Our Story

The distillery is named for the fifth patent issued by the Dominion of Canada in 1869.

Patent 5, issued in 1869:

“A certain new and useful art of distilling whiskey by means of which a great increase in quantity is obtained from a given quantity of grain.”

From small beginnings come great things. When we started our distilling journey six years ago our goal was to create premium, Manitoba inspired spirit. Spirits that we would be proud to serve to guests in our cocktail room and our friends. We pride ourselves in being the first Farm to finish distillery in MB. By carefully using sustainable practices we select only the top-quality grains to use in our products. With the goal of being good stewards of the land and maintaining low environmental impact, our focus is distilling for the generations to come.

Local Ingredients and Eco-Conscious Practices

Nearly 100% of our grain is sources from Manitoba. In fact, it’s Grown, Harvested and Milled right on site of one of our founder’s farmland in Southern Manitoba.

We distill in our small distillery in the heart of Winnipeg’s Exchange District.
We look to procure as many of our botanicals locally as we can to make our products truly Manitoban. Sour Cherries from Beausejour, Saskatoons from the Interlake and Violet and Rose Petals from various Manitoba Communities.

Sustainability and locality are fundamental to our philosophy: we use a 900-gallon water recirculating system to reduce our water waste; our spent grains are sent to local farms to be used for feed.

Beyond our Gins and Vodkas

What was a dream at the start has come to fruition as we have released several Canadian Whiskys over the past 3 years. In November 2022, we were the first Craft Distillery in Manitoba to Produce and sell whisky distilled in Winnipeg in over 140 Years
According to Patent 5 owner and master distiller, Brock Coutts, “This whisky has been a rewarding project. The journey to produce craft whisky in Winnipeg has been a long, challenging road. “There hasn’t been a distillery in downtown Winnipeg since Radiger & Erb closed their Higgins Avenue distillery in 1880,” says Coutts. “This new spirit has taken us more than 4 years to create and was made by marrying modern distilling methods with a traditional process that Winnipeg distillers would have followed 142 years ago.”
We also produce many liqueurs, cordials and even a traditional Rum made with a unique combination of Crosby’s fancy grade and blackstrap molasses. We distill and ferment the molasses to preserve the character and flavor – a very slow process, worth the wait for a flavourful rum. We age the rum in casks that were used once to age a double-oak bourbon. Aged just over 2 years this produces a full-flavoured, yet smooth rum

We release only products we are proud of. I would rather have 1 person tell us they love our product than sell 100’s of 1000’s of cases of product to the masses

Brock Coutts – Owner

Our History

History Across all our Parts

The Distillery

Housed in a former livery stable turned craft distillery, we use a 125-gallon copper pot still, a 4-plate column still, and a 16-plate column still to produce small batch, premium craft spirits with Manitoba’s history and the natural world in mind.
The building was completed in 1904, when Winnipeg was still experiencing rapid, railway-fueled growth. Between 1880 and 1900, the Canadian Pacific Railway helped to define Winnipeg as the “Gateway to Canada’s West.” Thousands of settlers stopped in Winnipeg before heading west, and this immigration boom established Winnipeg as the agricultural center of the country.

The Barrel Room

Originally the barrel room was used as a storage space for parts for the carts and wagons pulled by the horses of the Dominion Express Company. Having sat empty for a decade before Patent 5 repurposed the room, the barrel room idea was inspired by the original “racks for tiering barrels” patent issued to Frederick Stitzel in 1879. In the barrel room, our whiskies and rums age in an interesting fashion – hot and humid in the summer and cool and dry in the winter.

The Cocktail Bar

Hidden in plain sight in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District, you’ll find our cozy cocktail bar. Furnished with reclaimed stained glass, doors, wood paneling and other elements from the historic Oak Room at the St. Regis Hotel, we make use of old and new in an intimate setting.