Help Centre

FAQ

We ship locally, within Ontario and across Canada.

If you're in the United States and would like to try Vodkow, please head to Keg n' Bottle to order for delivery.

Local orders take 1-3 business days to be delivered to you and we ship via Canpar/ICS (Canada Post for PO boxes) within Ontario up to 3 business days and nationally, up to 7 business days. All orders go to your door (except for PO boxes).

Shipping time might vary depending on location, shipment method and other factors which may be out of our control.

Ontario orders have a flat $10 delivery fee and over $100 have free shipping Canada wide (with some exceptions due to much higher shipping cost in more remote areas, sorry eh!).

Outside of Ontario, Canpar/ICS will calculate your total shipping fee based on your location. Full price will be displayed at checkout. 

Dairy Distillery does not ship to alcohol-free zones. Orders made from dry areas will be refunded. 

Yes, you, or a designate with your order number may pick up your product curbside or in-store, one social bubble at a time. When ordering, please choose "Pick Up" as your delivery method.
While we unfortunately can't ship to the United States directly, you can now order Vodkow vodka and cream liqueur through Keg n' Bottle. Thanks for your support neighbours! 

Yes, Vodkow is gluten free. There is no gluten in the base ingredients, nor in any part of the process.

Yes, lactose free and sugar free. The lactose is consumed during fermentation.

Yes, Vodkow is sugar free. Lactose (a combination of two sugars) is consumed during fermentation.

Vodkow has a unique flavour profile that combines its unique ingredient (milk permeate or lactose) with our proprietary yeast.

We use a yeast that can consume lactose.

While Vodkow is distilled to nearly pure alcohol (96.5%), there is some flavour coming from the milk permeate and the unique yeast we use. Lactose is two sugars combined: 1) glucose, from which most of our alcohols are fermented, and 2) galactose, a rare sugar that when fermented, we found produces a sweet alcohol with little to zero burn.

We sell Vodkow at Dairy Distillery in store and online; through the LCBO across Ontario and in Alberta at Liquor Depot, Wine and Beyond and Co-op Wine Spirits Beer select stores. Stay tuned for more locations across Canada.

$32.95 for 750 ml and $12.00 for 250 ml (smaller size only currently only available at Dairy Distillery)

We don't have the kind of production scale an industrial distillery like Diageo has. Very little of our process is automated and most of the work is done by hand. We also don't cut corners like distilleries with mass production. For example, we only use the "heart" of the distillation run whereas industrial producers sacrifice taste for higher yield.

Yes, we think so. So do the restauranteurs and mixologists who we invited to participate in blind taste tests where they were lined up in front of 4 unmarked glasses. Vodkow and three leading vodka brands. 8 of 10 participants ranked Vodkow as their favourite.

Yes, Vodkow Cream is lactose free. Lactase is added to render it lactose free.

Yes, Vodkow Cream is gluten free.
Per 1oz:

17% abv, 5 g carbohydrates, 5 g sugar, 4 g fat, 1.2 g protein, 16 mg cholesterol, 82 mg sodium, 91 calories

Per 1oz:

17% abv, 5 g carbohydrates, 5 g sugar, 4 g fat, 1.2 g protein, 16 mg cholesterol, 82 mg sodium, 91 calories (chocolate is 96 calories)

Vodkow Cream is made from Vodkow, Ontario cream, sugar and milk proteins. The milk proteins help to create a stable product so the fats won't separate.

Vodkow Cream's taste comes from our Vodkow vodka which is more neutral than whisky-based creams. No colour or flavour is added..

We combine all the ingredients together (Vodkow, Ontario cream, sugar and milk proteins) then put the mixture through our homogenizer. The homogenizer is basically a pump that increases the pressure of the mixture to 3,500 psi. The pressure is then dropped across a valve that releases a lot of force. These forces cause the large fat droplets to be reduced to very small droplets. The milk protein we add then encapsulates the small fat droplets. These small encapsulated droplets create a stable suspension in the Cream.

It isn't! This is exactly the same process used by the dairies to homogenize their milk and other dairy products.

