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. read more

Half Moon Bay Distillery - The Half Moon Bay Distillery Vodka and Gin with the old branding. - Distilleries Near Me - Half Moon Bay, California

Great little distillery with options to taste, buy a drink, and/or get some food. Nice outdoor patio to relax.

This place does not exist. At least not at the advertised address. There were apartments and a garage wine tasting but no distillery.

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. read more

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. read more

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. read more

See all

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. read more

Half Moon Bay Distillery - Foggy Summer Daze is a fabulous refreshing cocktail! - Distilleries Near Me - Half Moon Bay, California

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. read more

See all

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! read more

Love the food and service!! It was a very comfortable environment and a must go to with friends and family!

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! read more

See all

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. read more

Half Moon Bay Distillery - Distilleries Near Me - Half Moon Bay, California

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. read more

I happened to stumble upon this place on Yelp when I was looking for a place to go for a friend's bday celebration. Not everyone in our group drinks wine but we all drink vodka so I thought this place would be a nice change. I originally made reservations for the wrong date online and I emailed them right after I noticed it and they were very accommodating and changed the date for me. We had reservations for a Sunday in October and we didn't anticipate all the traffic so we were running at least 1/2 hour late. I called to leave a message hoping they would still take us. Once we arrived, the staff was very welcoming. They started to explain the process and then the tasting began. We had so much fun and I think we were probably the loudest group in their LOL. The staff didn't mind at all and we ended up purchasing some bottles while we were their tasting. Overall such a fun experience and we will definitely come back to visit again. Thank you again for such an amazing experience! read more

We found this place on Yelp, looking for something to do on a rainy day. We found this place had free tours in the afternoon. We signed up for our party of 2 for the 2pm tour on 11/26/2016. I believe the tours are limited to a max of 8 people. So, this is a very small place located in what appears to be an apartment building of sorts. (Although they are expanding soon up the street). This small distillery is run by a couple, and the person who did our tour today was the female half of this lovely couple. She was a pleasure to listen to. She told us about there story, the business, the process, and the products. There is a tasting of the gin and vodka that they make in house. Let me tell you....you really can tell the difference when tasting this small batch distilling process. It was really tasty. In addition, this weekend they were doing a special by making an additional free cocktail as part of Small Business Saturday. All in all, this is a FREE presentation and tasting, and it was well worth it. Of course, we did end up buying a bottle of each (and I hope you will too). We had a great experience, and I wish them the best in the future. It really is a great product, and I hope we can find it locally in our area. read more

A fun little side attraction while in HMB. Craft made, small batch hootch - Vodka and Gin for now, with brown liquor to come down the road a bit. Seems the owners are still kind of new to the distilled spirits business and not sure they have a "style" yet and it still shows... Their gin is very aromatic and the Vodka well made, though I prefer potato Vodka to grain. But not to say their booze isn't the "good stuff" and we ended up with a bottle of Vodka, so yea, we're fans! read more

This place was highly recommended on TripAdvisor for things to do in Half Moon Bay, so we decided to go. The owner, Caesar came out to welcome us. He gave us a bit of an introduction and popped in a very cute movie that explained the history of the distillery and also Half Moon Bay. It lasted maybe 5-10 minutes. Once it finished he came back down and gave a bit of a talk and let us try the two spirits they're making - Vodka, Gin. These are liquors I'm a huge fan of so we ended up buying both bottles! The Vodka was extremely smooth and didn't burn my throat. The gin (which I usually don't drink straight) was a huge taste explosion. There were so many complex flavors going on, it was delicious! I'd say that the whole tour took maybe 15-20 minutes from start to end. You actually don't walk around anywhere but spend your time sitting in the only room they have with the single still/vat they use. If you're looking to buy some good vodka or gin, this is the place to do it! They even mention they're in BevMo as well! Will definitely be purchasing more =) read more

Avast ye fellow gin drinkers and verifiable vodka enthusiasts for the time has come to plan your next adventure. Long have I been an imbiber of the creature of the lighter hue and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that HMB Distillery procures some of the smoothest and most flavorful liquors in the Bay. Neither Blade nor St. George himself can hold a flicker to this shining light on this foggy coast so do yourself a favor; saddle up and hoof it over the hill to HMB for some creative cocktails from local distillers and saunter through the outdoor market. You won't be disappointed. read more

This is terrific ! They have a video and tour and tastings for Vodka and Gin Too much fun and interesting It's a kick. Make your reservations online read more

