Overview: Silver Fox Distillery in Arthur, Ontario, continues its winning streak with a focus on regional ingredients and high-quality production. Owned by Mark and Lisa Townsend, the operation has secured top honors at the US Open Spirits Championship repeatedly. The distillery operates out of a strip mall on the edge of town while maintaining a reputation for excellence across North America.
The Full Story
Silver Fox Distillery, owned and operated by Mark and Lisa Townsend, was created as a retirement project. Despite its modest location in Arthur, the facility has dominated the distilling world’s best of the best; winning the US Open Spirits Championship in five of the last seven years. This year, the operation topped the flavoured moonshine class with its Macintosh Sour Apple, scored second in the Gin-Citrus category with its Citrus Gin, and topped the gin category with its Cucumber Mint Gin. Additionally, the distillery scored second in the specialty spirits class with Absinthe, marking an unprecedented third time winning for this specific achievement.
Mark Townsend told a visiting group from the Peterborough County Cattlemen’s club that their use of local ingredients gives their products a “regional flavour.” By having the highest cumulative score in 10 categories, he said there is no “higher award that we can win.” The distillery was ranked number one spirit distillery of North America three years out of seven open. Townsend credits his ingredients, machinery, and knowledge of the industry for the achievement.
Production & Profile
Many of the ingredients used in the 40 plus line-up of gins, spirits, vodkas and liqueurs are sourced within 30 kilometres of home. Corn, oats, red winter wheat, rye, and barley are the grains they use most and they are the basis of his award-winning 100 proof Fox Shine White Lightning. They grind their grains fresh, noting that one can actually tell a day difference in the grain. The mash is cooked for six hours before fermenting. Once cooled below 90 degrees F, they use a slow-working custom blended yeast.
Specific botanicals include rhubarb and hibiscus grown on-site for a Lemon Gin Liqueur. Maple syrup comes from a local Amish family, lavender from two farms in their Dracula’s Flower Liqueuer, and local mint is used in the After Dark liqueur. The rye is sourced directly from a specific farm because there are over 100 different species of rye. They tested almost 23 of them to get the one they liked, which has the worst yield of starches but is the sweetest, smoothest rye available. Each batch of Absinthe takes two months with Mark working on it every three days, using more than 35 botanicals; most are home-grown, and the recipe comes from the 17th century.
Brand & Industry History
Before opening Silver Fox Distillery, Townsend had designed and built airplanes. He grew up in Cape Breton and made his first still at age 13 on his grandmother’s stove as a hobby he left behind as life took over. A New Brunswick native, Mark met Lisa while she was working at a motorcycle shop. Together they toured the continent. It was during the 18 months when he was at loose ends after retiring that Lisa positioned a coffin on sawhorses in his workshop to read him the riot act. They went into the business because they wanted something that they could never, ever learn everything.
What This Means
The distillery plans to build a malting machine next year which will allow them to smoke barley using Northern Ontario peat to create an Ontario Scotch. Silver Fox does some custom distilling for other distilleries and also places some products on LCBO shelves. They have strayed away from molasses, deciding their rum should be as top shelf as they can make it, ordering 57,000 litres of cane sugar from the Barbados. They are still working their way through that supply.
Consumer Takeaway
The business focuses on the atmosphere and quality, ensuring customers want to talk to someone who knows what they’re doing. They try to make this enjoyable and answer any questions visitors have. Eighty per cent of what they make is for the scorecard, but they are in the block and doing well. They offer laser-etched bottles, a gin-making school, and have written a book on botanical selection. The distillery does not try to climb the ladder but rather tries to keep busy and enjoy themselves.
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