Clear Creek Distillery
By: Barnaby Dorfman
Published: September 28, 2008

Photo: ampersandyslexia
There's a wonderful article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, Oregon. I first discovered Clear Creek, and their fruit brandies, fifiteen years ago when I was the general manager of Marsee Baking, one of the first European-style bakeries in the Pacific Northwest. At the time, our bread baker, Nilos Nevertheless (she legally changed her name), was very much into combining traditional techniques with experimentation. One of those tests yielded a "Clear Creek Pear Struan." As I recall, the bread was made with wild yeast collected in the Clear Creek fermentation room and some of the fermented eau-de-vie pear mash replacing water in the recipe. I can't say it was a huge commercial success, in part because it wasn't sweet as customers expected, but rather slightly sour and with an essence of pear...not unlike the sweetness dilemma described in the above WSJ article.
I've been enjoying Clear Creek products ever since and have also been tracking the recent growth of "micro-distilleries" here in the Pacific NW. A few other producers of note include:

Rogue Spirits

McMenamin's Edgefield Distillery
Victoria Gin

Comments:
Alisa
September 29, 2008

Ive never tried them, but if I could find one here, I'd definitely buy one! Uhmm...how do you get the pear out of the bottle? :)
Lynn

From Clear Creek: You have to break the bottle to get the pear out, but it isn't really worth the trouble (one story I have heard was from a man who dented his best frying pan while whacking a bottle).  We pick the pears when they are full-sized but still green. It is a Bartlet Pear which, as you know, is very soft when ripe.  We don't want it getting mushy in the bottle so to ensure we have a firm pear, we pick them when they are green and very hard.  It is not a sweet, juicy pear.  It looks beautiful in the bottle, but it tastes like cardboard.  Alcoholic cardboard, but still not like a yummy pear.  Sorry.
Rebecca

As much as I like the looks of the pear in the bottle, that bottle costs $79 and is better suited for a gift than to drink.  The pear brandy in the regular bottle costs less than half that and is a much better tasting brandy.  The pear is under-ripe and affects the normally wonderful pear brandy. Clear Creek's pear brandy is world class, so seek it out, sans the pear in the bottle. 
Other Oregon distilleries you missed.   House Spirits in Portland, who make the Aviation gin and Krogstad Aquavit.  http://www.housespirits.com/ .  Artisan Spirits, who make two stunning vodkas.  One out of fermented honey, which is maybe the best domestic vodka made. http://www.artisan-spirits.com/  Sub Rosa Spirits, who makes the unusual Tarragon vodka and a Saffron vodka, that leans towards Indian and Asian flavors.  http://www.subrosaspirits.com/  
There is an Oregon Distillers Guild, but I couldn't find a web site.  Here is a pretty good list of the rest of Oregon's micro-distilleries though... http://www.subrosaspirits.com/links.html/
Warren Bobrow

you don't have to break the bottle.  a long boning knife will do the trick.