Old Soldier Distillery — Local services in Tacoma

We were in the area for just a few days and thought this little hole in the wall would be perfect for our family to stop at, we had emailed before our vacation about scheduling a tour but unfortunately never heard back from anyone and emailing was the only way to get a tour!🙁 but no biggie and we still wanted to check it out so we stopped by during tasting hours and from the moment we walked in, I personally have never felt so unwanted before. The owner(? QM because we were never introduced for sure, assuming it was the owner) was with another tour(? qm at tour because they were all just sitting at the bar, talking) and our tasting was done by the daughter's boyfriend. We had a nice little tasting in the corner of the room. We wanted to go ahead and schedule a full tour and the assuming owner told us that was no problem! We scheduled for a Tues at 3:00 and they told us if the door was locked, just to knock. He even wrote us in his book!! We came back on Tues at 3pm to locked doors, so we called and he laughed and said "welp, guess I didn't make it in today!" We asked if it was possible to reschedule and when he asked us when and we told him we had other things to do, and 10am the next day would work, he said "you're gonna drink bourbon at 10 in the morning??" as if that wasn't a time that would work for him. It was almost as if he just didn't want to deal with us, so he didn't. As someone with a self business, I just find it so shameful and upsetting when people don't take pride in their word/work. Sorry for the long post but after reading so many good ones, I just really felt that this...

Overall: excellent whiskey, fun knowledgeable host, small quiet family style setup, excellent prices! Even our friends who "don't like whiskey" bought bottles.

Went here on a Friday. The entrance from Puyallup Ave is literally just a discreet door in the wall. That door opens to a straight staircase down to a basement with a homey setup for tasting and bottle purchases in the main lobby. From there you can see the actual distillery through glass windows. It's all very speakeasy style :)

The host told his stories of his own distilling experience and his family's historic distilling experience. He had a good sense of humor and did not pressure us to make a purchase or take the tour at all. He explained about the processes to make whiskey, bourbon, and moonshine in an way that was easy to understand for those of us who didn't know.

My husband is a big whiskey and food science guy (favorites include Eagle Rare 17, Redbreast 15, Lagavoulin 16, etc). It's not as much my drink of choice, but I do still enjoy it when it's done well. We also went with 2 other couples who do NOT consider themselves "whiskey" people. But every single person found something they liked and we ALL walked away with some bottles 😁. My husband bought 3. The prices were very good, not a single bottle was over $40. We did not take the Groupon tour so I can't really speak to that. But the host was fun so I imagine it would probably be entertaining.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this for whiskey lovers and liquor...

This was a fantastic experience. Got a Groupon taster deal thinking, what the heck?.. was not expecting the wealth of knowledge, dedication to those who've served, facts about history, how the host related to you, their history, your ability to really see and touch anything you wanted along with a general sense of matching your energy with a hint of mischief. Please do a favor to them and enjoy yourself as openly as possible. Ha. Don't get me wrong, it's a distillery that's somewhat small, no food, and it looks.. like a distillery. No mixed drinks or fancy set up. It is exactly this. Took about an hour, but there were two distinct whiskey's that is never tasted anything quite like. They're reasonable for what they are and affordable considering they're winning awards at least for the butterscotch in top of it's class. The batch of regular whiskey is what got me. No two batches are alike, but thus one was money, smooth and didn't have the same body. It was described as a mortar that goes up and then has a pop, but it was more like watching that fantastic show than lighting the fireworks yourself. Smooth every step with all the same sensations and not a touch of burn. I'll go back and...