January 2026
Building
The Tasting Room is fully painted! The final color choice – ‘Harvest Bronze’ – brings a warmth to the exposed beams and large wooden door. Thanks to those who provided color advice and/or time with a brush/roller. Next, Derek will lay the floor with old growth fir tongue-and-groove floorboards that he salvaged from the building. Then, he’ll install the door-and-window trim that Katrina is staining and finishing.
Derek has been framing and building out the mechanical room as well as helping run the utilities for both the Tasting Room and the production space. With the help of various contractors, he has roughed in for heat, run electric for lights and outlets, and is just about ready to tie into the water main.
Business / Community
On Tuesday mornings, Katrina attends the Good Food Network meetings at The Village. The GFN is dedicated to ensuring all residents have access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food. Their mission reads: “Through strong partnerships, community-driven solutions, and sustainable initiatives, we work to reduce food insecurity, support local farmers, and foster a thriving, food-resilient community.” Katrina hopes that Terminus can support various local producers and growers, including ingredients for our spirits (grains for whiskies and other spirits, fruit for brandies, botanicals for gin) and connecting cocktails and mocktails with Harvest of the Month.
As some of you know, Derek volunteers for the Dillon Amateur Hockey Association (DAHA) and helps maintain the Dillon Ice Rink. While this year has been disappointingly warm, we’re still hopeful the Dillon Rink Day will be held in February. Keep an eye on social media for updates.
A University of Montana Western Public History class came for a tour of the building this month. John Henris and his group were also joined by Candi and Chris from the Beaverhead County Museum - we all looked the outside of the building and clues to both its origin and renovations, learned about the archeology and architecture of the original townsite block, and looked at artifacts from each of the building’s eras that Derek has found over the last four years.
As we work towards opening, we’re improving our website. This includes adding an online store. For a soft launch, Katrina is moving her shrub sales online – see more below.
Distillery
What strange weather for seasonal cocktails. While this is often a time for hot toddy’s, negronis, or boulevardiers, our temperatures have us also reaching for a Jack Rose, ginger beer with a splash of vodka, or a shrub cocktail.
Speaking of shrubs, Katrina has been hard at work setting up the soft launch of our online store. Used for cocktails or mocktails, her current shrub inventory is grapefruit thyme, rhubarb ginger, Thai mango, mixed berry, and strawberry & roasted jalapeno. Check out our website terminusdistillingcompany.com for pickup orders. For those of you who have bought a Terminus Distilling Company 16oz glass yowler (like breweries have growlers – this is just smaller), a shrub fill is $10. If you need a yowler, they’re $5 each. When we’re fully open, these yowlers can also be filled with ginger beer or bloody mary mix. With our suggested 1.5oz shrub pours, a yowler fill makes about 10 drinks.
We’re tinkering with our vodka recipe and having some interesting results with oats as the base grain. The experimental batches have a smooth mouthfeel and lightly nutty nose.
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