The Proof is In The Bottle

by Liv Stecker

When Henry Anderson headed to Kentucky last year for the Annual Conference of the American Distilling Institution, winning an award was the last thing on his mind. Somewhat reluctantly, he submitted a sample of his Apple 151, a distilled spirits specialty "moonshine", made with 5 different varieties of apples from Sherman Creek Orchard, local beets and molasses. "I wasn't going to send it in," says Anderson, "because it was the second batch out the still," but seeing the conference and the judging process as a chance for some feedback and exposure for his fledgling distilling project, he changed his mind. Henry says he wasn't even paying attention to the competition results until he started getting pats on the back from the people standing around him. Apple 151 had taken a gold medal for best in category and a silver medal overall. Long time craft distillers watched grudgingly as Dominion Distillery emerged to the immediate accolades of some of the world's most qualified master distillers, professional nose and taste experts and more importantly, everybody who tasted it. 

Henry decided to tackle the intricate world of distilling after several years of successful home beer brewing. Not wanting to launch yet another micro brewery and compete with good friends locally, he wanted to try something new. Dry Fly distilling in Spokane was just taking off as a model of a successful craft distillery, and Henry was intrigued. A pile of distilling textbooks later and Henry was in the thick of it. Simultaneous to creating award winning recipes, Henry designed a still to optimize air cooling distillation using vertical copper tubing that forces distilled spirits upward without compromising the flavor of the finished product, which happens often in traditional stills. While waiting for approval for his spirit recipes, Henry submitted patents for the "Gatling Still" as he calls it, a nod to it's gangster-era machine gun resemblance. 

The finished product of  Dominion's distilling innovation speaks for itself. So much so that Henry is also building a custom Gatling Still for a new distillery in Buffalo New York. It's not like Henry doesn't already have enough to keep him busy. The 100 gallon still at Dominion Distillery cranks out about one batch of spirits a week. This process involves five "stripping runs" that take about 8-10 hours apiece, and heat the distillery to a whopping 130 degrees - and that's just outside the still. After that, Henry performs a "spirit run" which can take even longer. All said and done, the process of making a batch of Apple 151 starts off with 500 gallons of apple mash and results in 30-50 gallons of 151. "It's a reductive process," Henry explains, "the still could be running all the time," but the problem that Dominion runs into at present is fermenting space. Henry and his business partner, Tommy Webster are working on solutions for this, as well developing a larger still. 

Recently, Dominion Distillery was approved to begin distributing through the Rosauers chain of grocery stores, which includes Super 1, Harvest Foods and many more. To keep up with this kind of demand, the need for more distilling space is urgent. All of these logistical issues are nothing compared to the challenge of keeping the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms happy. Each recipe has to be submitted for approval and classification before the distilling process can begin. This process involves copious amounts of paperwork and time. "It took nine months for them to tell us how to classify the 151. They had us put on the label 'Distilled Spirits Specialty' and 'moonshine'." Henry went on to say that the federal agency has since changed their definition of moonshine and that will mean yet another label change for them down the road. There are a lot of hoops to jump through, and occasionally Henry recruits the help of Saundra Richarts, who is also one of their tasting expert and resident spirits connoisseur.

When Henry isn't distilling or building state-of-the-art stills, he spends his time with his wife Quinell and their three little girls. Quinell makes wine at home, and Henry jokes that any marital discord in the home usually springs from who gets to use the glass carboys next and where the hydrometer went to, issues only a brewing family would understand. 

Growing up in Stevens County, Henry was homeschooled for most of his K-12 career, and it's perhaps his acquired skill of self-motivated investigation that is responsible for his success as a distiller. From college distilling text books to historical documents, Henry says he has found almost all of his knowledge about distilled spirits within the pages of the vast distilling library he has accumulated. "Craft Distilling is all about tradition," Henry says, and most of his recipes hearken to the oldest styles of spirits. 

July 1st, the tasting room at Dominion Distillery will begin to serve mixed cocktail drinks, including the Dominion Orange, Apple Pie, and other original recipes created by a master chef in Spokane. Plans for expanding the tasting room as well as the distilling operation and underway, as Henry and his partners look forward to meeting the ever growing demand for their award winning product. 

The Dominion Distillery tasting room is open Wednesday - Saturday, 3:00 PM until 8:00 PM, where you can sample Apple 151 and the Single Malt Vodka, and take home a bottle or two and see Henry and the Gatling Still in action. A new batch of Whiskey is in the final stages of distilling and then into the racks for barrel aging; it will be released in stages over the next few months. Stop by the tasting room at 116 North Main Street in Colville; check them out on Facebook, visit the website http://dominiondistillery.com or call 509-675-2179 for more information.