Glacier Distilling Co. keeping spirits up this winter

“It was originally something to prepare for the apocalypse,” Glacier Distilling Company Owner and Founder Nic Lee said. “We were just going to stockpile on spirits and whiskey and share it around locally.” 

Now, Glacier Distilling Co has developed from a whiskey-fueled dream, thought up by a group of raft guides bumming around in the winter months at a North Fork cabin, into one of the flagship Montana micro distilleries, tucked to the side of Highway 2 in Coram. 

Despite its tourist-heavy summer audience, Glacier Distilling Co has made it a mission to reach out to locals in the off-season and give them a place to come, learn, drink, create and build community. 

The premise of the company’s product line is decidedly local. “The idea was to create a distillery that was making products really leaning into local agriculture here, a lot of old pre-prohibition recipes and techniques…” Lee said. Glacier Distilling’s first spirit was a rye whiskey called North Fork, based off the type of liquor that infamous Montana moonshiner Josephine Doody might have made. They have since expanded to 30 in-house products made using ingredients such as Flathead cherries from Last Best Place Orchard off Yellow Bay, hand-picked spruce tips and wild huckleberries purchased from local pickers. 

As Lee explained it, the ingredients mean that tourists can take a little Montana in a bottle home when they leave. Taste and flavor are ingrained with memory and sense of place. That also means that locals can share a bottle of spirits made at home, in small batches, with a tie to the land. 

Last autumn, Glacier Distilling Company hosted a Community Shine, where people were invited to bring fallen fruit out of their yards and throw it in the still for two important reasons – to keep it from the bears and make brandy. For each pound they brought, they were given back a correlating quantity of liquor. 

“Those are the things that really drive us, people having a connection to this place and what we do,” Lee said. 

Part of that is understanding the distilling process, and Glacier Distilling has a window view for passersby or tours and classes for the more invested. In the coming months, the community is invited to enjoy art, cooking and cocktail classes. In the past, Glacier Distilling has partnered with local creators such as watercolorist Hannah Dunn and chefs Chris DiMaio of Montana Craft Kitchen and Melissa Mangold. On Feb. 15, Galentines can be celebrated with a sip and paint. A linocut workshop is in the works. 

“We’re trying to keep those every other month, like quarterly programming, because that seems to be fun and desirable and activities out here are surprisingly scarce to come by, in winter, especially,” Events Manager Laura Abernethy said. 

This is the first year Josephine’s, previously the restaurant next door, will be utilized entirely as an event space. The idea is to have it available for wedding receptions, birthday parties and the like. 

“It’s kind of a fun trial to kind of see how we can engage with the community and be a welcoming event space,” Abernethy said. 

Also launching in 2024 is a single-malt whiskey that has been waiting in the vault for about 10 years. 

“Montana grows arguably the finest malt barley in the world, and it makes sense then to really capitalize on that product here and convert that into an American-style single malt,” Lee said. What defines an American-style single malt is to be determined, but Glacier Distilling hopes to have a hand in the process. 

“Kentucky is known for bourbon, Montana could be known for single malt,” Lee said. “Agriculturally it makes sense, and I think we have the resources here to be able to produce a world-class single malt, so we’re really pushing hard into that.”

Also releasing are a line of house-made mocktails for those participating in dry January. “We know that our business is centered on spirits,” Front of House Manger Jessica Sorenson said, “but not everyone drinks spirits so we’re working on a really cool and unique mocktail menu for people who have friends that want to just come and hang out but don’t want to drink soda every time they go out some place.”

In short, “Don’t count us out…,” Abernethy said, “…something’s always going on!”

Glacier Distilling Company events and products can be found on Instagram, Facebook or at glacierdistilling.com. Their winter hours are noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and noon to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. 

    Glacier Distilling Company in Coram on Tuesday, Jan. 9. (Avery Howe photo)
  

    Nic Lee, Owner of Glacier Distilling Company, poses in the store room on Tuesday, Jan. 9. Lee estimated there were a couple hundred barrels in this storage space alone, which the company will pull from to use in their spirits. (Avery Howe photo)
  

    Flathead cherries are hand-pressed at Glacier Distilling Company on Tuesday, Jan. 9. (Avery Howe photo)
  

    Manager Jessica Sorenson takes a moment from serving a customer to flash a smile at Glacier Distilling Company on Tuesday, Jan. 9. (Avery Howe photo)