," said Kanzler, who grew up in Phoenix and started brewing beer in college.

Department spokesman Sgt. Wes Kuhl said the agency wanted to be sure Arizona High Spirits had all the proper licenses, noting that nobody had applied to operate a distillery in Arizona before.

"We had to make sure everybody was in compliance," he said.
The Coconino County Health Department had to approve the bottling facility, but the only guidelines it had were for bottled water. The department was concerned about the possibility of germs getting into the bottles, although vodka originally was used as a disinfectant.

"God forbid something like this would happen," Williamson jokingly said as he held up a bottle of Scorpion Vodka with a dead arthropod floating in the liquid.

The partners only need the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to approve their labels before they can begin selling vodka. That approval is expected in the next week or so.

"We should be in the stores sometime in November," said Williamson, a former liquor salesman who grew up in Kingman. He said the still can produce up to 5,000 six-bottle cases a month.

Flagstaff, as it turns out, is an ideal place to distill liquor. At 7,000 feet, ethanol evaporates at a lower temperature. The process doesn't require as much heat, and there are fewer impurities.

"It's like high-altitude cooking," Williamson said.
Arizona High Spirits' first offering will be the 70-proof prickly pear vodka, which is slightly sweet and has a pale pink color. That will be followed by a traditional 80-proof American Vodka and a mesquite-smoked whiskey called Lawless Arizona Sippin' Shine.

The partners are going after the red-hot $25 to $30 per bottle high-end vodka market that has seen explosive growth over the past few years. Eric Schmidt believes boutique distilleries such as Arizona High Spirits could be a significant new trend.

"Premium-brand and flavored vodkas are currently very hot," said Eric Schmidt, research director at Adams Beverage Group in Norwalk, Conn. "It's sparked by the resurgence of the cocktail culture and people who want to experience new tastes and flavors," he said, noting that most of the liquor industry's recent growth has come from flavored liquors. Kanzler opened Mogollon Brewing Co. in 1997 on a shoestring, with financial help from family and friends. The brewpub flourished, and Kanzler's beers, including Apache Trout Stout and Superstition Pale Ale, sold reasonably well across the state.

But when liquor salesman Williamson came on as a partner in 2001, he quickly realized that the profit margin on bottled beer was too thin. The beer is expensive to produce, and the high price limits demand.

"The more I sold, the more I realized we'd never make it bottling beer," he said.
Williamson was convinced they could make money selling a distilled liquor, particularly one with a Southwest theme.

"We thought distilleries were illegal in Arizona," Kanzler said. But after some investigation, they concluded that stills were neither legal nor illegal.

"There was no law that said you couldn't have one and there was no law that said you could," Williamson said.
That was enough encouragement to get the project going.
"They are on their way to being a success and could ultimately end up being a model for other businesses to follow," said Russ Douglass, president of Northern Arizona Technology and Business Incubator, a non-profit organization that helps start-up businesses.

The partners said the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau was surprisingly helpful and guided them through several submissions of an inch-thick license application.

"We try to give people as much help as they need," said bureau spokesman Art Resnick. "We're not trying to keep people out of the business; we're trying to promote commerce."

When they tasted their first batch, the partners knew the effort was worthwhile.

"We had confidence in the concept from the beginning, but when we finally made it and it came out so good, we knew we really had something," Williamson said.

Editor note, Dave Williamson is attending the American Distilling Institute "vodka" conference in April.
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The International Cane Spirits Festival and Tasting Competition March 22-25, welcomes Brazil's national treasure, Cachaca (pronounced kah-SAH-shah).
Excalibur Enterprise brings their formidable Beleza Pura Super Premium Cachaca. Recently this award-winning brand was introduced at world-famous Gaspar's Grotto. It was an 'immediate sell-out.' Speaking of Cachaca, the New Orleans-based company, Sazerac, will be offering samples of P 51 (easier to pronounce than its true tongue-twister name Pirassununga). And, from Brazil's Minas Gerais region, comes Guapiara & 'Guap' Lemon Cachacas.
These cachacas join Agua Luca and more to entertain our palates at the upcoming Festival, March 22-25, in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida.
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Michael Jackson's two lifetimes

Michael Jackson saw in the new year garlanded with honors.
Two of them were Lifetime Achievement Awards: one presented in London, by the British Guild of Beer Writers; the other in New York, by Malt Advocate Magazine, which covers both beer and whisky but with more emphasis on the latter.

