Updated December 12, 2011

Bartlett Pears

... Fermenting Now... Distilling Now... Crushing More Pears Later This Week

We just received what will likely be our last truckload of Hood River Valley pears this season.  These pears are still in their bins inside the distillery, ripening a bit more before we crush them later this week. The previous load of pears is one step ahead of them: pear mash fermenting in 21,000-gallon fermentation tanks.  The load of pears before that is done fermenting and we are now distilling the pear mash into pear brandy .  The entire building is full of ripe delicious Bartlett Pear aroma and the staff is making pear tarts at lunch time.

Bottling

... Pear Brandy... Apple Brandy

This is the peak of sales season as well as the peak of production season and we are typically scrambling to keep up with bottling product to fill orders.  This week we are bottling Pear Brandy that we just made this fall and 375 ml bottles of Apple Brandy that has been aging in Limousin oak barrels over 2 years.  We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of 750 ml bottles that will arrive Friday, just in the nick of time to bottle two-year-old Apple Brandy and fill orders on our weekly Friday shipments.  A prime example of "just in time" production strategy!

Products out of Stock

... Temporarily Out of Stock at the distillery... Still Available in Stores

Framboise eau de vie is sold out.  We make small batches of this pure raspberry spirit only in some years.  This summer, we bought 2,400 pounds of raspberries and made it into framboise, and we have already sold our last case.  Clear Creek Framboise is a very special item:  it is very expensive to make and a particularly tricky fruit to ferment.  We are making no promises about next summer -- we will have to wait and see what the raspberries look like -- but the soonest we will have more will be late summer of 2012.

Many good retailers throughout the country still have these products in stock, but we have shipped every last case from the distillery in Portland, Oregon, where it is made.  If you would like to be notified when we next bottle these products, please contact us and ask to be put on our waiting list.