Becky Garrison – Discover the Secret Behind Washington’s Craft Distillery Boom

Meet Becky Garrison

Becky shares her fascinating journey and her deep connection with the craft distillery scene of Washington State. Her background as a freelance writer and her passion for building communities clearly shines through as she discusses her experiences and inspirations. Becky’s dedication to her craft and her enthusiasm for all things spirited make her the perfect guide to navigate the rich world of Washington’s distilleries.

Her new book Distilled in Washington is a deep dive into the history of distilling in Washington. The book also is a detailed resource to help you navigate the current distillery scene in Washington State.

Becky opens our eyes to the explosive growth of distilleries in Washington State. From beer history to privatized liquor stores, there’s a whole lotta factors propelling the scene forward. But she also gives us a real-talk glimpse into the challenges and costs of setting up a distillery. Talk about dedication and love for the craft!

Uncovering the Gems: Washington’s Distilleries

Blue Spirits, Copper Works, Westland, Woodinville – these ain’t just names; they’re the rockstars of the distillery scene. Becky lets us peek behind the scenes, unveiling the passion and grit poured into each bottle. These sips aren’t just drinks; they’re a taste of the state’s soul.

The Craft Spirit Vibe

Becky’s enthusiasm for craft spirits is contagious. She delves into the real deal about flavor, working with farmers, and the camaraderie embedded in every sip. It’s not just a drink – it’s a narrative waiting to be unraveled.

What Lies Ahead

As we wind down, Becky leaves us with hope for the future of distilleries. She assures us that our faves like Blue Spirits, Copper Works, Westland, and Woodinville are in it for the long haul. And while things look steady, she reminds us that life’s full of surprises. But with these distillery dynamos at the helm, we’re in for a spirited ride.

Connect With Becky

Follow Becky on Facebook

Visit Becky online

Find Becky on Instagram

Purchase Distilled in Washington here

Becky Garrison Episode Transcript

Scott Cowan [00:00:04]:
Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest.

Scott Cowan [00:00:25]:
Well, I’m sitting here today with Becky Garrison and Becky’s the author of this kind of cool book Cowan not kind of cool. It’s a very cool book. It’s called Distilled in Washington. It’s a history of distilling in Washington Scott. And I learned I’ve learned a lot. I got more to learn, but I’ve learned a lot. So Becky, first off, give us a little bit of your background. Who are you and where and where did you come from? How’s that?

Becky Garrison [00:00:49]:
Well, I always describe myself kind of jokingly as a prenatal Episcopalian. My late father was an episcopal priest. I tell the people, you do the ecclesiology and the history and the science. And so I I grew up that way, but because due to I just have a very highly dysfunctional family history, I ended up becoming a religious satirist. I was ended up satyrite as my way of survival, I guess you could say, growing up in a dysfunctional family. Satire became this tool that I use, kinda railing against the institutional power structures and whatnot. By 2014, I’d grown kinda tired of that journey.

Scott Cowan [00:01:28]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:01:28]:
I had also grown kinda tired of trying to connect with a dysfunctional alcohol riddled family that just is no interest in connecting except for a few members, and I decided that the Pacific Northwest was a great place to go to retire, to get old. Here, when you’re in New York City and you’re a freelance writer, they ask you, so how do you support yourself?

Scott Cowan [00:01:51]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:01:52]:
A question that always makes me get very nervous. No writer wants to really discuss the intricacies of how they manage to survive a very perilous profession

Scott Cowan [00:02:02]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:02:02]:
And why they’re nuts for even wanting to do it in the first place. Then you when I was in Boston for a little bit, you kept getting asked, you have these Ivy League degrees. Why aren’t you doing something more with it? Setting aside the fact that a lot of people in humanities do not have jobs even though they graduated from Ivy League institutions.

Scott Cowan [00:02:19]:
I wanna interrupt you. So did I read correctly? You went to Yale?

Becky Garrison [00:02:23]:
Yale Divinity School, Columbia School of Social Work. Yes. I had an MDiv, MSW.

Scott Cowan [00:02:28]:
Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:02:28]:
My my interest is always trying to help people, try to, you know, build up communities. I guess you could say, in some ways, you’re trying to make do the ills of your past from your family history. And because I’ve also discovered in my studies, I was related to Roger Williams, who’s the founder of church state separation, a really good pioneer. And I’m like, well, how do I emulate this person instead of my current relatives? And what’s exciting when you come out of the Pacific Northwest is they ask you one question. What are you working on? Which is the only question a creative ever wants to answer. We don’t wanna talk about, to people we don’t know very well, the nuances of how we make our lives work. We wanna discuss what we’re doing as the end result. Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:03:11]:
And the Pacific Northwest here had a lovely Celtic sense of spirituality here. It’s been left alone. So you don’t get the academic or the publishing pushed apparel, you know, except for Sub Pop. There’s not really a lot of music publishing companies here. So people come here because they wanna create.

Scott Cowan [00:03:30]:
Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:03:30]:
You know, they come here. The you’re not humiliated or shamed if you’re over 50 and you happen to have housemates and you’re working as a barista Because people know you’re doing something else that’s interesting, that’s fun. And just connecting with these kind of people. It was a place where a a woman over 40, a woman especially over 50, isn’t looked at as though she’s some kind of a leftover whatever. There’s a lot of value here. And I said, this is a good place to go to age, to kind of worship with the pines instead of in, you know, a church building.

Scott Cowan [00:04:03]:
So this is so interesting to me because I’ve I’ve lived my 62 years of life in Washington Scott. I’ve I’ve gone around the I’ve been I’ve traveled the United States pretty extensively, but I’ve always called Washington. Washington state’s always been home. And what you just described is seemingly unusual to you, which is, you know, somebody of 50 plus years of age, having roommates working as a barista. It seems perfectly normal to me because lots of my friends they’re they’re musicians and they’re they’re my age or, you know, you know, anyway. And they’re still, you know, they’ve got the day job that keeps the lights on barely. And their, their goal is to play live music 2, 3 nights a Cowan it’s perfectly normal. So I’m listening to you thinking that it’s different and I’m like going, oh, wait, that’s the way it always is.

Scott Cowan [00:04:53]:
So I guess maybe I should go back east for a while and kind of get, get recalibrated to the east. And I don’t want to do that. I’ll stay here. Okay. So, you moved out here and you had this you came with your with the background and all that. So, this specific book, what was the inspiration to go and research alcohol, distilleries, whiskey, Washington Scott, for you?

Becky Garrison [00:05:25]:
Well, for one thing, as somebody who I I’ve always been covering travel writing and kind of as another way to kind of I I always said fund my fun. But when I moved here, I discovered there was a very strong connection between the land, the people, and the products. And much more so than I mean, other places are going, here’s a nice fun, cute culinary cuisine, the latest nouveau cuisine, whatever the latest is, which never held my interest. But you come out here and someone has actually has a story behind their product. They are creating communities. Here, you go to the brewpubs, the tasting rooms. They function like the churches used to do in terms of offering, you know, a place where communities can come to connect. There are some of them offer a player here’s where meeting places.

Becky Garrison [00:06:13]:
Here’s where we can help sponsor nonprofits. We can up you know, help our community. Here’s a local member that lost something. Now we’re gonna hold a local fundraiser. This is what churches used to do, the kind of barn raising, community building. And over the years, the church became so much institutionalized. It lost its relevancy. It hasn’t really played a role since the civil rights movement.

Becky Garrison [00:06:36]:
Meanwhile, the rest of the world I mean, individual churches have. I’m talking about the institutional church as far as being a prophetic voice that everyone was universally respected. That left in the sixties. Mhmm. Has not come back, but yet I’m now seeing this emergence of these grassroots pioneers. You know? Or I know you make fun of Oregon, but we’re gonna say here, for example, that we have 1% of the wine is produced here, but yet it the state has 52% of the biodynamic wineries in the country. And this whole thing really began to interest me, the notion of regenerative agriculture, the way that people were giving back to the land, not just leave no trace behind, like, when you go camping, but how to make the product better. How do you make products that are good for yourself and good for the planet? Right.

