Burwood Distillery Creates Hub for Local Makers

Jason Ramey and his business partners have always been focused on the hyper-local aspect of running a distillery, using Alberta ingredients like honey and malted barley for a line of spirits under the Burwood Distillery banner. It’s really the company’s calling card – unfettered access to prairie honey (thanks to partner Marco Cilic, who happens to be a beekeeper), creating award-winning whiskies and rums (plus liqueurs, gins, and canned cocktails) for an eager consumer.  

But the uniquely honey-focused products are just one thing that sets this nearly ten-year-old business apart. Burwood is a leader in the craft beverage field, (Ramey is on the board of the Alberta Craft Distillers Association, for one thing), helping grow the industry at an uncertain time, given the recently instigated trade war. Ramey’s impulse to focus on interprovincial (and international) trade – of creating an Alberta experience for spirits lovers in the breadbasket of the country – hasn’t just been happenstance, Burwood Distillery is an intentional hub for other entrepreneurs, in a downtown Calgary heritage building bringing like-minded creators and patrons together to support and promote their love for Alberta-made spirits and brews. 

In 2021, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) reported 47 licensed craft distilleries in the province, a huge increase from just seven in 2016. Burwood was one of the early leaders, forming in 2016 soon after Ramey (who is a dual US citizen, earning a PhD in microbiology in that country, with a Kentucky born wife, a veterinarian), found himself running the brewmaster program at Olds College. Meeting Croatian brothers Ivan (dubbed ‘the hand slapper’) and Marco Cilic (beekeeper) was a game-changer for Ramey. In the pair, he found similar passions – a chance to collaborate and celebrate Alberta agriculture when the frontier of craft distilleries was just opening up. 

“I’ve done what I was going to do,” Ramey says simply, recalling how the trio just bought a still and took the plunge. “At first, I’d teach during the day (at Olds College) and then in summer, go full-time distilling. We were a good startup, and adding the step of barrel aging made us unique. We pushed the boundaries, combining classic whisky-making styles with new and innovative techniques. It definitely brought something new to the world of spirits.” 

Ramey says the trio grew the business themselves, working pretty much for free the first couple of years. Then, as many Canadian entrepreneurs do, Burwood made an appearance on Dragon’s Den in 2020. Even though the partners got an offer from the Dragons, they chose to go another way. 

“We turned that down; we decided to crowdfund instead, again back to that local focus. We got 179 investors and moved to the Stables on Currie Barracks; a great historical space built in 1936. With Burwood Distillery and Vaycay Brewing (run by some of Ramey’s former students), it’s a functional craft beverage production facility. There’s a home brew retailer too, Grapes to Glass – and a classroom space,” Ramey says. Burwood’s space at The Stables sees two traditional wood fermenters and double pot stills (1,800 litre and 3,000 litre) that do the job of creating heady spirits to fill some 45,000 bottles each year.  

The Burwood Story 

“There’s such a community aspect to it all,” adds Burwood’s marketing manager Tyler Hill, pointing to the company’s brewpub Veranda at the Stables (a vibrant, casual space where people can do a tasting and take a tour, enjoy some local fare – even sign up for a class on gin making. As the business has expanded, so has the core team at Burwood – Hill is the marketing man, Eric Gillespie is head distiller, plus there’s a sales team, staffers at the brewpub and farmers’ markets in Edmonton and Calgary, and more. “From the start, everything has been aspirational; from a 300 square foot start to this new space and central location, with a patio – it’s what the owners envisioned, a place to tell their story and really connect people with what we do.” 

What Burwood has been doing since its start (moving to its current digs in 2022), is growing its lineup of whisky and aged spirits, a line of gins, old world ‘European’-style spirits – even liqueurs, cocktails and canned mojitos, a vodka soda, and a haskap and honey summer sipper. From the company’s sherry cask-aged single malt whisky to an impressive made-in Canada honey spiced dark rhum, the company is doing innovative and award-winning turns at international competitions, at farmers’ markets (Calgary’s Crossroads market, in Red Deer’s gasoline alley, and at Edmonton’s Bountiful Market), plus online and retail sales throughout the province. At the distillery, patrons regularly sign up for cask-blending or gin making classes – it has even hosted weddings, funerals and pop-up events. 

Burwood Distilleries, Calgary

“Brown grains are our focus. We’re working with the University of Calgary to do something with a honey/molasses fermentation – the honey tar in the box that is usually thrown out. But there’s a deeply flavoured, waxy product there. It’s neat to do things like that in southern Alberta, collaborating again, but also to recreate a tropical fermenting environment–island style – right here,” says Ramey. “We know honey is our niche, and we’re blending with it from start to finish. That puts us in a category with maybe ten other distillers.” 

Along with Burwood’s cask club of community members who invest in and help grow the company, the business continues to work with others. Currently, Burwood is part of a fundraiser with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and its Hammie’s Own-named spirits and merchandise. A second fundraiser with the PPCLI for Burwood, the special edition product is a tribute to those who occupied the Stables that Burwood now calls home for 50 years. Beyond that, there’s a spring garden party and gin making classes around Mother’s Day – more of the celebration of homegrown happening at Burwood Distillery.  

“The world of spirits is centralized with mega corporations, but we want to be the opposite of that. We’re an official tourist destination now – crafting connections and distilling memories,” Ramey adds. “Alberta produces more honey than all Canadian provinces combined. Why aren’t we the worldwide epicentre for what is in abundance, what we’re known for here – rye, wheat, barley, and corn? Local is a way of life for us, and we want people to get excited the same way we are. We need to be investing in ourselves.”