Half Moon Bay Distillery - Tasting room at distillery - Distilleries Near Me - Half Moon Bay, California

The new owner who referred to herself as Jamie was rude and unprofessional in resolving an issue I had in ordering. What happened: I had done a Google search online for Half Moon Bay vodka but an older, obsolete website is what came up. I accidentally ordered from there and she received my email but not my payment. She made it seem like it was my fault for ordering from the wrong site and underlined she was doing me a HUGE favor by helping me to get my money back and getting the old site taken down so that this doesn't happen again to others. The site had HMB distillery's current name, phone number and email listed on it so it was misleading to a person like me who was looking for a specific product. Despite that, I still had full intentions of ordering from the new site before this woman's final reply to me because I was interested in both the product and supporting small businesses. I also have a friend who was interested in ordering before this happened. This woman of HMB distillery who was conversing with me totally blew it with her over-the-top, condescending and immature attitude. read more

This is a small distillery with a lot of its own flavor. It is run by a husband and wife pair, Caesar and Ulli, who are very nice. You can book online for a free tour. The tour itself is about 20 min and consists mostly of watching a 10 min video about the distillery's origins, and then a tasting of their signature vodka and gin. Both spirits tasted good and had a lot of their own flavor. I like that they are small batch and hand-made. The tour does not involve any walking around as the distillery is small, but it is run by the owner and he is very friendly and is happy to answer any questions. At the end, you can buy one of their bottles for $30-$35 each. read more

Good local mom & pop (well husband & wife) run operation. Small "garage" style distillery with gin and vodka tasting. Great education, intimate experience allowed to interact with owners. Interesting location in a office/warehouse type building, can't wait to hear once they get their new operation up the street open and running, I will definitely be back to visit. I have never (that I remember lol) tasted gin, and I am glad I experienced it with them, because it has to be one of the best tasting offering I have ever had. Great process for making their items and a very high quality product, I will definitely be ordering more in the future! read more

See all

Hidden gem in half Moon Bay. Walk in to the most un assuming little shop, I missed it twice driving by. Caeser and his wife make great spirits and teach you a little about distilling. It's not the most comprehensive "tour" I have ever been on, but it's up to you to ask questions. I personally enjoyed the gin, which had a unique flavor. You can purchase bottles to go after trying and apparently they have several micro batches that switch up from time to time if you follow them on social media. They also pitched a cocktail hour which sounded like fun if we were in the area again. Fun little hour if you can make the stop! read more

Always like to support small businesses. Learned something new that gin is made from juniper berries. I got the vodka purissima bottle for $32. read more

We visited in August so my review is a little late. We had so much fun learning about the history of the couple, how they make the gin and vodka and most of all we LOVED the gin and vodka. I have to say, they are building a new building and may have already moved, but the original place was a whoot. It's basically in an apartment with the distillery in what was the living room. Very down home. The lights didn't even work correctly. I say it all with love. read more

Love their stuff!! I get so excited when I see their stuff in any store. And I always by a bottle. Even though I dont drink that much. Local. Delicious. Humble. read more

My husband booked a tour since we were in town for my 60th birthday. We were staying in the area and were excited to take the tour. We got to the distillery and no one answered the door and it was locked. We waited 10 minutes but since it was raining decided 10 minutes was long enough. There really is no reason to take a reservation if you are a no show.Bad business read more

I HATE writing negative reviews. You leave me no choice. We made a reservation on line a week in advance for a tour on Saturday at noon. We drove, with our parents, who are both 80+ years old, for an hour and a half and arrived at the address provided at 11:55 am. The sign on the door directed us to a different nearby address so we went there only to find a locked, empty building. We waited around for 20 minutes, called the phone number we had and got an answering machine. Disappointed and desperate to provide the experience we were all looking forward to we ended up at the Moss Beach Distillery (basically a tourist trap restaurant) and paid 10 bucks each for lousy cocktails. Then we headed back home. Two plus hours in nightmare traffic. What a bust! read more

