Green Siren Absinthe. (Port Chilkoot Distillery)

Green Siren Absinthe. (Port Chilkoot Distillery)

Haines’ local distillery earned top awards for the second year in a row at a national competition.

The Port Chilkoot Distillery’s absinthe and bourbon brought in honors at the American Distilling Institute’s 10th annual Craft Spirits Competition.

Distillery owner Heather Shade says they entered the two most recently-bottled products in the San Diego event to hear what professionals think.

“We want the opportunity to have a professional taste spirits to tell us if we’re on the right track as far as our flavor profiles and the quality of our products,” Shade said. “So it actually helps us become better distillers.”

Port Chilkoot Bourbon. (Port Chilkoot Distillery)

Port Chilkoot Bourbon. (Port Chilkoot Distillery)

The Green Siren Absinthe won the best absinthe award and a silver medal among all craft spirits. The bourbon won a bronze medal.

Last year, the Haines distillery’s 50 Fathoms Gin won a double gold medal in the Craft Spirits Competition.

“Sending our spirits out to these competitions is kind of like sending kids out into the world and seeing how they’re gonna do,” Shade said. “So it’s really exciting when they come back with some nice awards like that.”

The spirits were up against more than 1,000 products from craft distilleries across North America.

Shade says the bourbon and absinthe are the only such spirits made in Alaska. The distillery started releasing small single-barrel batches of bourbon this past winter. The absinthe is so new that it has yet to be distributed outside of Haines. Port Chilkoot Distillery started operating about two-and-a-half years ago.