Mariah and Shawn Butenschoen became used to hearing the phrase “probably shouldn’t” over the years.
It happened when they first planted blueberries on their Everson property and decided to organically certify their farm, Breckenridge Blueberries. In fact, they heard it often enough that they decided to name their distillery after the phrase.
Probably Shouldn’t Distillery in Everson is one of just a handful of craft distilleries in Whatcom County, joining Chuckanut Bay, Speed Shift Distillery and Bellewood Farms. With a name that also hints at opting for just one more round of drinks, Probably Shouldn’t has offered an expanding line of small-batch spirits since its 2017 founding.
Offerings include apple, raspberry, and organic blueberry brandies, as well as a blueberry pie liqueur, gin, bourbon, and American single malt whiskey.
Probably Shouldn’t and the Path to Pouring
The journey to opening their own distillery took time, and sometimes left the Butenschoens questioning whether they should have attempted the endeavor in the first place. It all began about 12 years ago, when Shawn – then a heavy equipment mechanic – met a man in the county who was distilling his own liquor as a hobby.
Creating their own distillery, the Butenschoens thought, might be the solution to their longstanding problem of leftover fruit waste following annual blueberry harvests.
“We just started doing the research,” says Mariah, an English teacher at Lynden High School. “It was quite the lengthy process.”
With both working full-time and raising two young boys, their project was a spare-time project on evenings and weekends. When they moved to make their project a reality, there was ample paperwork, and the permitting process took nearly five years due to county, state, and federal requirements. Shawn built the distilling equipment himself in his free time, with occasional help from friends.
Probably Shouldn’t finally opened in 2017, utilizing an 80-gallon double boiler still and a 400-gallon fermentation tank to produce apple brandy and blueberry pie liqueur. After several years, the Butenschoens expanded to the more time-intensive process of distilling and aging American single malt whiskey, which uses 100% Skagit County malted barley and is double pot-distilled.
A second still, measuring 400 gallons, was built after the pandemic. It allows Shawn to make in one day what used to take him a week, he says.
Dreaming of Drams at Probably Shouldn’t
Probably Shouldn’t also makes an Old Tom-style gin.
Old Tom, Mariah explains, is less dry and more botanically complex than London Dry, and was the most popular gin choice in the United States before Prohibition. Probably Shouldn’t gin contains less juniper than many brands, she adds, and makes for a refreshing summer cocktail choice.
The distillery proudly utilizes Washington suppliers for its fruit-based spirits: raspberries from Lynden, apple juice from Prosser and, of course, their own blueberries. It takes about 20 pounds of the latter, Mariah says, just to make one bottle of blueberry brandy.
Which spirits are their personal favorites? The Butenschoens say their drinking choices can fluctuate based on the season, but they’re awfully fond of their bourbon year-round.
A stone’s throw from several acres of blueberries, the Probably Shouldn’t tasting room and distillery is decorated with Prohibition-era ephemera, while rows of aging spirits sit tucked inside American oak barrels.
The tasting room is open on the second Saturday of each month from noon to 5 p.m. and by appointment. During the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it sees more frequent Saturday openings.
The Product of Hard Work
Probably Shouldn’t has helped the Butenschoens realize their original goal of using excess farm fruit that would otherwise go to waste.
And seven years after opening, business is decent, with the distillery’s products available for retail purchase at local grocery stores like Haggen and some liquor stores.
But competition for liquor sales is immense when up against large corporate distilleries that push product at enormous volume, Mariah says. Large distributors, she notes, can force the hands of many retailers, refusing to restock certain products if enough of a particular spirits brand isn’t purchased.
“We’re competing against Jack Daniels and Jim Beam,” she says. “Those guys have big distributors and a lot of money, and they control the market. So it’s hard to fight that.”
Combine that with rising business-based taxes for Washington bars and restaurants – not to mention the highest consumer liquor prices in the U.S. – and things could be better than they are for craft distillers, she adds.
Fortunately, some local bars and restaurants have been happy to add Probably Shouldn’t to their back bars, and Mariah says she hopes more local support for their brand can be found in the future.
In the meantime, the Butenschoens will continue doing what they’ve always done best. They’re happy they chose not to take ‘no’ for an answer some years ago, and they’ve cultivated a distillery built on hard work and strong, local relationships. That, one might say, is worthy of a toast.
“It’s incredibly hard to start a distillery,” Mariah says. “And we did it all on our own terms: we have no investors, we’ve got no debt. We decided we wouldn’t do this if we couldn’t do it that way: on our property, on the farm, just us. I’m proud of what we’ve done.”
Probably Shouldn’t Distillery
3595 Breckenridge Road, Everson
360.410.1632
