Dancing Pines..
Dancing Pines Distillery to release spirits in August
By Carl McCutchen
Loveland Connection
Kimberly and Kristian Naslund are supporters of hands-on quality craftsmanship.
They like the results that a little extra handling and meticulous crafting can provide.
That’s why when their new distillery, Dancing Pines Distillery, 1527 Taurus Court, No. 110, opens in August in Loveland, customers won’t see large, automated machines producing spirits.
Instead, it’s more likely they will see Kristian behind the copper-colored, imported Spanish still, working on the couples’ next creation.
“There are so many automated things you can do — the bottlers, the machines to make the stuff,” Kristian said. “But we really want to be involved.”
Being more hands-on means spending a little more time to brew up their recipes, but the Naslunds don’t mind.
The couple believes putting in the extra work, and keeping big machines out, will help make their distillery a little more tasteful.
“We think that will help us,” Kimberly said. “We want to create a top-shelf product that will be a little different because it’s handmade. It doesn’t come out of a big industrial still and it doesn’t look like an oil refinery.”
Even though their still is currently empty, the Naslunds, and their other partner, Christopher McNay, don’t see it staying that way for long.
“We’re hoping the first of August to make our first batch,” Kristian said.
But it won’t be a big one.
The Naslunds not only plan to be more involved in the distilling process, but they also plan to produce their spirits in small quantities. They’re not doing it as a way to keep their product in high demand, but rather to help control the quality.
Additionally, they don’t plan on using traditional extracts to create their product, but will rely instead on raw materials.
“All of our stuff will be made from raw ingredients,” Kristian said. “The base for our rum will be molasses. We’ll do a light rum, an aged rum, and a spiced rum which will have spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.”
Kristian plans to make the rum the first spirit that Dancing Pines will pump out.
After that, he’s not quite sure.
“We’ll eventually put out a gin and probably vodka, because everyone puts out vodka and it’s easy to make,” Kristian said. “We’re also going to start aging bourbon.”
The Naslunds also have two liqueur recipes they are hoping to launch, with one being a chai flavor and the other coffee flavored.
While nothing is brewing quite yet, the Naslunds are excited to finally see an end coming to a few years of tough work.
They have always been home brewers of beer, but got the idea to distill alcohol while visiting Kristian’s father in Spain.
Since distilling in your basement is illegal in Colorado, the Naslunds figured they would take a shot and turn it into a business.
That was two long years ago.
During that time, they not only spent countless hours completing paperwork and filing for permits, but that’s also when they picked up the inspiration for the name of the distillery.
“We bought a little cabin and refurbished it, but we had some obstacles going into that. We had bears, frozen pipes, everything seemed to go wrong,” Kimberly said. “We lived with all these blizzards and during one blizzard we had some music playing and looked out the window and these trees looked like they were about to fall over from the snow, but they were swaying perfectly to the music. In the middle of all this chaos, these trees were just so peaceful.”
Now, the Naslunds are hoping their little distillery can be the peaceful tree in the middle of the chaos.
“It’s been a lot of hard work and we’re ready to go and finally make something,” Kimberly said. “It’s exciting to get to that point.”
For more information, visit www.dancingpinesdistillery.com or check out the Dancing Pines Facebook page.