TMK Creamery, a farmstead dairy and creamery operation located in Canby Oregon, has completed construction of the first farmstead Distillery + Creamery. While TMK Creamery cares for their Cowlebrities and makes the cheese, TMK Distillery upcycles the whey leftover from the cheese-making process into a vodka they call Cowcohol.
After 2 years of trial & error, TMK Distillery partnered with a good friend and owner of Hurricane Distillation Systems, Ryan Kliewer, to design and build a custom whey still, and then perfected the art of turning whey into vodka. To solve challenges in processing whey, while also creating an efficient small footprint still, Todd Koch and Ryan Kliewer created the world’s first continuous whey still that can operate 24 hours/day.
When asked about adding the Distillery to the farm, founder Todd Koch, says “Going through college, I was like ‘Man, if I could just figure out how to get these cows to make alcohol, we’d be set.” Visitors to TMK are surprised to learn that each pound of cheese created can produce nine pounds of whey, which is fermented with special yeast and distilled into vodka. “We’re able to create one more product from that same gallon of milk. We feel like we’re getting everything we possibly can from that initial raw resource” says Todd. In this case, sustainable never tasted so good!
TMK guests are delighted to see how many sustainable practices are standard at the Dairy. For years, TMK has worked with local breweries to gather spent grains as food for TMK Cowlebrities. Most notably, their intentionality to use everything they have is shown in the path to Whey vodka, and products derived from it. Typically, cheese plants discard the whey leftover when milk is made into cheese. If not discarded, there are costs and climate impacts to haul it away or resell it for commercial whey by products. TMK’s fermentation and distillation process allows whey to become vodka without any waste, and it stays right here at the farm. When you add to that, TMK pure vanilla extract and retail cocktail and beverage sales, the public can see how TMK puts everything to its best use. Plus, cowcohol is not the only result of the distilling whey; TMK makes a vanilla extract and can make hand sanitizer using the same process.
A recent article on mashed.com says “Cowcohol is one of the creamiest vodkas on the market. Although there’s no doubt that many people bought Cowcohol because of its unconventional ingredients, it’s no exaggeration to say that vodka enthusiasts will fall in love at first taste. Cowcohol might be a little odd, but it’s got all of the flavors of your traditional high-end vodka, plus a beautiful satiny finish that will make you believe in moo-ricles.”
For More Information:
https://tmkcreamery.com