Review: J Carver Vodka
J Carver Vodka is one of two vodka’s crafted at the J Carver Distillery in Waconia Minnesota. The other vodka, Lake House is made from a blend of rye, corn, and wheat. J Carver Vodka is made from locally sourced winter wheat grown in Glencoe Minnesota and pure limestone filtered water. The spirit is distilled in a custom copper double column still built in Germany. This local farm to glass distillery produces all of their spirits onsite. Their other crafted spirits include whiskey, gin, brandy, aquavit, and liqueurs. J Carver was named for Minnesota explorer Johnathan Carver. Carver is also the county in Minnesota where their spirits are crafted. The distillery was founded in 2012 by Bill Miller. His brother Matt Miller was a distiller for Catskill Distilling Company in New York. Read more 
Review: Down East Vodka
Down East Vodka is made from a unique strain of organic wheat grown on a fifth generation family farm in Paxton Illinois. The three Glazik Brothers, Dallas, Clayton, and Will have partnered with Stumpy Spirits Distillery in Columbia Illinois to craft their spirit. The brothers haul 2.5 tons of their own grown wheat to Stumpy’s and they process the grain into vodka. The process takes 3 weeks and when complete the brothers drive down and bottle the vodka and return with it to Paxton Illinois. The Down East name comes from the wheat fields being located east of their farmstead. Clay Glazik designed the bottle with a Silver Tree Logo, a tribute to their Irish heritage. Read more
Review: Skaalvenn Vodka
Skaalvenn Vodka is one of four spirits hand crafted at the Skaalvenn Distillery in Brooklyn Park Minnesota. The others include Skaalvenn Rum, Habanero Rum, and Aquavit. They also bottle a bourbon but that is distilled in Indiana. Tyson and Mary Schnitker started distilling in 2015 and have grown the business significantly since opening. They now also operate a Japanese Cocktail Bar serving craft cocktails made from their craft spirits. The Skaalvenn name is actually a Norweigen greeting which translates to “Cheers friends” in English. Skaalvenn Vodka is made from locally grown wheat. When they started crafting their spirits they knew they wanted to make their vodka from wheat but they had trouble finding a source so they placed an add in Craigslist. Fourth Generation farmer Scott Lee responded and after touring his family owned Lee’s Seed Farm in Benson Minnesota they knew they had found their local source for wheat. After harvesting, the wheat is milled and delivered to the distillery where they mash and ferment the wheat and yeast for three days. The spirit is distilled in two different stills including a custom copper still. The vodka is carbon filtered before hand bottling. Read more
Review: Tattersall Vodka
Tattersall Vodka is crafted from certified organic corn harvested at their Head Distillers family farm on the rolling plains of Southeastern Minnesota. After harvesting the corn grown at Four Sisters Farm in Rochester Minnesota, the corn is milled at Anderson Farms in Cambridge Minnesota. The spirit is small batch distilled six times in their Vendome Copper and Brass Works column still and triple filtered. The spent grain is used as livestock feed. Vodka is one two dozen spirits currently distilled at the Northeastern Minneapolis distillery Dan Oskey and Jon Kreidler founded in 2014. They recently opened a second distillery in River Falls Wisconsin. Read more
Review: 1911 Premium Vodka
1911 Premium Vodka is a true tree to bottle vodka. Founded in 1911 by Andrew Beak and George Skiff, Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards is located in Lafayette New York. In 2001 they introduced their first alcohol product, a hard cider. In 2010 they released 1911 Vodka and 1911 Gin both distilled from their own farm grown apples. They currently produce brandy, whiskey, canned cocktails and several flavored vodkas including Vanilla Chai, Cold Brew Coffee, Rose, Tropical, Blueberry, and Honeycrisp. Their orchard surrounds the 1911 distillery and boosts over 350,000 apple trees. The hand picked apples are pressed and fermented into a hard cider. The cider is small batch triple distilled on a 19 plate copper column still. Read more
Review: South Fork Vodka
