Heading into Stevens Pass on US 20, once you escape the maddening traffic of the Monroe to Gold Bar stretch (the Camino del Muerto to the locals), you come on to Index, about MP 33. Pointy peaks jab at the sky on both sides; the scenery is getting real special real fast. And then you come on to the sign for the Mt. Index Brewery and Distillery.
Charles Tucker has been making liquor here for a couple of years now. He added the 1.5 bbl brewing system last year, around the back of the building. As the state regulators worked through the licensing issues, they told him to maintain a rigorous separation of the two processes. His beer styles are whatever suits his fancy; in late August it was a stout and a ginger beer; he would start in on a wheat beer come September and then it would be time to think about Octoberfests.
The liquor production is set in a much more precise pattern: a coffee liquor, a coriander vodka, a gin. Because spirits must be bottled before sale, in bottles with labels approved by the federal regulator, a time-consuming process, the choices will be limited. Beer, going out in kegs, is not so constrained.
Charles plans to sell kegs to taverns and restaurants in the Skykomish Valley, and to swap guest taps with other small breweries in Snohomish County.
Sites like Facebook and Yelp indicate that this combo is open seven days a week, but that is a glitch in the sites. The brewery side is only open Thursdays through Sundays; it is just the distillery that is open M-T-W. So I wasn't able to get a taste of beer on a Tuesday afternoon, but I'll save that pleasure for another time.
The distillery is pictured at the right.
(Visited 08/25/15)
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