Yay!

May check it out. Drinking in a gin oriented cafe in Belgium is nostril nirvana.
Ebb & Flow is a nice name. Do the Stranger yup-sters (yuppie/hipster) remember rock stars Flo & Eddie?

@1, from what I understand--and I could be wrong--you have to distill to 109 proof to be vodka (then you water it back down to 80), while wine distilled at 60-80 proof becomes brandy.

Brandy is generally aged in oak barrels, or has caramel color/flavor added to simulate the aging. Vodka can be made from anything. Vodka is just ethanol and water. So you can start with any alcoholic base, distill it, and then filter it to produce vodka.

Almost all distilled spirits start off at a very high proof (120-160) from the still and then are watered back.

Big ups for MORE BETTER BOOZE!

A lot of these will be sprining up now. Bainbridge Organic Distillery on this side has been doing tours and tastings for some time now - check it out:

http://bainbridgedistillers.com/

Not within walking distance from the ferry, but a taxi makes an excellent desginated driver...

Grappa isn't distilled wine; it's distilled must or pomace, or the skins, stems, and seeds of grapes left over from the wine press. It's not aged in wood, so it's clear. And unlike vodka it tastes of something.

I'm curious about this assertion that this is the "first distillery in Seattle since Prohibition". If they mean national prohibition, it's been longer than that, since Washington instituted its own statewide prohibition a few years earlier, in 1916. But specifically what was being distilled here, if anything, before then? Does anybody know? Any commercial Washington State whiskies or brandies or jacks or rums? Aquavit from the Scandihoovians? But they're all beer drinkers, and I hope to God nobody was distilling Rainier Beer. There weren't even any white folks around for all that long before 1916; we'd only been a state for 27 years by then.

I wonder. This might be Washington State's first commercial beverage distillery EVER.

Mmm. Rainier.

@9, yes, I kind of have you figured for the kind of twat who prefers piss beer brewed in the industrial suburbs of LA.

The first "new" distillery in the State, I believe, was Dry Fly Distilling over in Eastern Washington, which has had vodka and gin at the State stores for a few years now:

http://www.dryflydistilling.com/

They still don't have whiskey, which takes a few years to get batched up. Several others have opened since then.

@4 I believe you mean upwards of 190 proof.

Vodka can be created from essentially anything: the end result is just distilling the product until it's nearly ethanol, then cutting it with water rather than simply distilling to the desired proof.

Mendeleev!

Looking forward to the gin. I hope it they don't go the preposterously herbal route.

@1 - to be vodka, the distillate has to come off the still at over 90% ABV (180 proof) and be odorless and tasteless (more or less). for that you need a different type of still than a whiskey or brandy maker.
@11 dry fly is releasing their 6th batch of bourbon. check their facebook, twitter or website to find which stores carry it.

Hmmm. If it's sweet enough maybe it would be nice with vapors of Punt e Mes as a martini, garnished with olives stuffed with preserved lemon from Spanish Table. That in turn would likely be very good with a bit of pata blanca jamon served with some fromage blanc drizzled with a bit ped-x reduction.