Becky Garrison [00:07:23]:
And as someone who has an extended family that is just alcohol riddled up the wazoo, I was always interested in the craft over commercial because my family chose just to drink whatever would get them intoxicated, which is typically of an alcoholic. But here, people were finding a craft sensibility. Mhmm. They was infusing the product. They were choosing flavor over yield. They were working with farmers to create things from salmon safe, B core certified, you know, USDA organic, as I just mentioned biodynamic. All these terms became part of the culture. I began to go to food festivals and noticing, at least in the beginning, at a festival like Feasts, it was dedicated to helping to end childhood hunger.

Becky Garrison [00:08:05]:
It later became a lot more commercialized. But in the beginning, that’s what it was. So I then went and started pitching books with this coverage, and history press said, I’m interested in what you’re writing. However, this book that you wanna propose might be too broad for us. So we kind of started walking around like, what books have you done? What are you interested? And we discovered, much to our surprise, that despite Washington Scott being one of the top numbers of distillers in the country, it’s tied with there’s New York, then California, then Texas, and, Washington State are kind of vying for 3rd and 4th place. These numbers are all pre COVID, so it’s kind of hard to calculate. You realize there’s no book on the history of distilling. There’s not even a guide to the history to all the distilleries listed in Washington state.

Becky Garrison [00:08:55]:
The Washington State Distillers Guild is reforming. They’re doing a marvelous job under A. J. Temple at Temple Distilling and Nathan Kaiser of 2 Bar Spirits, but their list as of this writing is not as accurate as what’s in my book. So I felt there’s there needs to be a resource for people who want to explore this really dynamic scene of about over 75 distilleries. So I said yes to writing this book, and it did help that, you know, Jason Parker and Charles Finkel were very supportive of it. They have been very good champions. So it’s good.

Becky Garrison [00:09:28]:
It’s there’s such amazing support among most of the distillers here. It’s just phenomenal.

Scott Cowan [00:09:33]:
What’s interesting, one of the things that, you know, if we try to talk about the history of of alcohol in Washington Scott, we could be here for days, but there’s 2 things that I think are interesting that I picked up in your book and that one of the things I kind of knew a little bit about before, which was the bootlegging aspects of Washington state liquor and almost like the gentleman like nature of it. But as a kid who grew up here and watching so I grew up, this is my experience pre 21 was Scott state and cold liquor stores. Right? And it’s the only place you could buy hard alcohol in the state of Washington was from the state of Washington. And I just remember going into liquor stores pre 21 to get boxes when I was moving. Okay. I mean, that was they were a great resource for cheap people moving because you could get the liquor boxes. And then, you know, the state got out of the business of alcohol in that respect, they opened it up, They changed some of the laws, and I’m really high levels skipping over this, but distilleries are really quite new here. We don’t have a long legal history of distilleries.

Scott Cowan [00:10:40]:
And for us, for the Scott to go from, I’ll say none to being 3rd or 4th in in distilleries is kind of fascinating to me. So in your opinion, why do you think we grew so rapidly?

Becky Garrison [00:10:59]:
Well, first off, when the prohibition was first repealed in 1934, if you look at the current state, Washington Scott was not considered a good place to make wine. No. It was not considered a place where you would make distilled spears. Most of the distilling was happening in the grain growing areas of the Midwest. Mhmm. And also post prohibition, as you know, bourbon replaced rye as the number one spirit because rye is a little bit more difficult to grow. So instead of growing rye in western and also western Pennsylvania, western New York becoming more populated. So the logical place to grow corn was Kentucky followed by Tennessee.

Scott Cowan [00:11:38]:
K.

Becky Garrison [00:11:38]:
And that so you just wouldn’t have thought of this as a place to make grain. It would we didn’t have the specialty grain. We were known, however, in terms of grain for growing beer. Washington State, 83% of the beer consumed in Washington State after prohibition was grown in Scott. And the state exported twice as much beer as it imported. And Charles Finkel, I think, was who’s the individual who I think pretty much introduced craft beer to the United States really wetted the appetite of people in Seattle for craft beer.

Scott Cowan [00:12:11]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:12:11]:
You know, 1989 was when Pipes Pub was open. There were a few other breweries Cowan at that time. You then trace the development of the craft beer movement. You also look at the development of wineries. This led to an interest of, you know, the notion of taking beer. You’re a lot but Jason Parker is one of the brewers of many who are now starting from brewing and then taking their wort and turning it into distilling. This whole notion of flavor over yield became a really big concept. And then Dawn of Dry Fly, whom you’ve had on your show, was the first person who spearheaded the legislation that made it happen.

Becky Garrison [00:12:50]:
And once it was possible, it started flooding. And by 2012, when they started to pass the legislation that privatized the liquor stores, we had gone from 0. In 2008 to 2012, they’ve gone from 0 to about 20. Yeah. And just the moment you people could do it, they wanted to do it. And it takes a while. I’ve been reading some of your other interviews. Like, John Wofford was describing all the hassles of trying to get yourself licensed.

Becky Garrison [00:13:16]:
You know? And then you have, you know, JB of Fastpenny and John Wolford. They’re both of them were operating during COVID, which is one of the most

Scott Cowan [00:13:24]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:13:25]:
Stressful times to try to Cowan, but, you know, people are just coming here. There there’s an appreciation for the craft spirit. And what’s very telling is, so far, we only have a handful of distillers that have been bought out by larger companies.

Scott Cowan [00:13:39]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:13:39]:
And of those larger companies, most of them, you know, they they still operate as akin to a craft distillery. You know, Westland may be owned by, you know, Remy Martin, but they still have a very much a craft sensibility, a very much a sense of place. And the distilleries, a lot of them have very unique stories to why they wanted to get formed similar to the craft brewers. I think people just discovered, I want to do this and now the law is gonna let me do it. You know, prior to 2,008, it was prohibited to set up a distillery. It was expensive.

Scott Cowan [00:14:12]:
Well, it still it still seems like it’s expensive because at least when I’ve talked to brewers, I I haven’t really had this conversation with distillers directly, but I’m gonna assume it’s the same, is you gotta get it all set up before the state will give you the permission to use the equipment. So you’re you’re invested 1,000, 100 of 1,000 of dollars in in equipment to either brew beer or to be a distiller. And then the state’s got to come in and annoint you as acceptable. That seems a little onerous, from an investment standpoint, you know, I was, anyway. It’s a

Becky Garrison [00:14:48]:
little bit honorous, but but when when you have a product that you know, I mean, people say to me, why is alcohol liquored so much more tax? And I’m like, well, the worst thing that happens when you brew wine and brew beer or you make wine is you get a really lousy product that tastes bad.

Scott Cowan [00:15:03]:
Mhmm. You know,

Becky Garrison [00:15:03]:
you might get a stomachache from it if it has too much sulfur sulfates.

Scott Cowan [00:15:07]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:15:07]:
You could you could end up in the ER or the morgue if you have consumed, you know, a liquor that has not been legally cut.

Scott Cowan [00:15:15]:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. No. We don’t have. Okay. So you you decide to kind of document the history of distilling in Washington Scott. What, if anything, surprised you about the the history here? Did anything come up that in your research? You’re like,

Becky Garrison [00:15:38]:
A lot. I mean, first of all, that nobody had ever traced it before just continued to surprise me. I mean, I I was surprised at how many it’s like each book had little pieces of the puzzle. You know? So I started reading first on books on I needed to assess were Washingtonians or people in the Oregon territory, later Washington territory, later Washington Scott. Yeah. Were they more drunk than the rest of the country? Was this and I discovered through reading Susan Cheever’s drinking in America, a book, the his short history of drunkenness, and AR Rohenbach wrote the alcohol republic. No. America was by 18:30, we went from drinking 4.5 gallons to 9 point some gallons per, you know, man, woman, child in America.