South Fork Vodka was launched September 2018 by Co-Founders Johnathan Dorfman and Dan Kennerson in Grass Valley California. The two worked previously together as ethanol researchers for the US Department of Defense. South Fork is named after one of Northern California’s iconic bodies of water, The South Fork of the Yuba River. South Fork is distilled six times from GMO-Free American Corn and Nevada Mountain Spring water. The spirit is further refined through a small batch finishing method. South Fork has been been awarded Best Craft Vodka Distillery by USA Today in 2021. They also were included on Wine Enthusiasts list of Ten Best Vodka’s of 2020. Read more
Review: LIV Vodka
LIV Vodka is crafted in Baiting Hollow New York in a beautifully restored twin cupola barn by Founder and Master Distiller Rich Stabile. Prior to WWII Long Island had over 200,000 acres of potatoes. Today the distillery is surrounded by 5000 acres of potato farms. Long Island Spirits was founded January 5, 2007 and was the first craft distillery on Long Island since the 1800’s. They were the 100th distillery in the US when they were founded. There are now over 2000, with 145 in New York state alone. LIV Vodka was their first spirit. It is made from 100% locally grown Long Island potatoes. It takes 20 pounds of potatoes to make one bottle of LIV Vodka. The distillery practices sustainable production methods including composting it’s by-products, and smart hydro thermal reclamation. LIV Vodka is small batch triple distilled on 650 liter custom made copper pot stills equipped with 30 foot tall rectification distillation columns. The vodka is non chill filtered. Read more
Review: Texas Vodka
Texas Vodka is one of several vodka brands sold exclusively at Trader Joes stores. It is made in Texas from 100% corn, distilled 6 times, and comes with a plastic twist cap, leaving little doubt who they want to be compared with. When the vodka first appeared at Trader Joes it was labeled TX Vodka. The brand is owned by Dynasty Spirits. Dynasty Spirits was founded in 2010 by Devin Dell. Dynasty produces Painted Donkey Tequila, and several brands of vodka including Tower, Column 5, Green House, Stil, and Townes. Dynasty also created the Nue Vodka product line until they sold it to Southwestern Spirits. Read more
Review: Nightside Vodka
October 4 is National Vodka day so we thought it was reason enough to review Nightside Vodka. Nightside is distilled from Washington apples and cane sugar in Edgewood Washington, about 25 miles south of Seattle at the Nightside Distillery. Edgewood Washington was selected because their pure untreated water comes straight from the aquifer. With only 496 square feet of space, this is America’s smallest distillery, but that doesn’t stop them from distilling several flavored vodka’s, gin, bourbon, rye, aquavit, and a barrel aged vodka. Founder Tom Greene spent years working the graveyard shift as a longshoremen on the docks of Seattle Washington. This shift was referred to as the nightside, and it was the inspiration for the brands name. Tom feels nightside workers are a different breed. They get things done with pride, fun, and camaraderie. Tom founded the distillery in 2013 and it grew faster than anticipated so he took on seven owner operators to share responsibilities. The majority of the owner operators of the distillery have a service or military background including Police, Military, Fire, EMS, and 911. Read more
Review: Skyy Vodka 2021
Skyy Vodka was launched 1992. In 2021 they updated their bottle and recipe. When Skyy was released in 1992 the American distilled vodka competition was Smirnoff and a handful of discount brands. Brand creator Maurice Kanbar developed a new distillation process that removed most of the congeners. Congeners are the natural by-product of alcohol production blamed for bitter taste and hangovers. The vodka was quadruple distilled and triple filtered through California limestone. Water filtered through reverse osmosis was blended to reduce to proof. Skyy enlisted the help of chemists, professional bartenders and a water sommelier when the decision was made to update the brand. It appears Skyy Vodka 2021 is made from the same wheat base, is quadruple distilled and triple filtered through reverse osmosis. Instead of using water filtered through reverse osmosis, water enriched by Pacific minerals sourced from the San Francisco Bay area is used to reduce to proof. Read more