Come join us for networking and learning about Vikre, Duluth’s own craft distillery. Click here for more information.

Activity Type: Live Activity                         Activity Title: Why is Water so important to Vikre?

CPE Hour: 1.0 CEU, Level 2                       Target Audience: MAND North East Members

This local Northern Minnesota Distillery has been using local ingredients; local grains, handcrafted MN oak barrels and clean cold Lake Superior water.  Join the MAND Northeast Region group for a social/educational happy hour.  Drinks and snacks are available for purchase.

Activity Speakers:

Emily Vikre, Co-Founder, President & Arbiter of Taste:

Emily is a native of Duluth who holds a PhD in food policy and behavioral theory from Tufts University. She is a nationally recognized food and drinks writer.  She is a regular columnist for the James Beard award-winning site Food52, and contributes to a wide swath of other publications including Lucky Peach, Minnesota Public Radio and Norwegian American Weekly, in addition to being the mastermind of the cooking blog Five and Spice http://fiveandspice.com/. She once accidentally won a wine-tasting contest in France. She’s the palate of the operation and resident mad scientist.

Joel Vikre, Co-Founder, CEO & Distiller:

Joel has followed a crooked path. Exciting highlights: Getting bitten by a bat while mist netting at night in a Costa Rican rain forest.  He worked with nuns running a clinic on a landfill in Tijuana. After leaving medical school to focus on global health and starting not one, but two- internationally acclaimed non-profits that fight HIV-AIDS and promote water sanitation in parts of Africa. Learning how to distill a moonshine called “the tears of the lion” in a mud hut using clay pots from Dani, his Kenyan “grandmother.” Now Joel is using his background in strategic planning, plus his hobby-honed mechanical skills, to assemble and run our crazy amounts of equipment.

Agenda:

5-5:30pm        Networking and Team Building Activity

5:30-6:30pm   Presentation and Tour from Emily and Joel Vikre

Activity Objectives:

Participants will have an understanding:

1. The importance of water quality to the distilling process.
2. Local Duluth flavors that inspire their business.
3. The challenges from a hobby to a busin

RSVP by Friday, January 27th to brenda.schwerdt@slhduluth.com or karen.johnson@slhduluth.com.