Becky Garrison [00:16:22]:
People coming like, Tugfield and others coming from Europe would go, oh my god. These guys are snacker are just snacker it out. You know, they we we were granted, a lot of this is 1 to 3%. Right. ABB beer and cider because the water was still not fit to drink and pasteurization had not been developed.

Scott Cowan [00:16:40]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:16:41]:
But I think that was one of the first things is that, you know, this was a recent and the second was the the outsized role that whiskey played. You know, I just the thought never occurred to me, which is kinda it’s what would you use for commerce when you go to a Cowan to a place that has not been settled. There was no, you know, could there was no money. There was nothing. Whiskey became how people were traded. And I was aware of the the horrible way that the natives were treated, even compared the initial laws against liquor are primarily designated to keep the natives sows, so to speak. They were allowed to put in chemicals, including strychnine that would keep them, quote, unquote, under control. It was absolutely horrible to read how the natives were treated.

Becky Garrison [00:17:30]:
And that’s that’s just more of a history I talked to my editor and got them to give me a few more thousand words, but I I was a I had a limit, and I hit my limit. And it was very those those were some of the stories I couldn’t leave out. The role of women, the role of children.

Scott Cowan [00:17:54]:
Yeah. So I It’s just Yeah. I saw the part about where they were adding strychnine. I don’t know. It was just like, you know, my eyes kinda, like, you know, opened up and it was like, wow. And then one of the things that it makes perfect sense when you when you read it, but I never and and not that I think of everything, but I never thought of it. It was that Lewis and Clark brought barrels of whiskey with them on the, on the Lewis and Clark expedition. And, and it was used, like you said, as a currency, because, a barrel of whiskey would go a lot further than a barrel of beer.

Scott Cowan [00:18:26]:
And, And it was, so it was more like, you know, large denomination bills versus small denomination bills, you know, a bunch of 100s take up the same room as a bunch of singles. Never thought about it like that. Never ever thought about it. And and so I was finding that part of the book to be really, you know, I’m like I’m a history buff in the sense that I’m like, oh, this is kind of cool. And then you’ve got photographs of places that I recognize like in Ellensburg and, in Roslin and, you know, it was like, you know, they’ve been that that building’s been around it. I think one in Ellsberg has been around since, like, 18/89. And I’m like, can’t think of what’s in there now, but it’s still there. What is it? Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:19:07]:
And I gotta go back to Ellensburg and look it now look it up. Mhmm. I I think that’s the historical journey of this is is really, really interesting. And I think, absolutely worth worth a good read. But then you kinda you kinda transition into Cowan. And Wenatchee we started this conversation, you mentioned COVID and, you know, and the disruption that it’s had on on all of us, but on on enterprise, especially. And I don’t know that every distillery that started pre COVID has survived. I I hate giving COVID as much airtime as we give it because I’d like to think of it as in the rear view mirror, but I do think it still kinda lingers its effects on the on the economy.

Scott Cowan [00:19:49]:
But you kinda journeyed around the state to go in. Did you visit? How many disorders did you visit?

Becky Garrison [00:19:57]:
I visited a number of disorders in the Greater Seattle area. I wasn’t given it in advance, so I did the best I could. I I basically emailed, contacted

Scott Cowan [00:20:05]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:20:06]:
Saw a lover of distilleries. I’ve been to Proof in the past. I hope to go to Proof again. So I’ve I’ve tasted a number of the spirits.

Scott Cowan [00:20:13]:
Right. And a

Becky Garrison [00:20:13]:
number of them are gonna be at Seattle, cocktail weeks, carnival of cocktails. So the advantage of being in of traveling to Seattle is you can often taste a lot of the different spirits.

Scott Cowan [00:20:23]:
Right. No. That’s Even

Becky Garrison [00:20:24]:
if you can’t visit all the distillery. It’s impossible to visit them all on a writing on a book budget.

Scott Cowan [00:20:31]:
So I’m gonna put you on the spot. This is an impossible question. Okay? I know it’s impossible. It’s not fair. It’s unfair of me. I warned you I wouldn’t ask you any hard questions. I lied. This is a hard question and I’ll let you pass if you won’t know what to, but are the things that you tasted? Was there any one that you went, oh, this, I really like this.

Scott Cowan [00:20:51]:
Did anything really catch your palate? Like, can really, like, latch on?

Becky Garrison [00:20:57]:
I I I write in the beginning of the preface of the book how I first discovered my love of spirits, when I discovered fly the the trinity, you know, logaboblin cigars and fly fishing. Yes. Yes. So when I have an American single malt, whether it’s from westward, copper words, just tasting the nuances of the single malt, the tasting how the individual barleys inform the whiskey.

Scott Cowan [00:21:20]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:21:21]:
And I’ve gotten to the point, thanks to Jason, I learned how to just I Cowan tell by sniffing a whiskey if it’s one I wanna sip.

Scott Cowan [00:21:28]:
Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:21:28]:
I mean, you you get to the point where you I I no longer I mean, if I finally learned how to become a connoisseur, I finally learned how to do a tasting correctly so I can walk out and not be inebriated. Right. And a lot of it is developing a sense of this is good. It’s not excellent.

Scott Cowan [00:21:44]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:21:44]:
You know, this is very good. It’s not excellent. Mhmm. I’ve also had some gins made with some Pacific Northwest Botanicals that just all of a sudden you just taste and you go, Cowan then and you just hope that the person’s gonna stay there, and they’re not gonna pull an aviation, which is when they sell the company, change the recipe, and now you go, this is influencer garbage food. You know? Right.

Scott Cowan [00:22:06]:
Or

Becky Garrison [00:22:06]:
garbage dream, I should say.

Scott Cowan [00:22:08]:
Right. You know?

Becky Garrison [00:22:10]:
And it’s just I just love watching because when people start talking about the whiskeys they make, I mean, they kinda say, like, they say you can tell a brewer by his pale ale because you can’t hide you can hide a mistake in a stout. You cannot hide anything in a pale ale.

Scott Cowan [00:22:22]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:22:23]:
To me, a single malt whiskey is how I determine if someone or or a whiskey, period, because you have someone like Keith Barnes that makes amazing single grain whiskeys using wheat and other, you know, other grades and that some people have made some amazing rye whiskey. So it’s not just the single malt. You can tell when someone’s a really great distiller to me by when I taste their whiskey.

Scott Cowan [00:22:45]:
Okay. Usually. Of the you know, you so you haven’t gone to them all. Is there is there a a distillery or 2 that’s, like, high on your I wanna go here list? Like, I wanna, like, I wanna go check this out?

Becky Garrison [00:22:58]:
There’s a number of distilleries that I’ve interviewed people. You know, I’d like to visit them just, you know, I’d like John Wolford gave me such a great story about his pic his grandparents owning a, quote, unquote, bakery.

Scott Cowan [00:23:10]:
Bakery.

Becky Garrison [00:23:10]:
They like to see the house. You know? Is that what is that house like? Some other people have sent me some interesting photographs, and I’m like, that might be a fun little place to go to. But it’s more I like to to me, it’s always fun to kind of just go to Wildridge, you know, out in Yakima. It’s a little dis it’s a distill it’s the first distillery and winery combined together. It’d be kind of fun to see that little place over there. So it’s a lot of like, when you’re traveling, I love to go to your little off the wall place. Like, you pull up, you know, to a little place. You think, oh, this is gonna be a terrible, you know, shack.

Becky Garrison [00:23:43]:
This is gonna be horrible. This is this looks like it’s a dump, and you walk in and it’s magnificent.

