Nestled in the Exchange District of Winnipeg, Patent 5 Distillery is bursting with historical homage. The “perfect space,” as described by ownership partner Brock Coutts, came available seven years ago – the former Dominion Express Company, which once housed a horse stable on the second floor. When built in 1904, the building was considered one of the most modern stables of the time as electrification in Winnipeg was ahead of most other major cities.
While working on this space, Coutts came across a newspaper article describing that the St. Regis Hotel had undergone irreversible damage and all the historical artifacts from the Oak Room were slated for disposal. Fueled by both luck and perseverance, Coutts reached out to Cindy Tugwell, who was mentioned in the article. After several weeks, the ownership team of Patent 5 was allowed five days to retrieve whatever they could find of value. The team salvaged original chandeliers, wood paneling, curved headers and original stained glass, including two 12-foot doors.
Originally the intention was to include a tasting room, but the discovery of such beautiful, historical pieces led the team to shift gears and focus on creating a one-of-a-kind cocktail room instead. “It doesn’t feel like you’re in Winnipeg,” said Coutts. “It feels like you’re in a turn-of-the-century cocktail room. Our goal was always to celebrate Canadian and Manitoban history.”
Even their name, Patent 5, has historical roots. The fifth patent to be issued in Canada was in 1869, to a Scottish man named James Wilson of St. Catharines, Ont., for a column still by the Dominion of Canada. Patent 5’s focus on keeping the history of the Exchange District alive earned them a Distinguished Service award in 2019 from Heritage Winnipeg. The dedication and commitment to preserve heritage elements from the St. Regis Hotel was a large factor in the designation. The efforts were well-received; within the first year of opening, Patent 5 was named one of the top 50 bars in Canada.
This is all thanks to the team of four owners with unique work histories: Dinah Santos, a pharmacist; Mike Borgford, an engineer; Mike McCallum, an entrepreneur; and Coutts, an accountant with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and microbiology. With an array of talent and interests, this ownership team works together to support all aspects of the business. Their process is focused on grain-to-glass – everything going into the bottles is made in their facility. This is common in craft industries in British Columbia, “but a lot of other provinces do not have policies that encourage it,” said Coutts. This year, Patent 5 is focusing on heritage grains, including heritage corn.
Offering gin, vodka, whisky and rum, they use both pot and column stills in their production. Focusing on offering their customers and visitors a multi-faceted experience, they are aging some brandy using grapes from Ontario, while also focusing on the production of their whisky and rum. They offer five types of gin, as well as vodka.
“Because we’re grain to glass, we make the base spirit for our gin, which is vodka. Our goal was always making great vodka,” said Coutts. Patent 5 uses some of the best food grade wheat available, and it took the team five months of development to get their vodka to the quality they wanted. “Quality is tough to define, but we wanted to be able to taste the fact that it was a wheat-based vodka, so we experimented with everything – the different types of wheat, the different grinds of wheat and different types of yeast,” said Coutts.
The experimentation at Patent 5 followed Coutts’ track record of part luck and part perseverance. At the end of one very long day, Coutts added bread yeast to the ferment; a seemingly normal occurrence. However, not realizing that Coutts had added yeast before his departure of the distillery, Borgford added champagne yeast to the very same batch. Once the two co-ordinated and realized they had both added different yeasts, they worried that they had spoiled the batch. Yet, when they tasted it, a different feeling arose. The final product wowed them.
After their vodka development, the gin took another two to three months before they managed to get the botanicals correct, leading to the release of their classic London Dry Gin. Their process for gin focuses on maceration and vapour infusion; they do not crush their botanicals. The inclusion of gin in their offerings opened the brand to a larger customer base, which grew even further with the release of their whisky. “When we released our whisky, we attracted a whole new set of customers,” said Coutts.
Continuing to push innovation at the distillery, Patent 5 began creating bottled cocktails. One is Elettaria Old Fashioned: a spiced gin, full of cardamom, ginger and cubeb berry. It was named the 2022 Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition gold medal winner for bottled cocktails. Their Maverick Martini, based on the popular U.K. cocktail the Porn Star Martini, was tricky to make amazing without the use of fresh fruit, but Patent 5 managed to find the correct fit. They’ve also prepared a lot of creative one-offs: limoncello, choke cherry liqueur and coffee liqueur. Additional exciting releases will be announced on their website.
With so much excitement and innovation happening in the distillery, it can be easy to overlook what is happening in the cocktail room. Changing three times per year, the cocktail menu features Patent 5’s unique and limited-edition offerings. The space focuses on inclusivity. “The whole goal of our space and everything we do is inclusivity – we want everyone to have access to our space,” said Coutts. “We don’t close our doors to anyone; if someone needs to use a washroom, they can use it. We made sure the space was accessible.”
This was a very important consideration to Patent 5, as those facing housing issues often face barriers accessing many public spaces. Two cocktails on the menu raise money for the Sunshine House – a drop-in and resource centre focusing on social inclusion and harm reduction in Winnipeg.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Patent 5 donated tens of thousands of litres of hand sanitizer to downtown agencies. They grew so busy they reached out to the United Way to aid with the distribution of sanitizers.
Sustainability is another piece that Patent 5 focuses on, considering the large amounts of water that distilleries use. Their 1,000-litre tank is regularly recycled for cooling water. Their spent grains are given to farmers as livestock feed. They focus on mild cleaning agents for their stills. They even go as far as reusing their hot water for mash while the temperature is maintained.
Fans of Patent 5’s history and products can become more involved in the distillery by joining the Gin Club. Focusing on creating a community of people who are as passionate about craft spirits as the Patent 5 team, Gin Club members receive three special boxes per year. This includes one exclusive release, a ready-to-serve cocktail or liqueur as well as additional specialty items. Members also receive early access to limited-small batch products, discounts, distillery tours and members-only events. Club membership is limited to 100 members and only available for purchase on Patent 5’s website. Membership lasts for one year and can be gifted to another cocktail lover.
Patent 5’s offerings are available at Manitoba Liquor Marts, and are also present at many Manitoba farmers’ markets. Outside of Manitoba, products can be ordered through the Patent 5 website for Canada-wide shipping.
With so much innovation, excitement and community engagement, “What’s next?” seems to be a question that is always on the minds of the owners of Patent 5. “The most exciting thing is when we open our barrel room and have enough mature whisky to do whisky tasting events in the barrel room,” said Coutts. This will likely come to fruition around September and will focus on the different flavours of Patent 5’s whiskies. They will also be focusing on their new offering of cocktail classes.
