Middle West Spirits Distillery

A little Columbus, Ohio love for any of you who may make trips to Ohio.  I heard about Middle West Spirits from a former coworker who loved it and raved that we had to go.  So, this was our April date envelope.  I don't think I've ever told you about our date envelopes so I'll make sure you get an update next week on what these are and how they started.  

Any who, Middle West Spirits is a local micro-distillery set in the Short North district of Columbus which is a really hip neighborhood split nearly equi-distant between downtown Columbus and The Ohio State University Campus.  Here's a blurb from MW's website:

Set in the heart of Ohio, Middle West Spirits is an ubran micro-distillery that draws inspiration from its surroundings. We are mindful of the immense resources we have nearby, and make every effor to use them.  

Rick and I went with Rick's brother Joe and his fiancee, Loralei last Friday for a tour and tasting of the distillery.

This is a view from the outside, you can see into the distillery.

Joe & Loralei

Rick & me

This is the assistant distiller.  Fun fact, he has a good taster and sense of smell and can pinpoint where  they are in the distilling process just by scent.  He's also responsible for crawling into those stainless steel cylinders to clean them out. He has to slide through the side door you see on the right of this picture.  Eeek!

Wafting for the smell of the liquor in the distilling process.

Where the whiskey is stored.

MW shares these barrels with another local company Rockmill Brewery.  On the flip side of this is the MW branding.

The co-owner

The products, from left to right, OYO plain vodka, OYO honey vanilla bean vodka, OYO stonefruit vodka, and OYO whiskey.  My favorite, the stonefruit hands down.  I don't like drinking any alcohol straight and the stonefruit is so smooth it could easily be sipped.

The experience was so neat and to see it happening right in the midst of Columbus was even more exciting.  You can check out the Middle West Spirits website here, their Facebook page here, and look at ordering here.

-stephanie