‘Rolling with it’: Strathcona Spirits Distillery bottles up new whisky for anniversary of fire

Dreamland on Fire is the 13th in a line of whisky created by Strathcona Spirits Distillery. It was named to commemorate the fire that destroyed part of the distillery Dec. 18, 2024. (Gates Guarin/CTV News Edmonton)

A south Edmonton distillery has released a new spirit to commemorate the anniversary of the sudden fire that sent the business on an unprecedented path.

Strathcona Spirits Distillery created Dreamland on Fire from whisky made from casks that evaded a fire at the back of the building on Dec. 18, 2024.

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“Since then, we’ve been out of commission and trying to figure out what our path of action is going to be,” said founder and master distiller, Adam Smith, on Saturday.

The business still had finished product to get through the holiday season at the time, but there was plenty of product that still needed to be dealt with.

“We had to use it, had to bottle it. We had to just cart it over to another producer and bottle it there. But it’s all our whisky,” he said.

Dreamland on Fire is the 13th whisky in the distillery’s Dreamland line, but this one is particularly named for the “fire that took us out,” he added.

“We’re putting a positive spin on it. We’re just rolling with it.”

The whisky is a seven-year-old Armagnac and Cognac finished rye blended with single malt. It appeared in select stores on Tuesday, as Strathcona Spirits no longer sells directly due to the damage.

Strathcona Spirits Distillery opened its doors eight years ago, becoming Edmonton’s first craft distillery.

Smith said the newest product is a testament to still standing in an adjusted way – and while the business doesn’t plan on going away any time soon, he’s embracing the uncertainty of the future.

“Maybe we will rebuild and do a bigger, bolder operation, or maybe we’ll just release a few casks a year for the rest of our lives,” he reflected.

“We’re still standing on such a volume of barreled product that, we may have had our hands tied over the last year, but it just keeps getting better in the barrel.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Gates Guarin