Borough Assembly approves Brewery still application

During a Borough meeting last Thursday, the application from Ben Millstein to distill liquor at the Kodiak Island Brewery was approved. There’s more work yet to do- he still needs state approval and acceptance for a formula and a label, but his dream is that much closer to reality.

Millstein is pleased, but he knows that it’s one step in a long journey.

“I’m just new to this, and it’s gonna take a while. But once I get that state license, I’ll be able to at least begin distilling as I can, and working on formulas, and, or recipes or whatever you want to think of them as and trying to come up with something that is good enough to offer,” Millstein said.

He’s already dreaming up some recipes- spruce tip gin, vodkas flavored with local goods- presumably not fish, but perhaps kelp- and whiskey.

“The point is to make the tap room relevant for the community and keep doing what we need to do to be a place a place where our neighbors want to come and meet each other, and us,” Millstein said.

Millstein said he is hoping to serve locally-stilled liquor before the year is out.