Kanon Organic Vodka: Posts tagged gripsholmdistillery

September 30, 2011
Kanon Vodka: Done Once, Done Right
Gripsholm Distillery
At Kanon we pride ourselves on creating an impeccably smooth and tasty vodka, not only because of the organic ingredients that go into it, but also because of our signature single distillation process. Perhaps this phrase brings back awful memories of high school chemistry (you know – bunsen burner mishaps, raccoon-like goggle marks and the like), but rest assured, dear friends, our single distillation is actually a very beautiful thing. Since we believe that to truly appreciate something to the highest potential, you need to know where it came from, we broke it down for you below with a little assistance from our CEO Andreas Johansson. Still got questions after this? Well, feel free to shoot us a line over on Facebook and Twitter.

So first off, what sets the Gripsholm distillery apart from your average vodka distillery?

Your average distillery has a focus on yield and economy, meaning grain/wheat with the most starch content and redistilling the bi products (= heads, tails and fusel in our terms) in order to extract more alcohol. They also tend to distill excessively and charcoal filter as they value starch content more than the actual raw material, which in our case is wheat. Of course, yields and economy are in our scope as well, but we also have a focus on preserving the heritage of the organically grown wheat. By distilling one time only, we preserve the aromas carried by organic fermented mash in the final product and in our distillery we still get the purity that is required for vodka. Futhermore, we only use organic and non-gmo process aids (if aids are needed), which separates us from the vast majority of distilleries.

How does one separate the heart from the head and tail?

To keep it simple – [it's possible] because heads and tails have different boiling temperatures than the product we want. Hearts is ethanol + the aromas that share this property, boiling point/volatility with ethanol.

CONTINUE READING KANON VODKA: DONE ONCE, DONE RIGHT.
September 23, 2011
Adventures in Sweden With the Kanon Team

A phrase we commonly use here at Kanon is “home is where the heart is.” In our case, we only bottle the very best, aka the heart, at our distillery in Sweden. We also like to say that to know yourself, you have to know where you come from. So last month, we took a trip across the Atlantic and headed to our home, the Gripsholm Distillery (built in the 19th century!) to visit the place where all the magic happens. We took in the sights and got the Kanon experience right at its very (organic) core. Here’s a look at our Swedish adventure filled photo diary.

Above: Kanon's founder, Peter Hjelm, in front of his family home at the distillery.

CONTINUE READING ADVENTURES IN SWEDEN WITH THE KANON TEAM.
March 17, 2011
Gripsholm is Where the Heart is
The Gripsholm Distillery
Since you're probably antsy sitting at work, waiting for 5 or 6 PM to roll around so you can join your friends in all sorts of St. Patrick’s Day revelry, we'll share another link to help you pass the time. And we promise it’s cool– there are Vikings and vodka involved.

To give you a little historical background, Kanon is made at the Gripsholm Distillery in Sweden, and as of today their new site is up and running, featuring all sorts of Kanon and vodka tidbits along with some pretty envy-inducing pictures of the Swedish landscape. 

The area where the distillery sits now used to be run by the Vikings hundreds of years ago, and in 1580, King Karl XI of Sweden founded the Akers Styckebruk to produce cannons for the Swedish army. The distillery, which is still the third largest and only certified organic distillery in Sweden, provided work and vodka for the area at the time. As workers produced the in-demand cannons (have you guessed where we got inspiration for our name yet?), they received vouchers in the form of coins to be traded in for shots of vodka to reward delivery speed and productivity. Yes, shots in return for hard work– a tradition we'd gladly bring back. Two hundred years later, King Gustaf III couldn’t repay war debts to the distillery and appointed it a Royal Distillery. Jump forward again approximately 300 years to 2008, and Gripsholm was rebuilt, Kanon reborn, and all well again in the world. But even with Kanon's rebirth, nothing really changed. We still implement the same organic approach to spirits that has been in place for centuries at Gripsholm.

Since we’re made entirely from the good stuff, we truly stand by the saying, “home is where the heart is.” Head over to the Gripsholm Distillery site and read more about where Kanon is born.
June 22, 2010
Launch in Sweden (Day 1)
Kanon Organic Vodka
This is obviously a big week for Kanon, and to celebrate we’ve brought in some of our favorite people from around the world to share in some food, drinks, and music. It certainly doesn’t hurt that we’re surrounded by the idyllic setting of Gripsholm and walking distance from our favorite distillery in the world, ours. FOK Fredrik Skogkvist was on hand to capture the good times, made even better by some crazy good drinks concocted by our resident mixologist Stefanie Marco. Go ahead, live vicariously.

About our FOK: Photographer and FOK Fredrik Skogkvist began appreciating the art of imagery at a young age by spending hours at a local skate-park with a group of friends. Playing with light and angles, Skogkvist moved on to shoot for fashion mags and brands, as well as taking on the role of director in the world of film. He’s brought his skate punk origins to the world of high fashion and the result has been a gritty aesthetic that challenges definitions of high and low. And while we love his work, we love Fredrik’s lust for life and all that entails. Travel, women, food, drinks, and the photos that come out of his immersion in all of them. He’s quite the friend.
FÖK: Fredrik Skogkvist
Fredrik Skogkvist is not only a dear friend of Kanon, he’s also one of our fave photog friends, having been blessed with a keen eye for all things aesthetically pleasing and of-the-moment.
June 17, 2010
Heads, Tails, Hearts (We're All Heart)
Our Gripsholm Distillery in Sweden
There’s an old saying that suggests if you repeat a lie enough it will become the truth. Well, it’s still a lie. In our case, the grandest Vodka myth of all: multiple distillation = quality, luxury or better taste. This is a lie other vodkas have been toting for some time now. See, the process of making vodka is a lot like us; the end result has a head, heart, and tail. After the final distillation, a flow of pure spirit is produced that is then divided into three segments (you guessed it - head, heart, and tail). The head is very high proof ethanol (too high for human consumption in fact) and the end of the batch is the tail, a low proof bottom that sifts impurities from the top (again, let’s not drink that). As you’ve probably assumed by now, the heart is the 'filet' of the distillation process. It’s the most balanced portion of the run, full of lovely aromatics and the soft, smooth flavor of Kanon’s base ingredient, Organic Winter Wheat. And that’s it. No sugar, no additives of any kind, just spirit and our private source of well water. Our heart right to yours, ready to drink.

Other brands keep distilling their heads and tails, milking as much heart as they can which actually strips away sweet flavors and creates ethanol and the burn so many have come to expect from vodka. We don't favor profit over quality. We only bottle our first run and our heart is all we will ever put into our bottle or expect you to drink. What happens to those heads and tails then, you ask? We donate our heads and tails to automotive biogas companies for use as eco bio fuels. Sometimes you gotta think with your heart.