Ryan Hembree
Snohomish
Hembree, 42, and his wife, Julie, started homebrewing beer 21 years ago. They opened Skip Rock Distillers in Snohomish in 2010. They have two sons, Carter, 2, and Mason, 5.
What are you wearing?
Jeans, button-up shirt and some dress shoes. A bit more dressed up than normal as I’ve got some accounts to call on today.
If you could drink a cocktail with anyone alive or in history who would it be?
George Washington. We’d drink his rye whiskey, chatting about his distillery and the start of the nation. That would be a great way to spend an afternoon.
What are things in your distillery toolkit?
A tasting glass, alcohol meter and a notepad.
What’s the craziest or best thing that ever happened in the distillery?
It was pretty cool to have Scott Rockenfield, the drummer for Queensrÿche, come into the distillery two years ago. He was a big fan of our vodka and wanted to get some more. He signed a bottle for us and has become a friend. He lives locally and is a great guy. I even got an autographed cymbal from his drum set as a Christmas gift this year. I gave him a bottle of our new Double Barrel Rum.
What’s the weirdest drink you ever had?
Brian, one of our distillers, looked up old colonial rum cocktails and some of them involved raw eggs, rum and a red hot poker. Yup, those were some fun but weird creations.
What is your biggest worry as a distiller?
Safety of my distillers and just being able to keep making our great whiskey and spirits.
What’s your dream spirit to distill?
Rye whiskey, and we’ve been lucky enough to have ours recognized as being some of the best in the nation. So, my dream to make a locally sourced award-winning whiskey has already come true. Now I just have to keep up with demand. I really do love making whiskey, but rum is a close second.
What’s your favorite drink recipe?
I’ve got two. First is a King Cole. It’s a whiskey drink that I believe was developed around 1919 and I love it with our rye. The other is simply our Nocino (walnut liqueur) on the rocks. We harvest local walnut trees and it is seriously one of my favorite products to sip on.
What are some new products in the works?
We have some barrel-aged liqueurs that are amazing and should be out this spring. We also have a new gin that we’ll release that is testing out to be wonderful. Another new product is a coffee liqueur that we’ve partnered with a local coffee roaster, Balam Coffee. It has amazing coffee and chocolate notes. We also collaborated with Scuttlebutt Brewery on an amazing Nocino Porter (beer) that they are releasing in a couple weeks. It’s a small batch but will be bottled and in kegs.
Talk about your class on liqueur at the American Distilling Institute:
I was selected to make a presentation at the 2016 ADI Conference this spring in San Diego on liqueurs. We have been making a variety of them over the years, won some great awards and been able to get national attention with them. It is a great honor to be selected and speak on this subject. My main emphasis is use quality local ingredients, don’t make it too sweet and don’t hurry it to market (quality products take time).
Fill in the blank: People would be shocked to know …
That’s a tough one! Not sure on this one. My wife and I wrote our business plan on our honeymoon on the beach in Maui which was pretty cool and a great way to start this whole adventure.
What’s your most proud (non-distillery) moment?
The births of my two boys, no question about it. My wife, Julie, did amazing and we’ve got two great little boys as a result.
What are three things in your refrigerator at home?
I’d say three things that are always there include cheese (we eat a lot of it), my wife’s homemade ginger beer and a huge selection of sauces for cooking.
What is your pet peeve?
Open cabinet doors. How hard is it to close them?
What is your guilty pleasure?
Nocino over Snoqualmie Ice Cream Company’s vanilla ice cream. Maybe throw a warm brownie in there, too. It’s a beautiful thing!
What does the future hold?
I can’t wait to keep growing with our local supporters and collaborators like Scuttlebutt, Emory’s Restaurant, The Repp Restaurant, Haggen and others here in the Snohomish County area. This is our back yard and where my wife and I grew up. We also plan to expand distribution greatly soon and work with new states for our rums, vodkas, liqueurs and, of course, whiskey.
— Andrea Brown
Do you know someone we should get to know better? Send suggestions to abrown@heraldnet.com or call 425-339-3443.
I’ll drink to this! Thanks for the chat @SkipRockDistill #vodka #rum #yum https://t.co/8gf1mTh7Oc pic.twitter.com/j6cxCFrJw4
— Andrea Brown (@reporterbrown) February 2, 2016
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