(FYI --this is the same review I made for trip advisor as well) I'm a Bay Area native & always loved going to Half Moon Bay because of the beaches. It's a cute & quiet town that's becoming more of a popular tourist spot. There's a ton a amazing restaurants, great beaches & cute little fruit/vegetable stands along the way there. I recently learned about Half Moon Bay Distillery & was curious about how spirits are made. I've been to several breweries & wineries, but this was my first time at a distillery. Ulli was our tour guide & I learned a lot from her about the vodka & gin making process. Our tour only had 6 people, which was perfect. We were able to ask questions & get to know Ulli & her husband during the tour. I also can't forget to mention that the tour was FREE! HMB Distillery is off the beaten path & down the road from where many of the restaurants are. It's a small craft distillery, so don't expect to see tons of machines or barrels. Ulli & her husband Caesar are the only ones who run this place & they take a lot of pride in their product. They are very passionate about making high quality spirits & you can definitely taste it in their product. As many people have shared, they were not into gin until tasting HMB Distillery's gin. I've only had gin in mixed drinks, but I could drink this gin alone! Their vodka has a great, clean & smooth taste as well. She teaches you what to look for in vodka to make sure you're getting a good quality spirit. =) I am all about supporting local businesses & would highly recommend scheduling a tour with Ulli & Caesar. They will be expanding their distillery & will be moving to a bigger location with a tasting room soon. I'm excited to see their new location & to see what other spirits they come up with. Side Note: If you walk down Harvard Ave & make a left, there is a secluded beach at the end of the road. It was a beautiful day & we were able to hang out at the beach after our tour. read more

Great tasting and fun staff! Wonderful gem in HMB and a great place to stop off for a tasting or to book for a private event. David and his team were great with our corporate group, leading us though a mixology lesson, Gin tasting, and top chef mixology competition. The space is really functional and can be transformed for any event. Can't wait to book the next group! read more

What is this???? The pictures on yelp are NOTHING like the actual place. We were shocked when we walked up..."this can't be it, can it? It looks like a motel!" We took 5 steps in, realized that we're in some weird sketchy warehouse with some random dudes sitting in lawn chairs watching the sound of music, turned around and left. Don't let the pictures fool you, should be renamed Bubba's Garage. read more

I attended their Opening Party and thought how great it turned out, after it took so long to get all their permits. Now there is another trendy destination tasting room tour at a warehouse in the Princeton area near the Harbor. You need to make reservations, I believe, as it is definitely not walk-in service. Since I don't drink, I can only vouch for their product based on reactions and recommendations of other friends of Uli & Cesar Bosono when they brought some to parties in Half Moon Bay that I attended. Everyone was raving about the smooth flavors of their Gin and Vodka Infused spirits. By the way, the address for the new location is: 155 Broadway Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 (Ignore the Half Moon Bay" part, it is actually located in the Warehouse area of Princeton-by-the Sea. (That other is just for the US Postal service.) So, if you are traveling from the City, down Highway One past Moss Beach, don't go all the way to Half Moon Bay (in that traffic) get ready to pull over just after the little Airport when you see signs for the Harbor. If pass through a traffic signal and see "Surfer's Beach" on your right, heading south, you've gone too far. read more

Really enjoyed this fun, free tour/tasting in Half Moon Bay. Both the vodka and gin are smooth and tasty alone, and let me tell you that they're even better in cocktails! Go seek them out if you enjoy delicious, hand-crafted spirits. (I actually think their gin is better than St. George's, to be honest) read more

love this place as its super close to mavericks beach and pillar point drink and learn! read more

My friends and I found this delightful. David and Uli were giving the tour and information about the products. I found this to be a very pleasant experience. The vodka and gin were delicious. A gem waiting to be discovered. Thanks Again Sherie read more

Tried to go here this past Sunday (8/19) with my family who was in town from St Louis and Iowa. Was going to reserve a tour online at 1 or 2 as they had openings listed. Got in the car at 11 to head to the coast from Redwood City and reserve a slot and they had disappeared. Having assumed that they sold out we figured we would still go and check it out as the hours online stated they had opened at 11. We got to the address listed which appears to be an old converted motel and no one is at the door, it's locked, and no sign as to when they would return or really any signage at all. Seriously disappointed as we all were really looking forward to checking out the distillery read more

Great local distillery that offers free tour and tasting at their site. Love to learn the history of how the husband and wife started this business. We ended up buying both the gin and vodka. Great place to visit when you're in town. read more

We went for a quick visit and had a lot of fun learning a bit about distillation and their product. =)

Wow what a special place and our 92 year old matriarch says she loved the place and loved the history too..

My wife and I just stumbled upon this small distillery when going for a walk near the coast. Jacob was our host, and he was super friendly and generous with his time. We especially liked their gin (floral plus juniper notes) and the lavender infused vodka. The star of the visit however was Jacob's friendly and low key style. read more