by Andrew Morrison | We just cracked this lovely bottle, which landed on our doorstep this afternoon. East Van Vodka is the first taste out from Odd Society Spirits, the imminent craft distillery that we profiled back in July (read the full story here).

What do they mean by “craft” distillery? The products are fermented and distilled in small batches on site from 100% BC agricultural products (no neutral grain spirits) using traditional methods. Awesome, right? But it gets better. When Odd Society officially opens to the public [crosses fingers] on October 30th, they’ll be able to sell their spirits direct from the on-site tasting room and lounge.

As it stands now, there are only a couple of bottles currently out there. The Cascade Room on Main St. has one, as do the bartenders at The Parker, Portland Craft, and The French Table. I think Matt Martin over at Homer St. Cafe might have one or two as well, since he’s making some special signature recipes for Odd Society, and I’m told that Wendy over at Chambar just placed an order as well. For liquor stores, first adopters like Edgemont, 16th Street, Hastings, and Brewery Creek are your best bets. So suffice it to say that East Van Vodka will be poured this evening, the next and, one happily and confidently assumes, for ever more. Bonus mark: sweet branding by our friends over at Cause + Affect.

If you don’t dig on vodka, Odd Society will be releasing a gin called “Wallflower” before Christmas. Then there will come a creme de cassis shortly thereafter (a collaboration with polymath Chef Hervè Martin of The French Table on Main St.), and then…what’s that across the river and in the trees? The prize: a whiskey. Yup, founder and distiller Gordon Glanz learned the dark art in Scotland, getting his MSc from Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt University and everything. Until his whiskey is finished aging (it’s going to spend 3 years in barrels), we’ll gladly settle for his Mongrel, which is a moonshiney “white dog” spirit made from malted barley and malted rye. It’s the same whiskey that Gordon has aging, but it has seen no barrel and has therefore acquired no brown colour.

EVERY AWESOME THING WE DRANK