Scott Cowan [00:23:47]:
Right. I

Becky Garrison [00:23:47]:
mean, there’s always they never surprised me. It’s like the dive distilleries. I just look. But in terms of a place I always go to, I first you can tell by reading the preface of the book and the forward, I always do the copper works by connection. Because to me, that tells the history of wine, beer, and spirits

Scott Cowan [00:24:05]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:24:05]:
In Washington Scott through those 2 men. I can tell that story.

Scott Cowan [00:24:08]:
So here’s an interesting an interesting thing. This this is this is to me is just slightly off topic, but on topic. So last weekend before, you know, so we’re recording this in the middle of a week. So and a musician acquaintance of ours was performing at a brewery in the Kenmore area.

Becky Garrison [00:24:36]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:24:37]:
K. I I did not go. I had I had other complications. And so I checked in with her, you know, and I said, so how did it go? She goes, oh, it was okay. You know, it was I didn’t like the venue very much, but the band was great, blah blah blah. Then she goes, we went next door to or not next Scott. She goes, we went to this distillery there and I was talking to this guy and, you know, I think you should have him on the podcast. I’m like, oh, okay.

Scott Cowan [00:24:59]:
And I’m like, oh, okay. I get that a lot. You should have so and so on the podcast. I’m like, okay. And I and as I read your book, I realized it’s it’s the the copper works distillery guy.

Becky Garrison [00:25:10]:
I’m like, oh. You’re, you’re you’re you could tell your, wife has very good taste. I mean I mean, I I’d look for the the the people say, why does why did one distillery get more mention than the other? Well, some people tell stories. Some people just tell me, here’s my lineup of spirits. Right. And other people say, here’s why I made the spirit, and that’s the story I’m interested in. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:25:32]:
That’s that’s what we like. I mean, that’s what people like because they wanna hear the story. Like, you said, mister Wolford and his his the bakery house. You know?

Becky Garrison [00:25:41]:
But but but you would be you’d be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t be, is because until South Pacific Community you know, South Puget Community College or South where’d it be? South Puget Sound Community College.

Scott Cowan [00:25:53]:
South yeah. The South Sound I don’t know.

Becky Garrison [00:25:55]:
Anyway. Well, until they did the, distillery over in the Tom Water Craft District, they’re really the way you learned was for your daddy, your grandpa. You didn’t learn legally. The concept I mean, people just don’t wanna talk about this, but, you know, you you didn’t you you learned at home. And the flea is kind of like in the cannabis industry. A lot of people learn how to grow cannabis and they learn how to grow it. They Right. Grew it.

Becky Garrison [00:26:21]:
I

Scott Cowan [00:26:22]:
heard it.

Becky Garrison [00:26:22]:
Very Yeah. Very good at it. So this is you’re finding a lot of people to a very recently did this. And I still have people coming up to me and whispering. You know, they’ll say, my great grandpa was a rum runner during prohibition or whatever. I’m like, I’d love to see it be celebrated because

Scott Cowan [00:26:38]:
Yeah.

Becky Garrison [00:26:39]:
I had one woman I found through this lovely website called Washington Rural Heritage. You go to this website, they have all these lovely photographs, and then you have to contact each person individually for permission. And I found this lovely photograph of a female moonshiner. She wasn’t even in front of a still or anything. She was just sitting out there in her lovely pretty polka dot dress. And I asked for permission, and the family said, no. No. No.

Becky Garrison [00:27:03]:
And my response was, well, you might wanna have the family remove the photo from this library because anybody who researches this can find out your grandma was a moonshiner. I’m looking forward to the day when that won’t be embarrassing, when people can just say, you know, my relative was a sex worker. My relative was a moonshotter, and it’s not gonna be it’s be seen as what you did.

Scott Cowan [00:27:23]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:27:24]:
It’s not gonna be viewed as anything negative, derogatory. You know, you were involved in a profession, and that’s that. You know, celebrate, you know, the kind of the body or right to your side of your family history.

Scott Cowan [00:27:36]:
Well, it’s it’s it’s funny. In a similar vein, one of the first guests we ever had on was, Ben Barnes who runs Steelhead Cider up in Lake Chelan. And Ben’s Ben compared to me, Ben’s a young kid and and his family owned an orchard. And and I said, so why’d you get started in cider? You know, what was the thing? He goes, I couldn’t afford to buy alcohol, so I made it in my dorm room at WSU. And that’s what’s that’s what launched his his cider career was, you know, thrift, pure thrift. It was you couldn’t couldn’t afford, so he created his own. He had he had everything he needed. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:28:09]:
And then another another, Saturn maker told me about their first, you know, efforts of making it and, how awful it was, you know, as it was in the closet of a dorm room that they had. And anyway, it’s just so, yes, I think I don’t think we should be embarrassed by the past. I think we should learn from it, you know? Okay. So what? Oh, I don’t think, I don’t think I got you to answer this one, But why do you think I mean, I know there was a lot of demand, but Mhmm. Why do you think Washington State’s got so many distilleries? Because all the other states could be doing this. I mean, somebody could be, you know, distilling alcohol in Idaho or Montana. They do it in Oregon, California. Why do you think Washington Scott is it because we have such an abundance of raw goods? Or what do you think?

Becky Garrison [00:29:03]:
I think it’s a combination. 1, it’s a place where you can go and pursue a passion. You Cowan do your field of dreams thing, Kevin Costner style.

Scott Cowan [00:29:11]:
Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:29:11]:
And people and people don’t think you’re nuts. I think there’s other areas where they’re like, you’re crazy. You know, you’re I mean, they may think you’re crazy, but it’s crazy in a good way. Okay. It’s not a question of

Scott Cowan [00:29:21]:
Okay. And I

Becky Garrison [00:29:22]:
think there’s something to be said for that. But, plus, this is a state that’s very much I think in the in the right sense of the term, I would say Oregon and Washington have a strong libertarian focus in the old school use of the word. I’m not discussing how it’s used today in politics

Scott Cowan [00:29:37]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:29:37]:
Where you do your thing, I do me. We’re fuck. We’re good.

Scott Cowan [00:29:41]:
Yep.

Becky Garrison [00:29:41]:
You know, I think that people are like, I wanna do this. Well, you can do this. And it doesn’t Scott. I I I’ve I’ve had spoken to people. They said I could do this much cheaper than I could in California. Mhmm. You know, it is it is expensive, but it is still is cheaper than trying to do it in California or New York. Yeah.

Becky Garrison [00:30:02]:
And over the years, I think it’s going to become increasingly more difficult. The regulations, the rent, and whatnot is not is going as this becomes more commodified, what I’m excited about is that there’s still a sense of you’re doing crap. People are like, what are you what are you working on? Just like they asked me with my writing. What are you working on? People don’t ask people questions like, so who have you? Like, you go to the East Coast, like, who are you published by? Who’s your agent? Who’s your this? Do you have all the right credentials? And they’re gonna do that to distillers but possibly elsewhere. Here, nobody asks who who distributes you. I mean, somebody might if they wanna enter the business. They might say to you, can you sit down with me and explain you the practicalities of how you get your product to market? Right. But there isn’t this, oh, I’m with Diageo.

Becky Garrison [00:30:44]:
I’m with this. I’m with you just don’t see that at all.

Scott Cowan [00:30:47]:
K. Yeah.

Becky Garrison [00:30:48]:
And the fact that, you know, a large place like Cobble Works can be doing what they’re doing. They’re forming a new partnerships with pipe. There’s a lot of collaboration, a lot of partnerships. I’m seeing a Cowan with whiskey similar to the ones you find with wine.

Scott Cowan [00:31:05]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:31:05]:
You’re finding that a little bit in Ireland. You’re not finding that conversation in the rest of the country. You know, straight ahead says I’m the this oldest they’re right. They’re the oldest whiskey for American single malt. They’re the oldest distillery devoted exclusively to American single malt. The first American single malt, however, came from Oregon by Steve McCarthy in 1992. So we are the state that just people just do things.

