Description: During my summer visit to Monroe, I was intrigued by the old building across the street from the Minhas Craft Brewery. Turns out the building is more than 100 years old! Back in the summer I poked around from the outside, not really able to make out much from the window view available from the sidewalk. Today, however, the Minhas Micro Distillery is now open to the public for tours and tastings.
While this distillery began their operation in November 2011, they only began offering tours in September after remodeling could be done to provide an appropriate location to receive and entertain visitors. Today, they have their tour and tasting area about 95% complete as they get ready to crank up GODSTILLA, the central piece in the room.
GODSTILLA is a 1,000 gallon distilling tank that is not quite operational yet. They expect to have it up and running soon, once they are able to complete the finishing touches which include installing the insulation blanket necessary to protect visitors from the extreme heat that the tank will give off. It was cool (no pun intended) to be able to see it during my visit in all of its shining glory.
As a craft distillery, the production process and facility itself is very simple. The entire operation is less than 15 employees generally working two shifts daily Monday through Friday. On my Friday visit, however, they were not in production. Visitors who come for the tour are treated to a full introduction into the Canadian company and the Minhas brewing family, as well as the history of production at this location dating back to 1845 and the Monroe Brewing Company and later (1906) the Blumer Brewing Company.
With Monroe's close proximity to the Illinois State Line and further to the SE, Chicago . . . there is quite the folklore tied to this area and the connection to the infamous gangsters known to run alcohol illegally throughout the 1920's. During prohibition (1920 to 1933), Blumer Brewing Company, switched over from making beer to ice cream. Later a non-alcoholic beverage known as "near beer" was introduced by many breweries. The brand Blumer's produced was Golden Glow Near Beer which had all of the alcohol burning off (by law) or distilled and bottled (illegally) for the gangsters running alcohol.
Tours start with this historical overview right up to today's operation that produces whisky, rum, and vodka for export to Canada. Each of these delightful products are available for purchase here at the distillery - the only Wisconsin location until licensing and distributorship are established. They also produce tequila, gin and an Irish Cream product for export, but they are currently only available for purchase in Canada. As a fan of "that other brand" of Irish Creme, I look forward to seeing their product available here in the future.
The products of Minhas Micro Distillery are truly hand crafted with a very high attention to detail and quality throughout the production process. Tankers of high (90%) alcohol content product is brought here and stored in large tanks. The production manager must then reduce the overall alcohol content with exact precision. Each tank is labeled with the product and specifications. As you will see in my attached photo, tank B2 has Gold Coast XO Rum (lot 377) with alcohol content specification of 44.9%. Mike the Production Manager will continue to tweak and refine until he gets the product to 44.9%.
Tour visitors are guided through the various stages of production that take place here including the bottle washing, filling, capping, labeling and packaging/shipping. At each station our host and tour guide Lance explained the process. The bottle filling is automated and accomplished 12 bottles at a time. He also demonstrated the labeling process which is done one bottle at a time!
Since most of the product being produced here is sent on to Canada, a large portion of their packaging is in plastic bottles. It was interesting to learn about the differences in bottling plastic vs. glass, particularly in the capping process as glass requires 'hand capping" a single bottle at a time. The plastic bottles are capped in a rapid fashion before heading to the "six cap" tightening machine that assures a snug and secure seal.
After the short walking tour of the production area, visitors are welcomed back out into the tasting room for samples of Gold Coast XO Rum, Chinook Whisky and Blackstone Vodka being produced here. They offer a number of mixers to sample your choices, or your can take them straight. I really enjoyed my sampling of Blackstone Vodka mixed with lemonade and later another sampling with their Blumer's Orange Soda.
The tour and sampling costs $10 per person and includes a free gift pack with a 750 Ml bottle of the Blackstone Vodka plus a branded specialty glass. You may not find a better "tour value" in Monroe or Wisconsin for that matter. For those looking to enhance the value of this experience, keep your eyes open for promotional deals offered by GroupOn or Living Social.
For more information including tour schedules, check out their website at: http://minhasdistillery.com/sample-page/tours . If you want to make a day of it, add the Minhas Craft Brewery Tour and Haydock "World of Beer Memorabilia" Museum located right across the street! More info on the tour and museum may be found at: http://minhasbrewery.com/brewery-tour .
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