So you thought every kind of booze possible had been invented.
A pair of Ontario entrepreneurs have entered the booze business with a milk-based spirit called Vodkow.
Dairy Distillery has been operating out of the Town of Almonte, near Ottawa since last fall.
Consumer taste tests indicate the milk-based spirit is smooth and creamy tasting.
Founder and CEO Omid McDonald, an entrepreneur and software engineer, was looking for a new startup — his fourth company. Previous companies have involved writing software for DJs and software analyzing fetal heart beats.
His cousin Neal McCarten, who has a family dairy farm background, told him about permeate — a sugar rich byproduct of the dairy industry. Permeate is a liquid left over after fat and proteins are extracted from milk for butter, cheese and ice cream.
The permeate is dumped into lagoons.
McDonald, who had become fascinated with craft distilling to the point where he took a course in the process, wondered if the permeate could be turned into a sprit.
That is how the idea for Dairy Distillery evolved.
They built a 3,000 square foot building in Almonte, which already had a cluster of foodie business operations.
Just a few minutes drive from Ottawa, Almonte has developed a foodie industry with numerous unique restaurants, a craft brewery, operations featuring crepes, chocolates, dandelion dishes and other foods.
Door-to-door calls led to a deal with dairy giant Parmalat to deliver the permeate to the distillery.
The distillery can’t use the name vodka. By law, vodka is a grains-based product, thus the Vodkow name.
Starting up had challenges, like finding the right kind of yeast to ferment the milk sugar byproduct.
A University of Ottawa biology student found the right kind of fermenting sugar and they were in business.
Plans are to produce 250,000 bottles of Vodkow a year, creating 15 to 20 jobs making and selling the caramel-tasting spirit.
The Vodkow product is available by mail at $36 for a 750-millilitre bottle. A smaller size is available on site for people touring the operation.
The use of milk to make an alcohol-based beverage goes back a thousand years to a practice by the Mongols.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
