Spirits · Seattle, Washington
OOLA Distillery
A Seattle craft distillery making grain-to-glass gin, vodka and barrel-aged whiskey.
- Founded by
- Kirby Kallas-Lewis
- Based in
- Seattle, Washington
Their story
OOLA is the work of Kirby Kallas-Lewis, a Minnesota native who first passed through Seattle while hitchhiking north to crew on an Alaska fishing boat. He came back to stay, and spent years managing antique and fine art galleries in Manhattan and Seattle before deciding he wanted a career closer to his love of food and drink.
He studied distilling, took workshops, visited distilleries around the country and leased a big empty building near his home on Capitol Hill. OOLA started putting whiskey in barrels around 2010 and grew from self-distributing to hundreds of Washington accounts and shipments to other states and abroad. The distillery later moved from Capitol Hill to Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood.
How it's made
The gin is made grain-to-glass in house, and the flagship gin also gets time in barrel. Beyond gin, OOLA makes flavored vodkas and a range of whiskeys, including the Waitsburg bourbon, with ongoing barrel projects in rye and brandy.
Enjoying the magic that happens in a barrel and trying to control the results.
Why we carry them
We like OOLA for its patient barrel work and a gin made from the grain up. It is a good bottle for anyone curious about West Coast craft distilling.
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