Sodium citrate is the salt form of citric acid. We add a small amount of it to further increase stability of the homogenization.

Yes, we have a seasonal listing for Vodkow Cream in the LCBO. Find stock near you by visiting their site or buy online from Dairy Distillery.

$29.95 for a 750ml bottle at the LCBO and at Dairy Distillery.

Yes, we produced an Almonte Friendship Series gift pack of 4 bottles of 250ml. They are Vodkow Cream Chocolate (with Hummingbird chocolate), Vodkow Cream Maple (with Fulton's maple syrup), Vodkow Cream Coffee (with Equator coffee), and our Classic Vodkow Cream with no added flavour or colour. This pack is produced seasonally.

Yes, you can buy individual 750ml-sized bottles of Vodkow Classic, Chocolate, Maple and Coffee Cream Liquor. Please refer to our online store for quantities available. 

Vodkow Cream is shelf-stable and can be stored in any cool, dry location. For best flavour though keep Vodkow Cream in your fridge and use within a year of opening. 
If you're having trouble with your wall unit dispensing hand sanitizer, the refill bag may be plugged or not properly clipped into the unit. Please use the button on the underside of your unit to open up the dispenser and remove the refill bag. Hold the bag upright so the sanitizer fills the pump and press down on the button several times to free any blockage. Once the pump is clear and operating, place it back in the unit and make sure the pump button is clipped securely to the unit. It should now dispense normally.

You can find the SDS for each sanitizer on their individual product pages. 

If you require any further information please reach out to alexandra@dairydistillery.com

We are not currently conducting tours of the distillery owing to COVID-19. 

Once things open up, we are happy to conduct tours that take approximately 15 minutes followed by the opportunity to taste our spirits and shop in our store.

We are not currently providing any tastings owing to COVID-19.

Once things open up we are happy to provide free tastings of Vodkow, Vodkow Cream and any other products we are selling.

Most vodka is made from grain, potato or corn. However, any sugar can be fermented and the alcohol distilled to make vodka. Vodka is a product process. It's essentially pure alcohol diluted with pure water. In Canada, the definition of vodka used to limit the ingredient to grains or potato. We petitioned the federal government to allow milk to be used to make vodka and in June 2019 they updated the 65-year-old definition of vodka to allow any agricultural ingredient, including milk.

Our founder and CEO, Omid McDonald, was interested in starting a craft distillery but didn't find a compelling reason to do so. His cousin, Neal McCarten (now his partner and Director Operations), came back from a visit to his uncle's dairy farm where he told him about skim milk being dumped. A lightbulb went off: "can you make alcohol from milk?" and that's where this adventure started. 

The Mongols isolated yeast that can ferment lactose and made a low alcohol beer called Kumis. More recently in the 1970s, distillers started to experiment with lactose in whey (the by-product of cheese production) to make alcohol. There are fewer than a dozen distilleries in the world working with lactose and we're the only one fermenting milk permeate.

When cheese is made, a chemical is used to coagulate the proteins in skim milk to form curds. The liquid that is leftover is called whey and contains lactose and whey protein. In modern dairies, the proteins in skim milk are concentrated before they are sent to cheese or yogurt makers. This is done mechanically with filtration. The liquid that's removed is known as milk permeate since it permeates through a membrane along with much of the lactose. Milk permeate is less acidic than whey and contaiins no cheesemaking by-products. We found alcohol made from milk permeate to be of much higher quality.

Our milk by-product called milk permeate is produced by the Lactalis plant in Winchester where they collect milk from dairy farms across Ontario.

Currently processors have to pay to dispose of their milk permeate. We pay for the delivery and a nominal processing fee.

After a couple of years of research and construction, we opened our doors on November 1,  2018.

We were originally planning to call our product "Holy Cow Vodka" since we'd found an old church for sale in Almonte. We didn't end up buying the church but we did fall in love with Almonte. So, when we were shown the lot, we decided this was where we were going to put down roots, now located at 34 Industrial Drive in the Mississippi Mills Business Park, off Ottawa Street.

No, we don't have the means to clean and recycle the bottles. You can take them back to your normal recycling location and get your deposit back.
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