“Honest spirits, Local people”. In the 2000’s husband and wife learned to distill from the husband’s father, who was a distiller and wine proprietor from Washingtom. Both born and raised in Kalamazoo, the husband and wife duo wanted to do something locally that they could call their own and give back to the community. Noticing that at the time Kalamazoo had a beer industry but not so much any Distillery’s, they decided they would open the Kalamazoo Stillhouse.
Being Family owned mean’s “decisions can be made at the dinner table”. Built on the idea of being local and supporting its community, Kalamazoo Stillhouse pushes people to remember to” keep dollars local”. By doing so it helps support the local agriculture in not just Kalamazoo, but also for the state of Michigan as a whole.
The most popular spirits that are distilled at the Kalamazoo Stillhouse are vodka and rum. Both are distilled locally and are made from ingredients grown locally in Michigan. Kalamazoo Stillhouse vodka was the first spirit that was released, it is made from 100% soft red wheat, triple distilled, grain to glass with notes of butterscotch and vanilla flavor. Stillhouse vodka can be enjoyed in a mule mixed with ginger beer and lime juice.
Kalamazoo Stillhouse has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by transitioning from distilling spirits, to producing hand sanitizer. This all started when the duo made a Facebook post to get feedback from the community about producing hand sanitizer due to the shortages from the pandemic. Overnight, the Kalamazoo Stillhouse facebook post was seen by over sixty thousand people. The community’s response to the post was overwhelming and helped Kalamazoo Stillhouse gain a lot of positive attention supporting their production of hand sanitizer and helping the community. Up to date, Kalamazoo Stillhouse has given away over 3000 bottles of sanitizer since the start of the pandemic. As a small business, Kalamazoo Stillhouse had to shift to charging 3.50 for spray bottles, and ten dollars for 750ml bottles. If you go to the Kalamazoo Stillhouse website you can also donate to help those in need of hand sanitizer who are less fortunate in the community to help combat the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
Kalamazoo Stillhouse spirits can be found in Michigan statewide. For a list of where to find Kalamazoo Stillhouse spirits and more information check out their website http://www.kalamazoostillhouse.com/where-to-buy/ .