Page 115 - Southern Oregon Magazine Winter 2018

All three of the distillers interviewed for this article identified the love
of distilling as the top reason for choosing to do it. And while they
each have different product offerings, growth models, and additional
reasons for doing what they do, it starts with love.

Perhaps the most high profile distiller in Southern Oregon is Immortal
Spirits, started by Jesse Gallagher in 2009. Gallagher traces his begin- Every Sense is Delighted
nings to an interest in distilling in his biochemistry classes in college.
This led him into the homebrew movement, then ultimately to distill-
ing. He is a self-avowed “whiskey kind of guy,” and it was natural that
he would begin to emulate his stylistic influences—pot stilled Scottish
style whiskey.

Immortal Spirits has the largest diversity in product offering, and
Gallagher focuses his attention out of his Phoenix, Oregon production
distillery on a seasonal basis. They produce fruit brandies in the fall,
and whiskeys in the winter months. During the summer he produces
rum, which he says benefits from warmer temperatures. You’ll also see
his absinthe on shelves.

But like Gallagher admits, he’s a whiskey guy, and that’s where his
strongest focus lies. His first whiskey was produced in a copper pot still
that he made himself, and was distilled from “big, malty, sweet beer.”

At this point we need to take another quick detour into some minutiae
that is important to this entire discussion. I’ll be brief. Whiskey is a lot
of things, but ultimately it is an oak aged distillate of grain—barley,
rye, wheat, or corn, or some combination of these. That is what makes
the difference between different whiskeys. How these things are put
together is known as the “mash bill.” Without getting too bogged down
in the definitions, Scottish whiskey is distilled from barley. Irish whis-
key is too, but also has corn in it that gives it a slightly sweeter flavor.
Canadian whiskey tends to be corn and rye heavy in the mash bill, and
American whiskey is also traditionally corn and rye heavy. Remember
that I’m painting extremely broad strokes here.

Finally, the two kinds of stills that are most common are the pot still
and the column still. The pot still is what most people visualize when
thinking about a still. They leave imperfections and natural tastes in
the final product that most people find desirable. The column still can
create a continuous distillation that pulls out all impurities and leave
you with essentially vodka, or neutral grain spirit. Again, very broad
strokes.

So in essence, distilling a Scottish style whiskey is basically the process
of distilling beer. This is why every one of the local whiskey distillers
has their roots both in the art of brewing, and an affinity for Scottish
style whiskey. Every Bite is Perfection

Gary Thompson started his Table Rock Distillery in 2013 after being
a brewer for the original incarnation of The Osprey Brew Pub in LUNCH 11:30am - 2:00pm (MON. - FRI.)
Medford. “I take a lot of notes on whiskeys I drink and the ones I like,” DINNER 5:00 - 9:00pm (MON. - THUR.)
says Thompson. This is where his creative side and penchant for prob- DINNER 5:00 - 9:30pm (FRI AND SAT.)
lem solving took over. “There were things I liked about each whis- DINNER 5:00 - 8:30pm (SUN.)
key, and sometimes things I wanted to taste that weren’t there,” says
Thompson, “so I figured if I couldn’t find one, I’d just make one.” 970 N. PHOENIX ROAD, MEDFORD, OR
WWW.TIGERROLL.COM • 541-608-7545

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