BRADEN HURSH

While Michael Goldney was waiting in line at the liquor store, he explained to the woman standing behind him that he had just won the lottery and was buying some nice alcohol to celebrate.

“You lucky bastard,” she replied to Goldney — a medical doctor who was already more than financially stable.

Undoubtedly a lucky bastard, the name stuck to Goldney and what began in a liquor store would eventually stock its shelves.

What is there to do when money is no longer an issue? Basically whatever you enjoy doing; for Goldney and his crew that meant making alcohol. The initial plan was to open a distillery and immediately specialize in Canadian whisky, but liquor legislation would put a definite hindrance to this idea. To be considered a “Canadian whisky” the product must be aged for a minimum of three years and Lucky Bastard wanted a marketable product much sooner. Alcohols like gin, vodka and liqueurs do not adhere to the same rules as whisky.

The title of “micro-distillery” applies to Lucky Bastard in two ways: one being that they have legal license to sell their products directly from the distillery and two, like Goldney says, “We are small… The entire distillery is around 3,000 square feet and our still only processes 238 litres at a time where typical stills can handle nearly 60,000 litres.”

Yet being small has allowed for a greater emphasis on quality as smaller batches are able to be fine-tuned and perfected. Quality alcohols are made at Lucky Bastard Distillery and are created with local ingredients that have no additive sugars, syrups or preservatives.

The list of available spirits and liqueurs seems to be always expanding at Lucky Bastard and the selection is increasingly diverse with such products as Gambit Gin, Chai Vodka, Amber Rum, Saskatoon Berry Liqueur, Blackcurrant Liqueur and even a variety of bitters that can be used in specialty cocktails. The Knock on Wood Rum is cask-aged for a minimum of one year during which the oak flavour and amber colour suffuses the alcohol.

One of the most exciting products to recently come from Lucky Bastard is the Naked Single Malt, which is essentially the test-run for their Canadian whisky. The product is not aged and therefore cannot be labelled to as a true whisky, but what it lacks in name it makes up for in taste.

Whisky is created through reducing and refining the yeast and sugar from beer and can be just as diverse. Many whisky producers use cheap beer to inexpensively mass-produce, but at Lucky Bastard Distillery they brew their own beer for the sole purpose of making a distinct whisky.

“Whisky is what beer wants to be when it grows up,” Goldney said.

Beer varieties turned into
whisky include pumpkin spice ale, double IPA with hemp seed, scotch cream ale, wheat ale with Saskatoon berries, coffee stout and a chocolate vanilla porter.

The micro-distillery market in North America is extremely small when compared with the European market. The prohibition of alcohol in North America greatly diminished the small distillers and only massive companies were able to survive. For example, in Canada there are around 40 registered micro-distilleries but in Germany, where Lucky Bastard bought its still, there are over 7,000 and Austria has over 9,000 stills.

Needless to say, there is a burgeoning market for local and unique spirits and liqueurs in the same way that there is a growing desire for craft beer. Distilleries are beginning to pop up in Saskatchewan to join Lucky Bastard including Last Mountain out of Lumsden, Sask. and some very early-stage distillers located out of both Regina and Blaine Lake, Sask.

Lucky Bastard Distillery offers free tours and sampling for both small and large groups where you can learn more about the distilling process, carbon filtration, the aging process and a lot of applied chemistry. After the tour, you are able to sit and sample every product that you have just learned about. The distillers clearly find joy in perfecting and experimenting with the creation of their alcohol and success has followed.

In the words of Goldney, “If you aren’t having fun making spirits you are probably doing something wrong.”