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If you are not of legal age to drink, please come back and visit when you are! Thank you for understanding
Welcome to Best Coast Distillers, where innovation meets passion on the Vancouver Island Peninsula. Founded by a small group of local partners, we’re not your average distillery.
We’re a diverse team of BBQ aficionados, seasoned entrepreneurs, and professionals from various backgrounds, united by our shared love for pushing boundaries and asking, “Why not?”
Crafted with care and creativity, our spirits embody the spirit of our coastal home. Despite the challenges imposed by provincial regulations, we see them as opportunities to innovate.
We’re not just meeting these challenges; we’re embracing them, striving to create authentic, handcrafted products within the constraints we face. From sourcing our own local core ingredients to experimenting with fermentation yeasts, we’re committed to pushing the limits of what’s possible. Living in this warm Mediterranean-like microclimate within Canada is like winning the distiller’s jackpot.
Clean sea air, steady temperatures, and a bounty of local ingredients fuel our creativity.
A natural playground of flavours surrounds us, thanks to our coastal location and the rich agricultural tapestry of the Saanich Peninsula.
It’s where land meets sea, and where our passion for crafting unique, coastal-inspired spirits truly comes alive. So, come join us on this adventure – because when it comes to crafting the extraordinary, we’re all in. Cheers to embracing the Best of our Coast!
Best Coast Distillers is located on Co-Founder Cory Hastings’ family farm. Originally purchased in 1927 by his great-grandfather, the farm is now home to the 5th generation of his family. It started as a dairy farm, supplying milk and cream to homes on the Saanich peninsula, then a vegetable and beef supplier to Hudson’s Bay in Victoria, and throughout the years has always provided seasonal goods for friends and family.
In 2021, with the support of his family, Cory created a new vision for the farm. With the goal of long-term farmland sustainability and locally grown produce the Best Coast Distillers farm distillery was born. Repurposing the hay fields into Sorghum fields, raspberry patches, goji berries, and most recently Blue Agave the farm was revived with a modern take on value add farming.
“We’re very proud to be the first distillery in North Saanich and to preserve the farm for generations to come”
Grandpa Jim (aka the old guy on the tractor).
We are pretty proud to now own one of the successful Victoria Distillers 900l Copper Pot stills, now called “MegaTron”.
This Still was built in Central Saanich by Specific Mechanical and has been in part responsible for the production globally renowned, Empress Gin. We are testing its limits to help create our current and future releases
One of our Founders, Corey Wood moved from the Prairies in 2016 to live on the Peninsula of Vancouver Island. He brought with him a rich family history of Prohibition-era Whisky running, speakeasy ownership and Liquor Store operations.
Corey’s great-grandfather, P.J. McManus and his brother were City of Calgary Police Detectives, and for a while owned the now infamous, “King Eddy Hotel” on Whisky Row, where they ran an illegal bar in the basement. They were known to unload cases and barrels of Whisky and Rum from the trains adjacent to the Hotel and load it up to be trucked to towns and cities between Calgary and Edmonton.
They eventually opened up P.J. Mcmanus’s Liquor Store which was built on the location of the Studio Bell National Music Centre on 4th Street SE in the Downtown East Village.
There is an old family rumour that one load of Whisky remains buried in Edmonton as it was never retrieved by the customers!
The spirit of entrepreneurialism, sales and marketing, and Wild West Drive are part of the Best Coast Distillers genetics, literally
