Clear Creek Distillery , based in Portland, Oregon, specializes in fruit brandies (both barrel aged and unaged eaux-de-vie), grappas, and fruit liqueurs. Founded in 1985 by Steve McCarthy, Clear Creek was among the earliest pioneers in what was to become a boom in craft distilling in the United States. See craft distilling. After studying brandy distillation in Europe, McCarthy founded Clear Creek with the plan of making brandy using produce from his family’s fruit orchards. The distillery’s first product was an unaged pear brandy akin to Poire Williams, made from Oregon-grown Bartlett pears; Clear Creek’s Pear Brandy remains the most popular of the company’s products. In subsequent years, Clear Creek began producing apple brandy from Golden Delicious apples, a mirabelle eau-de-vie and a slivovitz-like brandy from blue plums, a kirsch made from Washington- and Oregon-grown cherries, an Islay-style heavily peated single-malt whisky, and a Douglas fir eau-de-vie made by clipping young buds from Douglas fir trees and then macerating and distilling them in grape distillate. In 2006, the distillery relocated to a larger facility and doubled its capacity, adding a line of liqueurs flavored with cassis, pear, cherry, cranberry, raspberry, marionberry, and loganberry. In 2014, Clear Creek was purchased by Hood River Distillers, based in Hood River, Oregon, and McCarthy retired from the company.
See also brandy and eau-de-vie.
Asimov, Eric. “An Orchard in a Bottle, at 80 Proof.” New York Times, August 15, 2017.
Clear Creek Distillery website. http://clearcreekdistillery.com (accessed February 24, 2021).
Young, Molly. “Hood River Distillers Acquires Portland-Based Clear Creek Distillery.” Oregonian, January 24, 2014.
By: Paul Clarke