CANADIAN MIST
Distillery
Founded in 1967
The Canadian Mist distillery was built in 1967. In 1971 it was sold to Brown-Forman. All of the production at the Collingwood Canadian Mist facility is done on-site. Everything from the mashing, to maturing the Whisky in all-season storage warehouses.
Canadian Mist even manufactures their own barrels, to ensure the optimal charring of the casks. Canadian Mist is one of the most well-known Whiskies from Canada. At one point in the U.S., it was the best-selling Canadian Whisky brand.
Canadian Mist is a blended Whisky with a mash bill of corn, rye and malt. It is a light, aromatic drink, bottled at 40% ABV, with sweet notes of toffee, vanilla, citrus, fruitiness and grassy aromas. There is also a nice spicy rye influence.
The distillery uses stainless steel continuous stills integrated with copper, which is very important for the development of the aroma. Canadian Mist is triple-distilled in a temperature controlled environment. They produce about three million gallons of Whisky per year.
Canadian Mist even manufactures their own barrels, to ensure the optimal charring of the casks. Canadian Mist is one of the most well-known Whiskies from Canada. At one point in the U.S., it was the best-selling Canadian Whisky brand.
Canadian Mist is a blended Whisky with a mash bill of corn, rye and malt. It is a light, aromatic drink, bottled at 40% ABV, with sweet notes of toffee, vanilla, citrus, fruitiness and grassy aromas. There is also a nice spicy rye influence.
The distillery uses stainless steel continuous stills integrated with copper, which is very important for the development of the aroma. Canadian Mist is triple-distilled in a temperature controlled environment. They produce about three million gallons of Whisky per year.
Distillery Details
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CountryCanada
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Established1967
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OwnerBrown Forman
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Visitor centerYes
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StatusActive
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Address202 MacDonald Rd, Collingwood, ON L9Y 3Z1, Canada
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Phone+1 705-445-4690
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Website
Dog Dogson's
Smartass
Corner
Corner
Canadian Mist won a "double gold medal" award at the 2009 annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Video from Canadian Mist
Video transcription
Narrator: Hello, and welcome to Whisky.com, where fine Spirits meet, and today we're at the Canadian Mist Distillery.
Benedikt: I'm standing here on a scale where all the trucks come in, and they're being weighed for their grain. And before the grain is unloaded, we have this arm here that takes probes on several points inside the truck, and then the grain is transported to a small house where the quality of the grain is determined, and then the grain is released and is ready for production.
Narrator: And here we see one of these 18-wheeler trucks that unloads a load of corn, and that is transported in an underground conveyor into these tanks. Here, they will be stored, and then if necessary, they are brought into the cooker and then later fermented into the Distiller's Beer.
Benedikt: I'm here at the fermentors, and Canadian Mist has 20 fermentors with a volume of 60,000 liters. All the fermentors are stainless steel with lids on top, so there's no CO2 released into the atmosphere or into the room, and all the CO2 is collected on top and then processed further. So the fermentation takes three to five days. That depends on which product we're producing, because different grains take different times to ferment. So after the fermentation is done, the Beer is ready to go into distillation.
Narrator: Unfortunately, the Canadian law is very strict, and we are not allowed to film the column still. We're now standing on top of the building and having a look around in the beautiful weather, and we're just seeing the Georgian Bay of the Lake Huron in Northern America. We're just above the border and not far from the USA, and this is what they call the Lake District. After the distilling has been done, the raw Whisky is ready, and here in this tanks, the blending takes place. Here, the master blender puts the different kind of raw Whisky together and blends them to have a suitable taste for the Canadian Mist brand. After the blend has been done, the Whisky is barreled into oak casts that have been used before, and then we continue the maturation inside the warehouse. [00:02:57] [Silence] [00:03:16]
Benedikt: I'm standing here in the warehouse, and as you can see, the barrels are stored in upright position, and that means the bong hole is sealed and drilled from the top. Canadian Mist is part of the Brown-Forman family, and that means these barrels come from Jack Daniel's. And Canadian Mist takes great care of the barrels, and that means they mark every barrel for how often they use it so you don't overuse the cast and you get a good flavor out of it. What they also do in a different warehouse is they heat cycle, so you got cycles during the winter, and the barrel can breathe more and take more of the wood flavors into the Whisky so you have your good Canadian Mist flavor.
