What they do
Vodkow Vodka
750 mL at 40% alcohol, distilled from milk permeate; gluten-free and lactose-free, $35.95 in their own shop, and also sold through retailers in Ontario.
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Vodkow
VODKOW · Vodkow Vodka · Dairy Distillery · The Vodkow Distillery · Водкоу · Водков
Vodkow · Almonte distillery
Vodka made from milk, distilled in Almonte — and North America's first lactose-free cream liquors.
UA FEST Family
About
Vodkow is a distillery in Almonte, Ontario that makes vodka out of milk sugar. The idea started with a problem in the dairy industry: when skim milk is ultra-filtered for cheese and yogurt makers, it leaves behind a sugar-rich liquid called milk permeate, and most of that permeate is thrown away at the farmers' expense. Working with the University of Ottawa, the company perfected a way to ferment those lactose sugars into a clean, smooth spirit. Their own line is short: "All spirits are made by fermenting sugar. At Dairy Distillery, we use a sugar rarely used to make spirits: milk sugar."
The distillery opened its doors to the public in November 2018. Vodkow Vodka is bottled at 750 mL and 40% alcohol, in a bottle shaped like an old milk bottle and labelled "vodka made from milk". In 2022 it won a gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The vodka is gluten-free and lactose-free, and the company says anything it does not bottle can be put back into the environment safely.
The cream liquors came second. After a homogenizer came up for sale at the Campbell's soup factory in Toronto, the team brought it to Almonte, cleaned it out and taught themselves to blend cream and alcohol. Those creams are made from scratch at the distillery with 100% Canadian cream — the first spirit brand to display the Dairy Farmers of Canada "Blue Cow" logo, and what the company calls North America's first lactose-free cream liquors. The range runs to Classic Vanilla, Golden Bean Chocolate, Sugar Shack Maple, Dark Roast Coffee, Key Lime and Orange Creamsicle, plus a ready-to-pour White Russian.
Three of those flavours are made with neighbours' ingredients: chocolate from Hummingbird Chocolate in Almonte, certified organic maple syrup from Fulton's, whose family has tapped Lanark County trees since the 1840s, and cold-brewed espresso from Equator Coffee Roasters, also in Almonte. The distillery has published a cradle-to-grave carbon assessment of the vodka, uses bottles roughly half the weight of a standard glass vodka bottle, and buys offsets through Tree Canada's "Grow Clean Air" programme. The same milk-to-alcohol technology is now being taken further into low-carbon ethanol for transport fuel through DD Biofuel.
Vodkow supports UAFest 2026 as a partner. The festival is on Sunday, 13 September 2026 in Riverside Park, Carleton Place — the same county the distillery works in.
Vodka distilled from milk sugar
North America's first lactose-free cream liquors
Gold, San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2022
Vodkow
What they do
Vodka distilled from milk sugar, and a range of lactose-free cream liqueurs.
What they do
Lactose-free cream liquors
Made from scratch at the distillery with 100% Canadian cream — Classic Vanilla, Golden Bean Chocolate, Sugar Shack Maple, Dark Roast Coffee, Key Lime and Orange Creamsicle, 750 mL at $34.95 each. Classic Vanilla, Key Lime and Orange Creamsicle are 15% alcohol, Golden Bean Chocolate and Dark Roast Coffee 16%, and Sugar Shack Maple 17%.
What they do
White Russian, ready to pour
A pre-mixed cocktail in a 750 mL bottle at 16%, which they count as five drinks — coffee and vanilla, made in Canada and lactose-free.
What they do
The Vodkow Distillery store and bar
Their own address at 34 Industrial Drive in Almonte: samples, the full lineup on the shelf, work by local artists, cocktails at the Vodkow bar, and events, markets and pop-ups through the year.
What they do
Custom cream liqueurs for other distilleries
Under the name Liquor Labs they blend fresh Canadian cream with premium spirits to a client's specification, and produce white-label cream liquors for distilleries across North America.
Open to
Visitors at the distillery store and Vodkow barEvents, markets and pop-ups at the distilleryOnline orders shipped anywhere in CanadaCustom and white-label cream liqueur productionRetail listings in Ontario
Vodkow
Photos
Vodkow
Where to find them
Vodkow works out of 34 Industrial Drive in Almonte, Ontario, in the Mississippi Mills Business Park off Ottawa Street. Almonte is part of the Town of Mississippi Mills, one of the local municipalities of Lanark County — and Carleton Place, where UAFest is held, is another. So the distillery and the festival park sit in the same county.
The distillery is where most of the business happens in person: a retail store, the Vodkow bar, samples and a calendar of markets and pop-ups. Beyond Almonte, the vodka and cream liquors are carried by retailers in Ontario, and the company's own online shop ships to every province by Canada Post, with free shipping over $150 (Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories excepted).
UAFest participation
Their story and UAFest
18
2018
November — the distillery opens its doors to the public in Almonte
22
2022
Vodkow Vodka takes gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition
23
2023
The founders take Vodkow onto CBC's Dragons' Den
26
2026
13 September — partner of UAFest in Riverside Park, Carleton Place
Vodkow
Questions & answers
What is Vodkow made from?
From milk sugar. When skim milk is ultra-filtered for cheese and yogurt makers, it leaves a sugar-rich liquid called milk permeate, which is usually discarded. Vodkow ferments the lactose in that permeate with a special yeast and distils it into vodka. The company says it upcycles 3.7 kg of milk permeate for every bottle.
Is it lactose-free? Is it gluten-free?
Both. The distillery describes its vodka as lactose-free and gluten-free, and the cream bottles read "LACTOSE FREE / SANS LACTOSE" on the label. The company calls its creams the first lactose-free cream liquors in North America.
Where can I buy it?
At the distillery store in Almonte, from retailers in Ontario, or from their own online shop, which ships across Canada by Canada Post. Orders over $150 ship free, except to Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. They quote 2–5 business days within Ontario and up to 7 nationally, and someone 19+ has to show ID at the door.
Can I visit the distillery?
Yes. The distillery is at 34 Industrial Drive in Almonte, in the Mississippi Mills Business Park off Ottawa Street. There is a retail store open every day and a Vodkow bar open Wednesday to Sunday, with samples, cocktails and work by local artists; the current hours and the events calendar are on their contact page. The phone is 613-256-6136.
What flavours do the cream liquors come in?
Classic Vanilla, Golden Bean Chocolate, Sugar Shack Maple, Dark Roast Coffee, Key Lime and Orange Creamsicle, alongside a ready-to-pour White Russian. Three of them are built on ingredients from neighbours in Almonte and Lanark County — Hummingbird Chocolate, Fulton's maple syrup and Equator Coffee Roasters.
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