May 28 – MOSES LAKE – Moses Lake Distillery has been bottling spirits for sale in the region since 2021, operating out of a store on State Route 17 and also running a small tasting room that is now located in downtown Moses Lake.
Owner Zachary Hughes said the distillery started as a side project.
“I lived in San Diego for a while. I had a friend who had a distillery there. That’s what got me into it. I would just hang out with him, and he (would) say, ‘Oh, go by the distillery, then let’s do some distilling and tasting,” Hughes said. “So I started doing that and then helped him for a while and then I moved here, my wife (Liz) and I, and then there were no distilleries around, so We thought we’d give it a try.”
Hughes outlined what the distillery focuses on.
“We make vodka, rum and whiskey. Each type has its own unique thing… So it’s kind of like the art of that, the art of the different ways of doing the barrel aging,” he said. “Like maturing it in, say, an American oak barrel, and then maturing it in another (barrel) or like a wine barrel or a rum barrel… The crazy thing too is you could do the same process through the whole thing and then they’ll both taste completely different after they get older, so it’s pretty cool.”
For the past six months, the distillery’s tasting room has operated from a new location in downtown Moses Lake at the intersection of South Ash Street and West Third Avenue.
“We had our old tasting room that was in the Squirrel Fight Brewery; we had a shared tasting room with them and once they closed we moved here,” Hughes said. “We actually wanted to be in the center, we thought that was more important, to be centrally located. We will stay here for a while and then we will look for a slightly larger place. It is kind of a good space in between; we love the environment. ..it’s cool and the outdoor area is cool, we just want something bigger.”
The tasting room offers a variety of drinks to the public.
“I like to experiment with what you can do,” Hughes said, “and my wife does very well in the tasting room. Normally she makes all our cocktails here and she picks maybe four or five for the week and then we just sign those cocktails for the week and next week we change them all up. So it’s kind of fun as we move forward with that, and while she’s doing the cocktail side, I can try to make it a spirit that will go really well with that cocktail.”
The tasting room is only made possible by Washington state law, Hughes said.
“In Washington you can go directly from the manufacturer (to the) consumer, which is really nice, so people can come right in here and get bottles from us,” he said. “The tasting room is kind of nice because that’s what we mainly focus on, it’s just bottles, and then if anyone wants to come over, have a cocktail or two while they’re here, that’s great.”
Hughes explained his experiences with Moses Lake during the two years the distillery was in operation.
“The community we have here is unlike anywhere I’ve lived before; it’s on the East Coast in Ohio and in Hawaii and San Diego,” he said. “I love the community here and that’s what got me hooked from the beginning when we moved here: it’s a close-knit community. Everyone knows everyone, which is really cool, when you visit a lot of other local small businesses and meet them and seeing what they do, and also working with a lot of them.
Hughes said the distillery has also grown over the past two years.
“Over the last few years we’ve gone to more places, sold a lot more bottles and gotten a little busier in the tasting room,” he said. “Our latest is we just signed a partnership with the Moses Lake Roundup, so we’re going to produce a whiskey that will be endorsed by the Roundup and we’ll have that at the rodeo.”
According to a statement from the distillery, there will be limited releases of this whiskey leading up to the Roundup & Demo Derby in August, with large-scale distribution following the roundup.
Moses Lake Distillery has not only achieved success in sales, but also in prices. The statement said the distillery this month received the 2024 American Spirits Council of Tasters Double Platinum Award, meaning it achieved the highest marks in the competition, according to a May 21 press release from the distillery.
Overall, Hughes said one of his favorite things about running the distillery is being able to talk to customers.
“The people who come in here are great, so just talk to them, see what their background is and get feedback on the products we have,” Hughes said.
Gabriel Davis can be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.
Moses Lake Distillery
121 West Third Ave.
Moses Lake, WA 98837
509-824-6183
mldistillery.com
Sun-Wed: closed
Thu-Sat: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
