Our Story
We pride ourselves in creating the small pleasures in life.
King’s Lock Craft Distillery spirits are all handcrafted in small batches using local and organic ingredients.
We value our commitment to sustainable practices and local sourcing so we can produce our spirits with minimal environmental impact. We are 100% Canadian-made and use certified Organic grains from our local farmers to distill our spirits.
Our family-owned and operated distillery was the first certified Organic distillery in Ontario – and we’re also certified kosher. We can guarantee the quality and ingredients of our spirits because we distill our spirits from scratch, in-house – not many distilleries make their own spirit bases, like vodka, but we do – and we do it well.
Handcrafting and double distilling in small batches in our copper pot still make our spirits unique, bold, and of the highest quality. Our distillers use techniques which enhance the unique balance and essence of our fine flavours. We know the extra time and effort makes all the difference, and we think you’ll agree.
Visit our distillery to sample handcrafted, local spirits and learn about our distillation process. Both individuals and groups are welcome to explore our distillery located in the historical town of Johnstown.
Our spirits have been recognized for their excellence internationally. We received three medals at the 2018 Canadian Artisan Spirits Competition and another two at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirit Competition.
We’re Rob and Laura, the founders of King’s Lock Craft Distillery. We created our company on the basis that distilling spirits in small batches results in more body, flavor and less conjugers than other methods.
Our team has more then a decade of experience distilling spirits. We’ve crafted our award-winning staples, but we’re continually experimenting with new combinations so we can expand our offerings and surprise you with seasonal favourites.
In addition, our team has more then twenty-five years in business and project management helping us to start our business with one of the largest production capacities in the province. We have the capacity to offer contract manufacturing and consulting for others interested in distilling.
King’s Lock Craft Distillery is dedicated to sustainable and green principles. We endeavor to minimize our energy consumption, waste production, and resource utilization.
Water is a critical resource in our distilling process so while we can’t eliminate our water consumption, we do our best to greatly reduce it. We practice water recycling processes to minimize our usage. We are also pursuing solar-powered hot water and inground systems for water cooling.
We chose to use organic ingredients because we believe it is a more sustainable method of farming and use of land. We source all our grains from local farmers – and our grain residue then goes back to farms as feed or fertilizers. Distillation results in a grain mash residue which is very high in protein (completely alcohol-free) and can be used a cattle feed or field fertilizers.
We were both raised on organic farms so our commitment to sustainability and reducing our waste is really important to us. Our products reflect the hard work of both us and our farmers to care for our environment and support sustainable farming practices while producing world-class spirits.
We have designed our processes to leverage the reuse of suitable pieces of equipment as well as methods to conserve power, water, and gas. To help us achieve our goals we only use Bullfrog Power. Bullfrog uses only renewable energy sources in their commitment to green energy.