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Ampersand Distilling Company is a family founded craft distillery located on a five acre farm in the Cowichan Valley.

Though trained as engineers, father-son duo Stephen and Jeremy Schacht have used their knowledge of science and traditional distilling techniques to create a hand crafted distillery where they can make hand crafted spirits.

Like the Ampersand, we are all about bringing things together; ingredients & techniques; science & art; tradition & innovation. We make delicious spirits designed to be a staple on your bar.

Ampersand Gin

Voted BC's Best Gin BC Distilled 2016, 2017, and 2018
Gold Medal - World Gin Awards 2020

Ampersand Gin is our flagship product, an award winning instant classic, that brings together BC grown wheat with eight cultivated or wild harvested botanicals and our own spring water.

Ampersand Gin plays well with others in your favourite cocktails, but it's also brilliant on its own. And since it's made from scratch with high quality botanicals and BC grown wheat, we think it's a better gin. Period.

Per Se Vodka

World's Best Varietal Vodka 2020
Voted BC's Best Vodka BC Distilled 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019

Per Se Vodka is the pure expression of the 100% BC grown wheat we use to make our spirits. The grain is milled, fermented, and distilled, before being diluted with our own spring water to create an award winning spirit with body, sweetness, and a creamy mouth-feel. This vodka is best enjoyed sipped solo, but in true Ampersand fashion, it works well in your favourite cocktail.

Nocino!

CASC Spirit of the Year 2021!
Best of the Pacific Northwest 2019

We harvest green walnuts from the valley at the height of summer and steep the fragrant husks in our pure organic BC wheat spirit.
Nocino! is gently spiced with cinnamon, lemon peel, and allspice and sweetened with honey from the Cowichan Valley. Nocino! is rich, spicy, and sweet. Perfect by itself or mixed in cocktails.
*This is a special edition seasonal release*

Our Story*

Ampersand Distilling Co. was born out of Jeremy & Jessi's love of craft cocktails, and Jeremy & Stephen's engineering backgrounds. Bringing together his degree in chemical engineering and his parent's love of farming, the distillery was an innovative way to combine their passions.

Despite being busy with other businesses, Stephen & Ramona moved to the Cowichan Valley in 2007 to start a vegetable farm. Their son Jeremy, fascinated with the technical aspects of distillation, set out to find an innovative way to put his degree in chemical process engineering to use. The distillery is a result of that innovation, leading to a new family business.

Jessica Schacht

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Jessica received a BFA Theatre from the University of Victoria in 2010. In addition to working as a stage manager for theatre companies from BC to Ontario, she helped found the distillery and created the distinctive recipe for Ampersand Gin with Jeremy.

Jeremy Schacht

Born and raised in Victoria BC, Jeremy attended the University of British Columbia and graduated with a BASc Chemical Engineering. An interest in craft beer and cocktails led to many road trips through the cocktail bars, distilleries, and breweries of the Pacific Northwest - and ultimately sparked an interest in distilling as a career.

Stephen Schacht

A man with many interests and abilities, Stephen has been an entreprenuer, artisan, and inventor all his life. His background ranges from electrical engineering to jewellery making - skills that are surprisingly useful when building a distillery. As the raconteur of the family, his passion is contagious - and you can experience it first hand when you catch him at the Farmers' Market or visit him at the distillery.

Ramona Froehle-Schacht

The recent sale of Out of Hand has freed up more time for Ramona to assist with sales and bottling, in addition to providing overall support to the Ampersand team. Ramona also manages the small farm where the distillery lies, growing berries, row crops and tending a large greenhouse where delectable heirloom tomatoes take pride of place.

The Stills

The stills are the heart of a distillery, and we designed and built ours from scratch. We make our spirits in a 1000L pot still and a 500L packed column still, fondly referred to as Dot & Dash. The column, unlike any other still in the world, is packed with tiny coils for maximum surface area and produces alcohol of nearly 97%. It fractions easily between the heads, hearts, and tails of the spirit run. With our batch distillation process, we remove all impurities for the highest quality and best tasting spirit.

The Tasting Room

Open by appointment only, we are happy to give you a tour and a taste at the distillery tasting room. Sidle up for recipes and stories at the bar, made from a slab of douglas fir from the property and the same type of iron pipes that power our stills. We bring our tasting room to the Duncan Farmers' Market every Saturday, the Oak Bay night market and even at the occasional Vancouver Farmers Market through the summer.