Scott Cowan [00:31:32]:
Mhmm. And then

Becky Garrison [00:31:32]:
they ask for permission afterwards, you might say.

Scott Cowan [00:31:36]:
Well, it’s interesting you say, so we’re talking, you know, we’re talking distilling today, so we’re talking, you know, whiskeys and and gins and vodka and rum and all that. But the way you just described it, you just kinda described the the wine industry. You described the cider industry. You described Washington State’s coffee industry.

Becky Garrison [00:31:53]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:31:54]:
You’ve described Washington State’s craft foods like some of our cheese makers. They all just kinda have a sense of I’m just gonna do it.

Becky Garrison [00:32:04]:
And, also, the Washington Scott law in 2 2008 required you to use 51% Washington state Cowan. And that really, I think, helped

Scott Cowan [00:32:12]:
I didn’t see that.

Becky Garrison [00:32:13]:
Do a huge push towards we’re gonna make this Washington. I mean, people come here wanting to get Washington Scott flavor, Washington state food. It has become you know, people don’t come here for main lobster. They come here for Dungeness crab. You know, the there’s a definite a sensibility of a Washington sense of spirit, and we’re now having specialty grains being started here. We have the northwest whiskey trail, which goes from BC down through to Oregon. This highlighting a number of western coastal distilleries. They have a very unique distinct taste.

Becky Garrison [00:32:49]:
If you were to do one of, let’s say, Central Oregon and Central Washington

Scott Cowan [00:32:52]:
Mhmm. That

Becky Garrison [00:32:53]:
would have a different taste too.

Scott Cowan [00:32:55]:
I mean,

Becky Garrison [00:32:55]:
the whiskeys in Bend taste different than the than the whiskeys in Portland. That is true when you taste whiskeys out, you know for various places in seattle westland and And and, copper works are within very short distance of each other very different whiskeys Definitely both worth worth tasting, and that’s just an exciting dynamic that you don’t find a lot of other places. This this whole focus on terroir, you just don’t hear that conversation happening.

Scott Cowan [00:33:22]:
Yeah. No. You’re right. And because I was thinking about this earlier. You you know, when we talked on the phone, you talked about terroir a lot and, you were, you know, bringing that up. And and I was thinking, if I were to buy a bottle of, you know, say, black lack of things that pop into my head, a bottle of Johnnie Walker. Mhmm. I like of the Johnnie Walker, I’ve tried lots of them.

Scott Cowan [00:33:44]:
I think my go to is the double black. I like that one a little bit, but I don’t think about where I don’t think about it. It’s a it’s a it’s a commodity. If I bought a bottle of Jack Daniels, I don’t think about it. It’s a commodity. But if I’m buying something from Washington Scott, and I think it’s Blue Spirits out of Lake Chelan, I’ve tried their whiskeys and, you know, the story that they tell and I bought the whiskey because it was Washington Scott. It wasn’t a commodity. It was it was a, oh, I like this, you know, this is interesting and there’s so it’s it’s interesting.

Scott Cowan [00:34:21]:
We got these big industrial brands like I just, you know, said, and there’s dozens of those massive brands in all, you know, all all sorts. But I do like the fact that you’re emphasizing the the the local nature, the how you say, you know, Westland and Copper Works, but they may be, what, 15 miles apart, maybe? 3 hours with traffic. Just kidding.

Becky Garrison [00:34:44]:
No. No. No. Westland and Seattle are both in downtown. Copper Works is downtown Seattle and Westland So to. So they’re, like, a a few, bus stops away.

Scott Cowan [00:34:55]:
So a couple hours away with traffic. Sorry. I I No. I always kid with traffic in Seattle. So don’t don’t take me seriously. I always I always kid with the traffic. But the point is they taste very different, and they’re they’re within, you know, an afternoon’s worth of tasting of both if he chose to do so. So, how do you think the current state of the industry is for Washington Scott distillers? Do you think it’s have they post COVID, do you see it stabilizing?

Becky Garrison [00:35:24]:
Yes. I think there’s there’s been some changes they’ve made that have been, one of the changes was cocktails to go are now very you know, now becoming permitted in the distillery. There’s still some issues with food, which is why when Copper Works opens a restaurant, they’re gonna go for a restaurant license.

Scott Cowan [00:35:40]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:35:40]:
I’m seeing the ones that survived as really thriving. You know, a lot it’s it’s hard to say who didn’t survive. I don’t wanna attribute it just to COVID. I mean, Sound Spirits closed before COVID. Boo hoo. Some change the changes in the distribute when they went to privatizing, that affected some people’s distribution.

Scott Cowan [00:35:59]:
Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [00:36:00]:
Rent can affect anything. So a founder dying or getting ill or retiring and then not having a successive person to pass their legacy onto. There’s a and and some people just say, I’m just I’m done with it. I’m just I I did my bit. I’m done. I’m selling.

Scott Cowan [00:36:18]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:36:18]:
You know, that you had batch 205 is now old log cabin, for example. You know? So you have a lot of shiftings. My understanding when I looked at the list, there was a 135 licenses when I first started. This was a big challenge to determine who was actually open.

Scott Cowan [00:36:35]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:36:35]:
So how do I determine this? So I had to, like, ask him, was so and so open? I think so and so is open. Then I’d ask somebody, is is so and so from the next town over? I don’t know if they’re open or not. Well, you’re in the town right before them, and you don’t know if they’re open or not. So this became this whole and I think a number of people applied for licenses in 2019. And I think some of them maybe they thought they were gonna make RTDs. They thought this would be something fun to do. A lot of those licenses never matured.

Scott Cowan [00:37:01]:
Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:37:01]:
You know, I think people decided there’s no way. I I got the license 2019. I just don’t think this is a good idea for me to open. I’m seeing a bit of a trend away from RTDs. I think the White Claw Fed that impacted cider more than spirits. People are kind of like, why don’t I just get a flask and bring, you know, you know, bottle of tonic with me? Why am I, you know, making an RTD cocktail with the primary marketing thing for that is convenience?

Scott Cowan [00:37:29]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:37:29]:
And there are a few good ones. I mean, I think Dry Fly has done some good ones and a few other people, but they’re not to me, I’ve I’ve yet to taste a single dry flight you know, RTD cocktail that makes me go, I have to have that in my collection. I

Scott Cowan [00:37:45]:
Did you actually did you get to go to dry flies?

Becky Garrison [00:37:48]:
I haven’t been to Spokane yet. No.

Scott Cowan [00:37:50]:
I have. Their production facility is in an old newspaper plant.

Becky Garrison [00:37:54]:
Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:37:54]:
And it’s it’s pretty spectacular. Not not from a a a I’m talking about from a a a scale. The scale of

Becky Garrison [00:38:03]:
it

Scott Cowan [00:38:04]:
is pretty spectacular. And their canning machine, they had just invested in a new one. They were at the time I talked to them, which has been almost 2 plus years now. Wow. I gotta go back. They went, they went, they went big into cans and, I was, I don’t know. I was just like, interesting. I mean, it was just pretty interesting how they Well,

Becky Garrison [00:38:28]:
like, they’re in a good position, I think, because of how they’ve established themselves. Yeah. And they the fact that they have an established line of spirit, they can do a line of cocktails and market them to fishermen where we cannot bring less. I mean, if you wanna go fly fishing

Scott Cowan [00:38:42]:
That’s a great question.

