last best distilling
Last Best Distilling is expanding the frontier of spirits and its’ trends, both weird and wonderful.
Gin has had a rebirth recently. The ‘Ginaissance’, some say, has promoted the rediscovery of classic expressions along with the advancement of new ones. Our goal at Last Best Distilling has always been to expand the frontier of spirits and its’ trends, both weird and wonderful.
Traditionally we have kept this exploration close to our heart, inviting our customers on the journey within our four walls. The time is now to welcome more. We look forward to your company.
Series 2020.01 was our inaugural launch of the program consisting of three gins: Afterglow, First Love, and Fortunella.
our gin
FIRST LOVE
Process: Batch Distilled
Base: Western Canadian Grain Spirit
Personality: Punchy & Floral
Juniper Presence: High
Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Sweet Orange, Green Cardamom, Licorice Root, Angelica, Lavender, Sage, Lemon
awards: San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023, 2022 - Gold
World Gin Awards 2024 - Best in Canada and gold in the London dry Style Gin category
World Gin Awards 2023 - silver Medal in the London Dry Gin, Canada category
World Gin Awards 2022 - Gold Medal in the London Dry Gin, Canada category
World Gin Awards 2021 - Gold Medal in the London Dry Gin category, Canada
Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
Alberta Beverage Awards 2020 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
AFTERGLOW
Process: Batch Distilled
Base: Western Canadian Grain Spirit
Personality: Fresh & Lively
Juniper Presence: Low
Botanicals: Juniper, Thai Basil, Lemon Verbena, Lemon, Bitter Orange, Green Cardamom, Long Pepper, Angelica, Wild Cherry Bark
awards: San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023, 2022 - Double Gold
World Gin Awards 2024 - Best in Canada and gold in the Contemporary Style Gin category
World Gin Awards 2023 - Best in Canada and gold in the Contemporary Style Gin category
World Gin Awards 2022 - Best in Canada in the Contemporary Style Gin category
Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
Alberta Beverage Awards 2020 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
Alberta Beverage Awards 2019 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
FORTUNELLA
Process: Batch Distilled
Base: Western Canadian Grain Spirit
Personality: Classic & Juicy
Juniper Presence: Medium
Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Licorice, Orris, Bitter & Sweet Orange
awards: San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023, 2022 - Silver
World Gin Awards 2024 - silver Medal in the Classic Gin category, Canada
World Gin Awards 2023 - bronze Medal in the Classic Gin category, Canada
World Gin Awards 2022 - bronze Medal in the Classic Gin category, Canada
World Gin Awards 2021 - Gold Medal in the Classic Gin category, Canada
Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 - Judges' Selection, Gin category
our canned cocktails
AFTERGLOW
GIN-ARITA
using our award-winning afterglow gin
A Last Best take on a classic cocktail. Real lime gives a tart bite, then tickles notes of Thai basil and lemon verbena, and finishes with a hint of salt. Our award-winning local gin sends this new patio staple galloping into summer.
FIRST LOVE
TOM COLLINS
using our award-winning first love gin
Delicate and savoury. Our refreshing twist on this classic cocktail leads with soft floral notes, and gently drifts into a wave of classic lemonade flavour and finish.
awards: 2021 Alberta Beer Awards - Gold Medal, Seltzer and Ready-To-Drink Category
our process
BOTANICALS
Our gins are all distilled dry gins – this means NO sugar added.
We’re exploring the complex and intriguing world of botanicals. Like all gins, juniper berries are a key ingredient, and what actually makes gin, gin. Even the word gin is derived from from either the French genièvre or the Dutch jenever, which both mean juniper. However, juniper alone doesn’t define gin, it’s the combination of many botanicals that help to give each gin a “personality” beyond just juniper.
We source our botanicals from all over the world to make sure they’re the best quality ingredients we can get our hands on. In addition to juniper, these can vary from spices, to flowers, to citrus and are what make the flavours in each gin unique.
DISTILLING
Developing our unique flavours is key to our process. Like making a perfect cup of tea, a steeping/maceration process helps to develop the flavour in our gins. We carefully measure out our botanicals and place them in our wheat base spirit for 12 to 24 hours, depending on the recipe. Once they finish the steep, they get boiled in the still pot and we collect the vapour. Another way we create our diverse flavours is through vapour infusion. Here we boil the alcohol to allow the vapour to pass through a basket holding chosen botanicals, extracting flavour before we collect it. We distill ALL botanicals at once rather than individually, allowing them to interact with each other chemically within the still, making new aroma compounds which leads to depth of flavour.
After distillation the gin is very strong, around 80% abv, so we need to water down and “proof” the gin to our desired bottling strength. This usually falls between 43% to 57% but never below 40% abv.
All of our gins are distilled in small batches at Last Best in our custom designed 500L copper still made exclusively for us.
To complete the process we hand package and label each bottle.
gin finder
Looking for your Last Best Distilling favourites? Enter your location in our gin finder below!
Please note this doesn't guarantee that the product will be in stock - we'd recommend calling your local store ahead to confirm.
Location:
Hours:
Sunday | 11:30am to 10pm
Monday to Thursday | 11:30am to late
Friday and Saturday | 11:30am to late
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