Swanson's Distillery

On Saturday I loaded the boy in the bike trailer and pedaled a few miles up the road to Swanson's Mountain View Orchards. We had planned to purchase some of their fresh picked apples and cider during the Apple Days festival at the Hamilton farmer's market a couple weekends ago but got caught up with la familia at Andean Trading Company's booth and ran out of time. Their orchard isn't far from the house, so the wife suggested I bike up there and pick some up.  It seemed like a great idea, particularly when I realized that in addition to apples and cider, Swanson's had a distillery.

I don't know how I failed to note this, as I pass by their clearly labeled sign every day. I'm pretty sure I knew it was there but just hadn't fully grasped the implications. Seems I've been so focused on micro-distilleries that I somehow missed the one an easy bike ride from my house.

The Bitterroot Valley has a long history with apples and Swanson's orchard has been producing for over 100 years. Saturday is cider pressing day and when we arrived, things were in full swing. There were several cars in the parking lot belonging to customers there for fresh picked apples and delicious cider and, of course, spirits.

Swanson's is a family owned and operated business and Lukas is the distiller. I wrangled him away from the cider press for a few moments to talk spirits and tell him about MicroShiner. We scheduled a time for me to come back for a feature and then moved over to the corner where his spirits are showcased. I sampled the aged Honey Spirits and listened while Lukas described what he was up to.

Swanson's Legendary Gold Honey Spirits are in a league all their own, literally. Lukas explained that he wanted to call it Honey Whiskey as that is the aging process that it most closely resembles, but the liquor board wasn't down. It wasn't whiskey, they said, and it wasn't brandy. In fact they didn't know what it was. No one in Montana had made spirits out of honey before.

Beside the Honey Spirits, Lukas also distills an unaged honey spirit that is great for cocktails and a popular  dessert cider called Harvest Legacy, which is a blend of unaged apple brandy and cider. He is currently aging a traditional barrel aged apple brandy he's calling Bitterroot Heritage in honor of the valley's rich apple history, and it is scheduled to be available in early 2015.

The cider press was calling, so I took a 5 pound bag of apples, a half gallon of cider and a bottle of Honey Spirits off their hands and loaded the boy and our haul into the trailer for the ride home. Needless to say I am stoked to know there is a local distiller with several barrels of brandy aging just up the road from me. Now that's a comforting thought!