Becky Garrison [00:38:44]:
Boating, you cannot bring the the I mean, you can maybe put your flask on and kinda get away with a few swigs, but, you know, it’s a nice pleasant alternative to packing beer in your cooler if you go fishing or boating. And I think Dry Fly has the right ethos. They did the right marketing for that. Mhmm. I’m aware of some people who just wanna set up just to do RTD cocktails and, you know, just I just like, if they’re a bartender and they want to expand their bartending base, they wanna can what they were making. And now that they, you know, they can now sell, you know, liquor to go, I and cocktails to go, we’ll see where that materialized. That was just one example. However, when they got that law, they now cannot sell at farmer’s markets anymore.

Becky Garrison [00:39:24]:
So you notice you don’t see distillers at farmer’s markets.

Scott Cowan [00:39:27]:
Let me ask you something. So Yeah. So where did you grow up? What what you did you grow up on the East Coast?

Becky Garrison [00:39:33]:
I grew up primary I I grew up I I traveled around a lot. My dad was a sociology professor and an Episcopal priest. And Okay. The more he drank, the less he’d keep a job. So we did a lot of traveling, mostly down south. I’d say I spent more years in North Carolina than anywhere else.

Scott Cowan [00:39:49]:
So

Becky Garrison [00:39:50]:
I don’t have a desire to move back. I am very happy where I am now.

Scott Cowan [00:39:53]:
No. But but growing up, were in the states that you were living in, were cocktails to go a thing?

Becky Garrison [00:40:01]:
No. It was, North Carolina was very, very much liquor by the drink or or brown bagging.

Scott Cowan [00:40:07]:
So

Becky Garrison [00:40:07]:
And that was pretty much or or dry. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:40:11]:
So when when Washington Scott allowed cocktails to go, I was just, like, I thought the the world had stopped spinning. I was shocked by that. I didn’t you know, it was it was very interesting to me, because this state There

Becky Garrison [00:40:24]:
have been a few other innovative things of COVID. That and the, European style plaza seating outdoors. I’m hoping that more of that continues. It makes me set a little sad. Every time I walk down a place, they’re removing their structure. Because I like the concept of exploring unique ways to use city space. And I think that we did have some very interesting outdoor spaces. There’s some rules they were setting up.

Becky Garrison [00:40:49]:
I think that was, you know, a very good thing. And the the cocktails to go is an actual extension. You have these bartenders having these amazing recipes, amazing cocktails. They’re like, we can’t service anybody. What am I gonna do?

Scott Cowan [00:41:01]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:41:01]:
Right. You know, so so I think that it did to be COVID proved that well, it’s proved one thing. If you tell people they can’t drink, they’re just like with prohibition, they’re gonna be screw you. I’m gonna drink. I mean, people found ways to consume alcohol no matter what they had to do. I mean, it was just and some people were more innovative than others.

Scott Cowan [00:41:21]:
Yeah. I was I was just shocked though with cocktails to go. I was just like, oh my gosh. I can’t believe Washington Scott would allow this. And I don’t know of any correlating evidence that this has caused any problems. I don’t think it’s been I don’t think it’s attributed negatively to public safety.

Becky Garrison [00:41:42]:
No. If anything, the I could not always screw up Cowan south. Brown backing at a college campus was much worse because you would bring a bottle of alcohol into the restaurant, and odds are the the table would not leave with a bottle of alcohol.

Scott Cowan [00:41:56]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:41:56]:
So they would end up drinking 2 or 3 times as much as if they had been allowed to order a glass of wine with dinner and a cocktail beforehand. You know? So I think sometimes public policy is not always using their brains.

Scott Cowan [00:42:10]:
Right. Well yeah. Okay. Well, we we will we’ll just gently Scott away from that one. How’s that? Let’s just move. So for you, the book is complete. It’s has it I’m I’m uncertain. Has it has it shipped yet? Is it available as of today?

Becky Garrison [00:42:29]:
It’s gonna be as of March 18th.

Scott Cowan [00:42:31]:
March 18th. So it’s gonna go live.

Becky Garrison [00:42:33]:
Day. March The day after Saint Patrick’s day.

Scott Cowan [00:42:40]:
Good timing. Yes. So March 18th, the book goes to the public. Mhmm. For you as an author, let’s talk about this. So what I mean, I don’t wanna say the hard work’s done, but the the writing is done, the editing is done, the the the I’ve I’ve actually have a physical Scott, so it’s it’s it’s it’s here. And Mhmm. There’s pictures in it and all of that.

Scott Cowan [00:43:02]:
Mhmm. What’s next for you as an author with this process? Now

Becky Garrison [00:43:07]:
the next process is Jason at Copper Works and Charles Finkel of Pike are very interested in talking it, promoting it up, getting it up. I’m gonna be networking at Seattle cocktail week. K. Taste Washington coming up for different events. Washington Distillers Guild will be having proof at some point. It’s just that you’re talking with people like you, letting people know that this book exists, that if you are interested in exploring the Washington distillers distillery scene, I’d really think it’s worth pursuing. Mhmm. You now have a book you can buy.

Becky Garrison [00:43:41]:
You have plenty of wine books. You have plenty of beer books. You have no distilling book. And I think that if I just get one thing to people, it’s like, this is the only book right now that will help you understand this history, and, also, it has the most comprehensive list of currently operating distilleries. And even as late as going into the final proofing, I was doing my final research, and one of the links didn’t work for distiller. I can’t confirm if it’s up or not. So I would I was, like, talking to my editor, kinda teasing the for 3 or 4 entries. Like, I kinda tease the copy because I wasn’t sure if they were closed.

Becky Garrison [00:44:19]:
I wasn’t sure. And after copyediting, you I had to leave it in. Right. So Yeah. Things continue to evolve. I’m sure that as I’m traveling, someone will tell me, don’t you hear this new distillate that just opened? No. But I do now. So it’s it’s an the the business is always gonna be flexible.

Becky Garrison [00:44:35]:
It’s always gonna be ongoing, ever changing.

Scott Cowan [00:44:37]:
Mhmm. No. I mean, it that’s one of the challenges of the book about any topic is that Yeah. Once once you go to press, it’s kind of locked in and something could change, and now that section of the book might not be as relevant as it was before. Alright. So I’ve got I’ve got a couple of questions of you, and I Mhmm. What do you what do you wanna work on next? What do you, you you you know, you’re a writer. You’re not gonna just stop writing.

Scott Cowan [00:45:01]:
So you got something you it sparks your curiosity?

Becky Garrison [00:45:05]:
Well, I have a few I have a few another idea. I’m running with the history press. I’ll release that when I’m allowed to talk about it. I told them down the road, if I if that book goes through, I wanna do a book on Oregon’s biodynamic wineries because it’s it’s just people don’t understand how weird and wonderful this is. It’s an absolutely it’s very much tied to the Zoroastrian, you know, concept of Zoroaster from Persia. There’s we have a Persian winemaker here, Mohammadazi, who is he he sells grapes at 21 different wineries, runs 1 of the a 500 acre biodynamic winery with and that’s just we have King Estates, the largest buyer that to me is very exciting. I’m looking forward to that. I’m also doing a work of fiction of my my late grandfather was basically like a Forrest Gump of amateur athletics.

Becky Garrison [00:46:01]:
He spent his entire life, you know, lettering in 5 sports in college for starting with that, kind of being the youngest athletic director of the country when he was appointed to it. But, you know, at Saint Lawrence University. But what really interests me about his story was he coached the navy. He was one of these coaches that was selected by the navy to train naval aviators in the sport of football so they could learn how to fly in formation, and that was a program that they they did during World War 2. And my grandfather has all these recollections of the inter legal service games he played, so he’s kind of looking at World War 2 in the Pacific theater from the lens of football, and I’m kind of playing with that just because it’s one of those stories and you’re like, okay. This doesn’t have anything to do with any verticals that I wrote, but sometimes you just get the story gets plopped in your lap, and you’re like, I gotta run with it. This is, like, too good not to run with it.

