Page 37 - Beverage MasterOct Nov 2020

Craft Distillery

Varieties of Gin Botanicals

in the Pacific Northwest

By: Becky Garrison
T he recent sale of Aviation Gin to Diageo heavy. They began experimenting with different

in August 2020 put the Portland, Oregon, botanicals and spices in a quest to manufac-ture a
distillery scene, and gin in particular,
back on the national map. Aviation’s truly American spirit.
history can be traced back to 2004 when Christian “When I started a beer business, I learned from
Krogstad and his wife, Christina, launched House my brewing experience that you really have to
Spirits Distillery intend-ing to make American sin- innovate. You can’t just do what other people are
gle malt whiskey. However, as whiskey requires a doing,” Krogstad said.
significant time in-vestment, they decided to gen-
erate some revenue by redistilling a neutral grain A year later, Ryan Magarian joined the team and
spirit-based gin that could be brought to market came up with the term “New Western Dry Gin.”
relatively quickly. The first taste of Aviation’s new style of gin was not
juniper, but a balanced blend of bo-tanicals that
They chose to deviate from the other gins on the included cardamom, coriander, French lavender,
market at the time, which they found to be juni-per anise seed, sarsaparilla, juniper and two kinds of
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