Catch a glimpse of the action at Golden Beaver Distillery

World-class liquor

A chance meeting in Scotland with worldrenowned authority on Scotch whisky, Charlie Maclean, led to the creation of Golden Beaver Distillery. Partner/Head Distiller Kris Koenig recounts the story, “Due to a volcano eruption in Iceland in 2010, a two-day stopover in Scotland turned into nearly a week. It so happened Charlie Maclean was giving a master class on distilling scotch. We eventually ended up at Charlie’s house sampling scotch from all over Scotland. The idea of distilling my own liquor began there, and here we are today.”

Way out on Cohasset Road, lies the home of Golden Beaver Distillery. The distillery is already home to world-class liquors, as its products have garnered numerous awards across the United States. Among the many includes a gold medal for their Honey Run Honey-Flavored Whiskey from the 2021 Honey Spirits Competition, a platinum award from the 2021 Ascot Awards for their Beaver Likker Moonshine, and the California Moonshine Distillery of the Year award at the 2021 New York International Spirits Competition.

The current selection at Golden Beaver has something for every liquor enthusiast, with more products on the way. You can saddle up (not on saddles but metal tractor seats) to the craft cocktail bar and try a variety of whiskeys, including bourbon and rye, a large flavor-infused moonshine offering, vodka, and gin. Barrel-aged Grappa will soon grace the back bar in front of the window that offers a view of the interior workings of the 6,000 square foot distillery.

In prime view, just behind the back bar, is Tina, the Tennessee Thumper Still, a clever contraption of copper pipe and eight glass Mason jars where the moonshine infusion process takes place. Available this week is the latest flavor, Pumpkin Spice Moonshine, that will have you trick-or-treating down your street in no time. A number of other flavor infused ‘shines are also on hand. Also, in the background through the window, you see the main large stills “Harold and Maude” and the ten-foot-tall still “Eileen,” so named because she leans slightly. She resembles a futuristic metal giraffe with her copper and chrome colors. Having three stills is critical to the multiple-distillation process that makes Golden Beaver’s potent potables so smooth and delicious.

The distillery has tasting hours five days a week and tours of the operation upon request. If you take a tour, beware! Kris Koenig’s knowledge of the ‘ins-and-outs’ of the process are mind boggling as well as fascinating. If a tour is not your shot of whiskey, then come on out for a tasting or, better yet, show up on Thursday nights where DJ RJ Laffins spins the vinyl from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. Food is available Wednesday through Sunday nights, along with live music on the weekends.

The distillery serves barbecued burgers and wood-fired pizza among other offerings in the venue out back, featuring a 40’ x 20’ event tent with tables and chairs, complete with room to dance. You can also rent the space for private parties and family gettogethers. The view of the sun setting behind the Coast Range is marvelous, and you will no doubt see planes taking off and landing at the airport.

Come on out to Golden Beaver Distillery, located on Browns Valley Drive, just before the sweeping curve on Cohasset road heading to the airport. Look for the billboard pointing out the right-hand turn and then take a sharp left to the top of the hill. While you’re there, head to the craft cocktail bar and try out a “Beaverita,” a blend of orange/ peach moonshine and soda, or the popular “BLT,” Beaver Liquor and Tonic. They also sell local craft beer, wine and mocktails for non-spirit drinkers.

Curious about the name of the distillery? Check out next month’s issue where it will be explained along with the ecology-minded distillation process and the inclusion of rice as one of their main ingredients.

everything but the cigarette

If you saw it, you'd never forget it. If you haven’t seen it, you must. Unless, of course, you hate going to the dentist. What is it? The 1976 film Marathon Man. The scene: An evil Nazi war criminal (Laurence Olivier) tortures an innocent runner (Dustin Hoffman) in an attempt to find a cache of stolen diamonds.

Picture, if you will, an innocent man being held down in a chair while the evil Nazi probes relentlessly around the victim’s mouth with a stainless steel dental tool— all without novocaine! It gets better. The Nazi then graduates to a drill…Yikes! After excavating a few holes, he asks, “Is it safe yet?” An oft-repeated question the runner cannot answer.

After a few more rounds of this, the Nazi unscrews a small bottle and dips his finger in it. He takes the finger and inserts into the victim’s mouth and, no more pain! Just like that. The contents? Oil of clove, an effective and inexpensive oral pain killer. My mom soaked cotton balls in it and stuck them in my cracked tooth to kill the pain when I was ten years old. It worked!

To that point in my life cloves were hard little thorns my mom peppered into the skin of the Christmas ham between the rings of pineapple. They gave the ham a warm, intense, and, well, clovy flavor. Helpful hint— never decide to shake a few whole cloves out of the little dispenser and pop them into your mouth. NOT a good idea!

What is good is when you add a little clove to gingerbread or cookies, pumpkin pie, and even into bechamel sauce to put on whatever bechamel sauce is put on. Yum, I’m sure. But where do these crunchy little critters come from? Cloves are the flower buds from an evergreen tree called—wait for it—the clove tree. Cloves have been around for a couple thousand years. At one time they were found only in the Moluccas, officially and appropriately called The Spice Islands. It is said the oldest clove tree in the world, about 350-to-400 years old, named Afo, is on the island of Ternate. Later in history, cloves were grown in Mauritius and in Zanzibar. Penang cloves are gourmet cloves and harvested by hand individually to exacting standards. Hey! That’s one sexy clove!

Cloves are high in manganese and contain the antioxidant eugenol, which is considered five times more effective than Vitamin E. It is also seen as a preventative to certain types of cancer such as pancreatic, breast, and liver, but these haven’t been peer reviewed. As always, there’s a ton of info on cloves, and it can be interesting. However, I strongly recommend against anything to do with clove cigarettes. Trust me.