Narrator: The finished Whisky is not bottled here in Collingwood, Ontario but in Louisville, Kentucky, where the main plant of Brown-Forman is.
Benedikt: So I'm sitting here with John Bracken, and you have been with Brown-Forman for eight years, and you're a brand ambassador. And you've been in the drinks business since 1996, so great experience there, and thank you for having us. John: It's really our pleasure, welcome to Collingwood.
Benedikt: Thank you very much. And, yeah, so what are we having today?
John: Okay, we've got three wonderful Canadian Whiskies. They're much different. But just like we taste Wines, we're gonna taste them from lightest profile to the more robust, okay? So we will start with Canadian Mist.
Benedikt: I'm standing here on a scale where all the trucks come in, and they're being weighed for their grain. And before the grain is unloaded, we have this arm here that takes probes on several points inside the truck, and then the grain is transported to a small house where the quality of the grain is determined, and then the grain is released and is ready for production.
Narrator: And here we see one of these 18-wheeler trucks that unloads a load of corn, and that is transported in an underground conveyor into these tanks. Here, they will be stored, and then if necessary, they are brought into the cooker and then later fermented into the Distiller's Beer.
Benedikt: I'm here at the fermentors, and Canadian Mist has 20 fermentors with a volume of 60,000 liters. All the fermentors are stainless steel with lids on top, so there's no CO2 released into the atmosphere or into the room, and all the CO2 is collected on top and then processed further. So the fermentation takes three to five days. That depends on which product we're producing, because different grains take different times to ferment. So after the fermentation is done, the Beer is ready to go into distillation.
Narrator: Unfortunately, the Canadian law is very strict, and we are not allowed to film the column still. We're now standing on top of the building and having a look around in the beautiful weather, and we're just seeing the Georgian Bay of the Lake Huron in Northern America. We're just above the border and not far from the USA, and this is what they call the Lake District. After the distilling has been done, the raw Whisky is ready, and here in this tanks, the blending takes place. Here, the master blender puts the different kind of raw Whisky together and blends them to have a suitable taste for the Canadian Mist brand. After the blend has been done, the Whisky is barreled into oak casts that have been used before, and then we continue the maturation inside the warehouse. [00:02:57] [Silence] [00:03:16]
Benedikt: I'm standing here in the warehouse, and as you can see, the barrels are stored in upright position, and that means the bong hole is sealed and drilled from the top. Canadian Mist is part of the Brown-Forman family, and that means these barrels come from Jack Daniel's. And Canadian Mist takes great care of the barrels, and that means they mark every barrel for how often they use it so you don't overuse the cast and you get a good flavor out of it. What they also do in a different warehouse is they heat cycle, so you got cycles during the winter, and the barrel can breathe more and take more of the wood flavors into the Whisky so you have your good Canadian Mist flavor.
Narrator: The finished Whisky is not bottled here in Collingwood, Ontario but in Louisville, Kentucky, where the main plant of Brown-Forman is.
Benedikt: So I'm sitting here with John Bracken, and you have been with Brown-Forman for eight years, and you're a brand ambassador. And you've been in the drinks business since 1996, so great experience there, and thank you for having us. John: It's really our pleasure, welcome to Collingwood.
Benedikt: Thank you very much. And, yeah, so what are we having today?
John: Okay, we've got three wonderful Canadian Whiskies. They're much different. But just like we taste Wines, we're gonna taste them from lightest profile to the more robust, okay? So we will start with Canadian Mist.
