Distiller Profile - Lauren Oscilowski

SIX STEPS to SUSTAINABILITY with DISTILLER LAUREN

OSCILOWSKI

By Rob LeDonne

One of the most respected distillers in the American West, Lauren Oscilowski is a veteran of the region’s Whitefish, Montana distillery, Glacier Distilling Company. She is also the brainchild for Spotted Bear Spirits which has built a local and national reputation thanks to a high-quality line of spirits. The distillery makes vodka, gin, and a coffee liqueur and offers an inventive cocktail menu available at its namesake neighborhood bar in the heart of the idyllic town of Whitefish.

One of the biggest facets that sets Spotted Bear apart is its passion for sustainability. It’s also a goal for the town at large. Whitefish launched its Friend of the Fish tourism checklist this year, and one Oscilowski takes deeply seriously. ORGANIZATION: “Organizing groups and committees is a big one. I’m part of the city committee we developed called the Sustainable Tourism Management Plan Committee. It’s multifaceted, and the goal is to make tourism more sustainable for our community in a more holistic sense whether environmental, quality of life, as well as economic.” NO-WASTE: “I think there's so much waste that is generated, so we compost. We make everything from scratch in the tasting room. We juice all of our citrus or macerate berries and so forth and then make compost from that too.”

LOCALLY SOURCE: We source locally as much as possible to make our carbon footprint smaller in the tasting room. We try to process a lot of fruit during their peak season and then freeze it. There are many orchards around Flathead Lake with apples, peaches, and plums, so we freeze them and have local produce during the winter season. We have a deep freezer, and it’s about trying to preserve that produce and extend the local season.”

SINCE OPENING SPOTTED BEAR BACK IN DECEMBER 2015, OSCILOWSKI HAS LEARNED A THING OR TWO ALONG THE WAY ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY. SHE SHARES HER BEST SIX SUSTAINABILITY TIPS:

ORGANIC INGREDIENTS: “When we

make Limoncello, we use all organic ingredients. We’re infusing the skin of the lemon in ethanol, so if we didn’t go organic, we’d be wicking pesticides into the distillate. So, we process dozens and dozens of cases of lemons for a week, juice them and then freeze them, so we can use that fresh juice.”

RECYCLE: “In Montana, recycling is hard as there’s no way to recycle glass in the state, so we started the Canteen program. I worked with a manufacturer in California to create a removable label that you can dissolve the adhesive so we can reuse the bottles. How it works is that our customers can buy a reusable bottle for five bucks more, bring in your empty, and we sanitize, fill it up, and put on a new label. We had to put it on pause because it was so popular, but we’re going to dive back in.”

THE LIKE-MINDED: “One thing

everyone can do to be more sustainable is ditch plastic. Paper straws in cocktails get soggy, so we work with a company called HAY! Straws which all have different diameters—thicker straws for Bloody Mary’s and thinner for cocktails. They’re a fantastic organization.”

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