Scott Cowan [00:46:55]:
That’s a really cool I that’s really a cool idea. I I I think that’s a a really I would read something like that and enjoy that. That would be a great

Becky Garrison [00:47:06]:
Oh, it is fascinating because they didn’t realize that the whole notion of war and football. I mean, the the the navy lang the navy manual reads like a war manual. They’re describing how you must attack your enemy. Must do this. I mean, they’re the use of the grid iron became the battlefield, and they were and and I just didn’t realize that this was and also my grandpa pop being Forrest Gump, he would meet all these really famous people. Like, he’s like, oh, I just went down to Jack Dempsey’s training camp when I was a little kid. You know? And you kinda would and I kept going. And I thought he was lying about all this until Kurt Douglas’s autobiography came out.

Becky Garrison [00:47:41]:
And he said, well, the grandpa was his wrestling coach. Then I realized, okay.

Scott Cowan [00:47:45]:
Oh.

Becky Garrison [00:47:45]:
Grandpa is one of these people that just says, like, oh, I met someone so. He’s not bragging. He’s just saying, like, I I saw that person. You know? And that’s by the way, another characteristic I’ve noticed about a lot of the people that I’m meeting, they’re not that into fame and celebrity. But if you try to be a celebrity brand here I mean, Ryan Reynolds is me. Everybody here makes fun of him. It is a joke. Right.

Becky Garrison [00:48:11]:
I mean, the guy actually I know this is you wanna make fun of Oregon. The guy actually hosted weddings for Leap Year on his distillery. You you come on Leap Year Day and get married for $290, and it’s the most anti craft thing you ever wanna think about, and people just make fun of it. It’s just like this is it’s like watching a joke. Whereas if you went to Las Vegas, this would be normal.

Scott Cowan [00:48:33]:
Right. Right. No. That’s You

Becky Garrison [00:48:34]:
know, here, we are so anti you know, you you try to act too uppity. You try to act like, you know, your brand is better. I mean, all that celebrity branding stuff would does not fly here. You Scott, you know, use this not work. This is the product, not the people.

Scott Cowan [00:48:50]:
That’s interesting. I mean and that’s unfortunate that he would, you know, shill weddings on leap year, but oh, well.

Becky Garrison [00:48:58]:
No. It’s not. If if you look at his his wife sells an RTD cocktail line, and she doesn’t drink. So make of that what you will. I mean, some people, but that’s okay in Hollywood. That’s okay in Vegas. You know, it’s just here, but it’s it’s the whole industry here, whether it’s beer, wine, spirits, cider, cannabis. It’s just very much homegrown and down rootsy.

Becky Garrison [00:49:20]:
And when people try to get too corporate, try to get too big you know, one of the biggest scandals is so and so sold their, you know, all their winery property to a company in California. People here go, that’s horrible.

Scott Cowan [00:49:32]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:49:32]:
You know, why you know, one of the dirty secrets they have in Washington is which corporations own certain properties. And, you know, you kind of people don’t wanna talk about that. But it is and the reason I wanna talk about it is it’s it’s not acceptable.

Scott Cowan [00:49:46]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [00:49:46]:
And I think that’s a good thing that, you know, we we want our products made locally, and it really matters to these people.

Scott Cowan [00:49:53]:
No. And and that’s across all, not just distilled, but wine, beer, coffee, food. Yeah. There there’s a there is a strong sense of of that. Alright. So I gotta ask you some questions. Put you on the spot. Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:50:07]:
You’re you’re a coffee drinker?

Becky Garrison [00:50:10]:
Yes. In the morning. Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:50:11]:
Oh, in the morning? I mean, come on. Real coffee drinkers. No. I’m just kidding you. So it’s tough. You’re in Oregon, but Mhmm. Where’s a great where do you like to go for coffee? Where’s a great place for coffee?

Becky Garrison [00:50:22]:
I tend to make my, fresh press in the morning in my kitchen. But there’s a few places that I like to go. We have a local place here called Scott and Brad, a local coffee shop. You just go there. Nice people, nice local products, nice local produce Okay. And good Wi Fi. So if I if I feel the need that I’m too isolated, too caught up in myself, I’ll just go there and kind of have a nice Okay. Chill experience.

Scott Cowan [00:50:47]:
So what now you’ve you said French press at home, so I got couple follow-up questions. Number 1, what’s what beans what are you what do you what do you what type of coffee do you like? What’s the

Becky Garrison [00:50:57]:
I tend to go for I tend I like to experiment with, like, different kinds of organic coffee for me. Okay. Organic is very important. Certain brands I love water I love Water Avenue Coffee here. Okay. As that’s one of my favorite brands. But, generally, I will experiment with a number of different organic coffees.

Scott Cowan [00:51:17]:
K.

Becky Garrison [00:51:17]:
And just see just see whatever plus my palate for the given time.

Scott Cowan [00:51:22]:
Alright. And when you go out for coffee, what’s your coffee drink of choice?

Becky Garrison [00:51:28]:
I tend to go for a cappuccino. K.

Scott Cowan [00:51:31]:
In

Becky Garrison [00:51:31]:
the same ways that I will order eggs benedict when I go out for breakfast. I order things that are a little complicated to make Cowan it’s like, hey, I’m going out. I mean, I I mean, you know, I’m gonna have somebody else make this for me

Scott Cowan [00:51:41]:
because love it. Okay. I love it. That’s a great attitude. I love that. Okay.

Becky Garrison [00:51:46]:
So tips them accordingly. So, I mean, if they’re if I’m asking them to make something kinda complicated, I’m aware that, you know, I don’t wanna be that person that, you know, the bartenders hate making margaritas for that reason. People don’t tip them and they are not easy to make.

Scott Cowan [00:52:00]:
So I’m always looking for great lunch suggestions. What do you got for me? Where’s a good place to go for lunch?

Becky Garrison [00:52:07]:
I like, the brew pubs here in Portland. I think Stormbreaker has Stormbreaker. Mississippi Avenue has a very good place for people watching, open all day at night. I mean, I don’t know if you wanna sit there how long to get, you know, wasted. But but I but I really like going to some of these, you know, like like, little brew pubs there. So we have a number of different food food truck scenes that I think are are really interesting. They’ve they’ve gotten rid of some of the ones Cowan downtown, unfortunately, but there’s always, like, new ones popping up. So I kinda, like, look for where the new little, place is popping up.

Becky Garrison [00:52:40]:
You’re starting to see food trucks popping up alongside cideries and breweries and even some distilleries, which is making for a nice little inexpensive way to, you know, serve people without having to get a full restaurant license. And that does kind of keep the price down, keeps the vibe really chilled.

Scott Cowan [00:52:57]:
Let somebody see if they wanna get into the business, like, with jumping with both feet, if you will.

Becky Garrison [00:53:02]:
And and I I live very close to McMenamins Edgefield, which has a place where I can go for the Little Red Shed or the winery for, you know, a Drake or something and watch some free music, and that’s always lovely. So we have so many places here that have, like, little tiny stages, and you walk around. Oh, there’s a nice little person playing a music. I can have a nice little sandwich while I get a nice little violin sonata.

Scott Cowan [00:53:25]:
Right. No. And Mcminnivans has done a a really nice job. It it it I’m gonna be losing my reputation by speaking kindly about Oregon, but oh, well. No. Seriously, McMinnen’s has done a a wonderful job of taking some of these old buildings in. The one they did in Tacoma, the old Elks Lodge in Tacoma. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there.

Scott Cowan [00:53:46]:
I encourage you to go check it out because it was this I I do not remember a time when the Elks Lodge was ever not empty. Like, it wasn’t an Elks Lodge when I was a kid in the sixties, and it sat there. It was this beautiful building, and and it was just deteriorating. And they went in, they ended up working with the city, and they bought it, and they restored it, and now it’s this fabulous location with a great, great music room. And they did the Anderson School up in Bothell. It’s kind of got those little alcoves that musicians can play in, but it’s got a little state. I mean, they just I like what they do as a company. I I really I really like the sensibility.

