THE CRACKED KETTLE: st. george spirits distillery tour + tasting

I've been a big fan of St. George Spirits (in particular, their Botanivore gin) for a long time, and when I found out that they conduct tours/tastings at their Alameda distillery, I knew I had to go check it out.

I thought a visit to the distillery would combine perfectly with a trip out to the Alameda Point Antiques Faire, which is only a ten minute walk away. So on Sunday, we made the trip out to Alameda for some antiquing, sausage eating, and liquor tasting.

I'd never been out to this part of Alameda before and it was kind of mind-blowing how much space there is out there. We visited the antiques market first, which was cool in a quirky sort of way. We were looking more as tourists rather than collectors, so we mostly just ambled through the market looking at old glassware and fur coats and posters (I didn't take pictures for fear of irritating the vendors) and then got lunch from the stands lining the market (I got a sausage on a roll that was about the size of my forearm). Afterwards, we walked over to the distillery.

The very nice guide gave us some background on the distillery and the founder and walked us through the steps of production. The copper stills were polished to a high sheen and quite lovely to look at - really, the whole facility was quite attractive, very airy and open. Apparently the shark in the room was a movie prop that now lives in the warehouse.

At the end of the tour, there was a tasting. We got to try the Nola coffee liqueur, Botanivore gin, Dry Rye Gin, Absinthe, and a drink of our choice (I went for the raspberry liqueur, which was terrific). At the end, I bought a small bottle of the raspberry liqueur - perfect for kir royale - and Daniel bought some tasting glasses and a very soft St. George t-shirt, which I have already ~~appropriated~~ borrowed to sleep in.