Half Moon Bay Distillery

This is a wonderful locally owned and operated business that started years ago with a vision. This distillery was the only true operating distillery on the coast. I use to work here around 6 years ago in the role of Marketing where I would go to Bay Area liquor stores for tastings as well as work at the Pumpkin Festival.

Loved the food , atmosphere, prices . I don't drink, so I can't tell you about beer and drinks but the food was delicious. I had the Aji tuna it was a huge plate I'm a senior I usually don't eat that much but it was delicious.

Cool vibe, the atmosphere was on point. It was my first time. I enjoyed the drinks. They had fire pits for the outside and you can sit in the inside. I would go again.and they sale food.

Great service and ambience. It was not so crowded on a friday afternoon, we were greeted with friendly staff who escorted us right in the front for several amazing vodka tastings with different flavors. Along with a refreshing cocktail to ease the strong taste of vodka. Its $10 per taste, but when you purchase their selections, the tasting fee is waived. Fun atmosphere and absolutely a must try.

On June 23, 2019 we were in the area to escape the southbay heat. While walking around we say the sign and decided to investigate...So glad we did, as the $10 each allowed us to do the tastings, learn something new, and have a specialty cocktail that was so refreshingly delicious. And we got to take $10 off of the purchase of a bottle of vodka and and a bottle of gin.There is amble parking and the bathroom is spotlessly clean.

Craft distilling is where it's at, so it was exciting to be able to tour the Half Moon Bay Distillery in my childhood home town. I especially appreciate owner Ulli's giving us a tour on a Monday afternoon (their regularly schedule tours are Friday-Sunday).The distillery currently is tucked away in the working part of Princeton, near Pillar Point Harbor. There are two "rooms" downstairs, one has the beautiful German column still and one has the "tasting room." It's not fancy, but who cares? We got to sit and have our tour while the still was producing spirits right next to us. Cool.They currently make and sell a vodka and gin, though they have also distilled some rye whiskey that they are going to put in barrels as soon as they have more space. Which reminds me: when you drive onto Harvard Ave. if you are coming from the harbor you will see a big building with the HMB Distilling logo on it. That is their FUTURE home. We waited there for a few minutes before we realized that it was not the current location.I have to say that the information that Ulli provided during the tour was some of the most informative I have heard during a distillery tour. What follows are some of what I learned for those interested in such things.VODKA: Vodka is distilled to 95% alcohol content (190 proof), and is then "proofed" down to 40%. Because it is distilled to such a high level of purity, the actual source of starch doesn't matter as much for vodka as for other distilled spirits. So, you can use grains, potatoes, or grapes. HMB Distillery uses wheat and malted barley. This doesn't affect the "flavor" of the vodka because it is ideally a neutral spirit. But Ulli suggested that it may affect the mouth feel - the viscosity of the spirit when you drink it.Ulli also said the key is not what you put in the spirit but what you take out. The purer and cleaner the better, and you take out some of the impurities by removing the "heads" of the distillation run -- the first part of the distillate that contains nasty stuff you don't want to drink or even smell. They typically run off 3-4 quarts of heads which they can then use as a cleaner or perhaps nail polish remover. After the "heads" comes the "hearts," which is what you want to bottle, followed by the "tails" which are also sub par.To me vodka is a boring spirit to drink, but the Purissima vodka they make is very good vodka, and made some excellent Moscow Mules when we got home.GIN: Is basically a neutral spirit (vodka) infused with botanicals -- notably juniper berries -- for flavor. What makes HMB Distillery's Harvard Avenue gin unique is the particular blend of botanicals they use, which Ulli said accent citrus flavors to make it a sort of "California Style" gin. In addition to juniper berries they include orange and lemon peel, as well as grain of paradise, rose hips, coriander, licorice root, cinnamon and clove.The method by which they infuse the neutral spirit with these botanicals is "vapor extraction", which means they put all the botanicals in a bag which the alcohol vapor passes through and picks up the flavor. This is a more subtle way of infusing the spirit than "maceration," in which the botanicals are soaked in the liquid.The taste of this gin is as advertised. I will enjoy drinking it straight and trying it in one of my favorite cocktails -- the Negroni.

Small little distillery which offers "free tours" really just a history and tasting. You can book the tours online.If you buy here it is a limit of 3 bottles after the "tour" - I had seen the products in a store in Half Moon Bay for about $5 more - so you can save some $ buying here. I like to support small local business, so this was a fun one to support!

A fantastic distillery in Half Moon Bay. I booked a tour from their website. Ulli was my guide, he showed an introduction video of the distillery and then we had a quick taste of their Vodka and Gin product, both are wonderful!If you follow them on FB, they will announce new or seasonal products. Ulli mentioned that they might have Whisky soon, looking forward to it!

After the Key West Distillery we thought we might check this place out. Wish we could have tried some. However, we walked by the office which here on Yelp says would be open on a week day the sign said Gone to the Beach, which is where we headed next. Perhaps next time we are in town from Miami we will say hi. (I'm editing this review to point out that the picture shows we stopped at the new tasting room, however, we did follow directions to the old tasting room, which was on our way to Pillar Point.) We sincerely hope we can make it next time.

Visited on a Friday afternoon, before lunch. Plenty of parking, friendly staff, and not very busy, so we got a personal tasting experience. You get to try their gin and vodka, which are both good. We were also able to try their white dog, rose hip vodka, coffee vodka and a small cocktail. For $10 you don't get much in the tasting, but if you decide to buy a bottle of the vodka or gin they'll take $10 off.Just a word of warning: their website touts tours, which is misleading. You are visiting a tasting room. the actual distillery is down the road. And if you use Google maps ensure you go to the 155 Broadway address. If you just look up Half Moon Bay Distillery on Google maps it is a different address.