Becky Garrison [00:54:24]:
Actually, yes. I’m gonna not comment on the spirits.

Scott Cowan [00:54:30]:
Okay. In all fairness, their food and and drinks are meh, they’re meh, but I like the fact that they’re they’re instead of us tearing something down and throwing more condos up, they’re taking an old building and and repurposing it. I like that.

Becky Garrison [00:54:44]:
Oh, I like it. And and then I I found a few products there that I can get and that they’re reliable, and I go get them the same time every time.

Scott Cowan [00:54:51]:
So

Becky Garrison [00:54:51]:
a few beers, a few wines that I can snow. Okay. I’ll get that when I’m there.

Scott Cowan [00:54:55]:
Alright. Alright. I got 2 questions for you. That was my dog. Finally, he’s he spoke during the show. I don’t know if that came across or not. Sorry. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:55:07]:
Two questions. What didn’t I ask you that I should have? Let’s go there. What what should we have touched on that we didn’t hit?

Becky Garrison [00:55:14]:
Well, I think what’s exciting is that Washington Scott might be get still has a diversity problem in term. And I don’t like to use because because to me, forcing DEI down someone’s throat never works. It has to come from me organically. But it is telling that we still only have 3 or 4 female distillers in that in 2024. Washington Scott did become the 1st state in the union to have a distillery on tribal lands. I wanted to do a chapter on women and people of color distilling there weren’t enough to do it.

Scott Cowan [00:55:50]:
I Interesting. K.

Becky Garrison [00:55:51]:
I think that’s but but I’m also being very careful and that, to me, what matters I said this. I met a these lovely gentlemen from the Dossier Wine Collective in Walla Walla and at the Portland version of the Walla Walla on tour. And I said that I’m so excited that I met a person of color winery who is also making excellent wine. Because I said one of the things is I have to go first with the with the product. And it’s a delicious one. I mean, this this wine was absolutely incredible, and it was just very great when I can have a great product and I can promote it when it’s made by a diverse Mhmm. Diversity of people. There’s an and I think this is starting to shift, starting to change.

Scott Cowan [00:56:30]:
Of course.

Becky Garrison [00:56:31]:
And there’s a number of wineries that her husband and wife owned, a number of wineries, you know, that in theory, I know are would like to be diverse. They just can’t they just couldn’t find whatever the employment but that’s just something that I think as Washington goes forward, how to do this Cowan or healthy organic way. So you you I’m not gonna make somebody drink something just because it’s produced by some a certain person, but that’s something to I’m hoping this this brewing and distilling program down at Tumwater Craft District could help with that, just to get more people coming who who can come into the business. It’s an expensive business. It’s hard to get venture funding if you’re not a white male. And so that that’s gonna be a challenge for how do we create organically a diverse business without sacrificing quality. I I don’t have an answer for that, but that’s just gonna be a challenge, like, moving forward.

Scott Cowan [00:57:26]:
I agree with you there. Okay. Alright. So actually, I lied. There’s 3 questions. One’s more of a statement you get to make. So we’ll ask you this one first. Where can people find out more about you or the book? Where where where do you want them to go?

Becky Garrison [00:57:39]:
I think go to, wwwbeckygarrison.com. K. I also have a Facebook page. It’s Becky Garrison writer. And, also, there’s an Instagram page of becky_garrison is my Instagram handle. I’m posting information about the book via my author page and the Instagram. And then my website is a good search for just where to order the book and get some more information about me. And then if somebody wants to contact me, they can contact me through my website.

Scott Cowan [00:58:09]:
Okay. Alright. Great. We’ll put those in the show notes for people, so I’ll make it easy. Alright. Last question. You ready? This is the most important question I’m gonna ask you all day long. Mhmm.

Scott Cowan [00:58:18]:
You can’t get out of this question. You have to answer it, and you have to give your reason why. Cake cake or pie and why?

Becky Garrison [00:58:27]:
I’m gonna go with pie because nothing is better than a freshly with depends on the kind of fruit. If it’s canned fruit, forget it. But if you get really good fresh marinberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, apples, even fresh pecans, I mean, it’s just it’s divine if it’s made with homemade pie crust and fresh vegetables. And I’m also trying very hard to get rid of white flour, and I have having difficulty finding cakes made with non white flour that actually tastes cake like.

Scott Cowan [00:59:03]:
I agree. I I agree with you on that one. Yes. So it’s just it’s always interesting to listen to people’s response to the to the answer. Some people really struggle with it. Like, I’ve asked them, you know, to pick their favorite child. It’s like, I can’t decide. You’re this is miserable.

Scott Cowan [00:59:18]:
Some people are just like, it’s cake, it’s pie. There’s no argument. In fact, how dare you suggest the other one? And, and we have, I keep saying this last few episodes, I keep saying this. And then one of these days I’m actually going to go around and do it. I’m going to go back through all the episodes. I’ve asked this question and get a running tally because I’m curious. I have a hunch, pie is in the lead and I think it’s in the lead by quite a bit, but I had a run of a couple of cake people. They were really adamant about cake.

Scott Cowan [00:59:48]:
I mean, really adamant.

Becky Garrison [00:59:50]:
Well, every distill every, distiller I mean, I I basically would listen to every distiller you’ve interviewed. Every single one of them said cake.

Scott Cowan [00:59:58]:
See. Yeah. See. And everybody else that’s interesting. I wonder why. Okay. I’m going to go back to the episodes and listen, because it’s, it’s I think it’ll be kind of fun just to have as a running, as a running gag. So thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today.

Scott Cowan [01:00:13]:
I hope, that the book is a big success. I’m looking forward to, going to a distillery and seeing it for sale. I I think, you know, hopefully, you’ll have some on the shelves at distilleries. I think that would make a great secondary marketing place.

Becky Garrison [01:00:27]:
Some I they they are they know it’s available, and some have chosen to carry it that I did not I I I do it kind of more of a soft sell. It’s like people the book is out there. I’d love you to try it. If you’re into it, go for it. But I find that that whole line between promoting and pimping, and I’m not gonna cross that line.

Scott Cowan [01:00:46]:
No. I know. I I’m not saying you I’m not saying you would, but I’m saying that this would, this book would make an excellent addition to somebody. If somebody is visiting a Washington state distillery and they’re interested in the, the craft of what’s they’re consuming as a beverage, they probably would enjoy learning more about the, the states as a whole, not just at XYZ distillery. And so I think it’d be a great, line extension for a distillery to carry. Not that you should go out and call them and say, hey. Order a dozen books. It’s not saying that.

Becky Garrison [01:01:19]:
And and even though I said that the the distillery market is very, very shady, except for the last chapter, I I would say the the entire history up until the last chapter of current state of distilleries is that that’s gonna that’s not shifting. That’s not changing.

Scott Cowan [01:01:33]:
Right.

Becky Garrison [01:01:34]:
But and even the the current list of distilleries, they’re still 75, but at most, 3 or 4 are gonna shift. Right. A lot is really consistent. It’s really gonna stay there. Blue Spirits that you mentioned, they’re gonna be around. Yeah. Copper Works, Westland, Woodinville, a lot of the distilleries, most of them in the book. Mhmm.

Becky Garrison [01:01:50]:
They’re pretty solid. I I think there’s I would be surprised if if some of the most of them go under.

Scott Cowan [01:01:56]:
Yeah. No. I’d I’d I’d be very surprised. But, you know, there can be catastrophic events that no one can foresee. So

Becky Garrison [01:02:02]:
Well, I’m done.

Scott Cowan [01:02:03]:
Thank you for taking the time to sit with me today. I appreciate it.

Becky Garrison [01:02:06]:
Thank you.