Two Lifetimes? Or is it three?
A year earlier, Jackson had received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Whisky Magazine. This was marked with double presentations, in London and Tokyo.
Also in 2004, at the Great American Beer Festival, in Denver, Colorado, he had been the first recipient of the Association of Brewers' Distinguished Service Award for Beer Journalism.

Jackson was also the first person to receive the Association's Achievement Award, in 1987.
In the past 30 years, his writing on drinks and travel has been recognised with honors in Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, the United States, Australia and Japan. These include such accolades as The Glenfiddich Trophy and the André Simon Award.

New books His book "The Great Beers of Belgium", was recognised in the citation for the Mercurius Award, presented by the Crown Prince of Belgium.
The book has just been published in a much expanded and extensivey revised, fifth edition.

He also has a new book on distilled malt beverages. "Whiskey The Definitive World Guide."
This was published last fall and has already been named Best Spirits Book in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (France) and Best Drinks Guide Book in the World Food Media Awards (Australia)
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An Excel spread sheet listing USA distilleries is now available to memeber of the Distilling Institute. Look under resources at www.distilling.com

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Distillery Workshop 101

Bavarian Hostein Partners will be sponsoring its next workshop April 20th and 21st, 2005 in Flagstaff, AZ
http://potstill.com or call 310-391-1091
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Christain Carl/b&d technologies also hold workshops. http://brewing-distilling.com or call 215-242-6806 for more information.
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For Sale
Medium-capacity column still for the production of potable alcohol. It will produce 60-120 or more gallons per day (at proof as high as 190) on a continuous basis. It is intended as a primary still for a small distillery or as an auxiliary still for larger distilleries, for wineries who want to produce their own alcohol to fortify their product, and for similar operations. This is a 30-foot high stainless steel column still 12" in diameter, divided into two 15-foot high connected sections for the convenience of operations. It has 34 plates. This still was operated for about a year (1985-86) for the production of apple brandy by the Archer Distilling Company in Prattsville, Greene County, New York. It was registered, licensed and approved by the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division of the U.S Department of the Treasury. The product was distributed as Yabloka brand apple brandy (60 and 80 proof) throughout the Hudson Valley in New York State and in New York City. The project was under-capitalized and went out of business in 1987.

This is a complete high-quality operating unit. It includes a 2000-pound 15-lb. pressure Rockmills steam boiler housing a Carlin Oil Burner model #801CRD, a stainless steel heat-transfer tank, a condensation tank, and the miscellaneous pipes, valves, fittings, gauges and tanks necessary for operation.

The still has not operated since 1987.

No warranties are offered. $66,000.00.

The still will be partially dismantled to allow for rigging and tranport.

For appontment to view the still, or for questions, please call or write:

Don Archer
110 Celia Tompkins Road
Prattsville, New York 12468
718-941-7584
518-734-3822

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POT STILL
Used cognac alambic pot still.
Pot, condenser, pre-heater, burner, etc.
Capacity 650 gallons, very good condition.
$40,000.
Call Hubert at 707-485-0670

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Looking for mash tun to make WASH or need a fermentation vessels. Go to:
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North American Brewing Services is pleased to announce a more convenient way to reach our office! Our Toll-Free number 866-917-2337 is now be available. Don't spend another long distance cent! Call North American Brewing Services toll-free today!

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60 BBL New Uni-Tank Fermenter
$13,500 F.O.B.
West Coast.
Please call 1-250-717-7759 for further details

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FERMENTATION:
11 Hectolitre Specific Mechanical Open Fermenter
http://www.nabrewing.com/fermentors/01100611hlfermentors.shtml

24 Hectolitre Specific Mechanical Open Fermenter
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7 BBL DME Fermentation Unitanks
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BRITEBEER TANKS:
20 bbl Specific Mechanical Brite Tank
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7 BBL Grundies
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PACKAGING EQUIPMENT:
IDD Mini King
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Un-Caser
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Large Brewery Packaging Equipment Bottle & Can Fillers
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8.5 bbl system
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And, one final item, my website www.billowens.com has been re-done. If you would like to recieve e-mail about my photography (films and books) contact me at bill@billowens.com
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