Check out our recent Q & A with Gordon Glanz, the founder and distiller of Odd Society Spirits. Since opening in 2013 alongside his wife and business partner Miriam, the brand has become one the city’s foremost authorities in the art of craft distilling. When did you open the shop? October of 2013. It took a year and a half to set up the business. For distilling, I started in high school using my mum’s water distiller and started to distill wine. After school, I spent a year in Germany on a vineyard, who also had distills and they made fruit schnapps. This was my first intro to distillation. In 2009 I went to Scotland, Masters in brewing and distilling in Edinburgh at Heriot Watt University, for a year. I met Josh, the other distiller of Odd Society during that program. He was living in Europe at the time working for a brewery and also a brewery automation company. Josh later came here on a holiday, and then decided to move here and work with me. 
What’s your favourite thing about distilling? It involves so many different things; it is scientific but also creative and involves all the senses. It also involves food. It encompasses so many things. I also love the equipment, it is beautiful. What’s your favourite drink? I really like gin and tonics, I also really like whiskey. It’s simple. Favourite drink to make: The vermouth, it’s a forgotten category of drinks, but it so amazingly complex. It has many botanicals. At the moment I am very excited about vermouth. Right now it’s what I drink the most out of all of our drinks. How long does a batch take to make? For a common batch of our Vodka, it takes about 12 days; 1 day mashing, 7 days of fermentation, 2 days of distilling, 1 day of bottling. What’s new or coming up for Odd Society? Our Mongrel whiskey (white whiskey/moonshine) is coming out within a few weeks. We’re also working on another vermouth, a traditional red style. We are going to start making barrels of whiskey. It is a three year process but we are starting. We would like to primarily be a whiskey distillery. If you can’t make it down to Odd Society’s tasting room located at 1725 Powel Street, fret not. They participate in many local Farmers Markets in the area, including Yaletown, Kits, Squamish, Whistler, Trout Lake, West-End, North Van, and The North Van Night Markets. Check out their website for more information, and stay social on Twitter and Instagram/