Review: Bellewood Farms Honeycrisp Vodka
Bellewood Farms Honeycrisp Vodka is crafted at Bellewood Distilling the first farm to bottle distillery in the state of Washington. Bellewood Farms is the largest apple grower in Western Washington with over 62 acres and 25,000 trees. They harvest 1.7 million pounds of 100% chemical free apples each year. While the farm currently grows 22 varieties of apples, Bellewood Farms Honeycrisp Vodka is made from 100% Honeycrisp apples. Over 30 pounds of apples are needed to craft 1 bottle of Bellewood Farms Honeycrisp Vodka. The apples are pressed into a cider and fermented with a proprietary yeast. The leftover mash from the distillery is put back into the orchard as fertilizer. The spirit is triple distilled in a 24 foot tall 250 gallon column Vendome still custom built in Kentucky and bottled at 93 proof. Read more 
Review: Core Vodka
Core vodka is small batch crafted from apples grown, pressed, fermented, distilled, and bottled on the family farm. Golden Harvest Farms was established on a 45 acre plot by Dan and Madeline Zinke in 1957. Four generations later the family farm has expanded to 250 acres where they produce over a dozen apple varieties. Harvest Spirits Distillery was New York states 1st farm distillery. In 2007 they acquired a 400 liter custom Christian Carl still from Germany. The following year Core vodka was released. They currently craft gin, whiskey, brandy, applejack, and Blackberry Vodka. A single 750ml bottle of Core is crafted from over 60 pounds of apples. The pure apple cider is distilled three times. Core is crafted with no charcoal filtration, no sugar, and no additives. Read more
Review: Upstate Vodka
Upstate Vodka was just released. This is not the same 90 proof version of Upstate Vodka previously released. Upstate is farm to bottle craft distilled at Sauvage Distillery in Charlotteville New York, from 100% New York State grown apples, by Head Distiller Ken Wortz. 70-80 apples are needed to produce 1 bottle of Upstate Vodka. Once the juice is extracted from the apples it is fermented with Kosher Champagne yeast and twice distilled in 16 and 18 plate two-column stills. Only one state produces more apples than the state of New York, and with over 700 orchards in New York it should come as no surprise Upstate Vodka is made from apples instead of grain. Upstate Vodka is currently available at select New York and Connecticut liquor stores and it is available to purchase online and ship to 30 states from Sauvage. Each bottle is numbered and dated. My bottle is from batch 1, bottle number 7768. 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: Indigenous Fresh Pressed Apple Vodka
Indigenous Fresh Pressed Apple Vodka is made from 100% Hudson Valley apples grown on orchards less than five miles away from the distillery. About 80 apples are needed to produce 1, 750ml bottle of vodka. The apples are juiced into fresh apple cider, fermented, and triple distilled in a hybrid pot column still with 22 plates. The vodka is hand bottled, unfiltered. Initially called Heart of the Hudson Vodka when it was first released in 2005, it was the first vodka distilled from apples in the US and possibly the worlds first. The distillery was built by owners Ralph Erenzo and Brian Lee in 2003 in one of the granaries of the Tuthilltown Gristmill which was built by Selah Tuthill in 1788 and operated for over 200 years. The Tuthilltown Distillery also produces Hudson Whiskey, the first legal whiskey in the state of New York since Prohibition. They also craft Indigenous Empire State Wheat Vodka and more recently Indigenous Corn Vodka. Read more
Review: Azeo From Apples Vodka
Azeo From Apples Vodka is crafted at Azeo Distillery in Paso Robles California. Winemakers David Vondrasek and Ryan Horn began making vodka from fruit in 2015. Their first vodka was made from wine grapes sourced from California vineyards. Their second vodka was made from apples. The distillery currently also produces rum, brandy, moonshine, and spirit of agave. Eighteen pounds of apples are needed to produce one bottle of Azeo From Apples Vodka. Granny Smith, Pink Lady, and Cripps Pink apples are pressed and fermented onsite creating a hard cider. The spirit is distilled in a steam jacketed 500 liter pot still with a 16 chamber column. Read more
Review: Bellewood Farms Vodka
Bellewood Farms Vodka is a true farm to glass spirit made from a blend of apple varieties grown on the farm the spirit is distilled and bottled on. Bellewood Farms is a 31 acre farm owned by The Abel Family. They currently grow 24 apple varieties including Ambrosia, Belle de Boskoop, Bellewood Prince, Brown Snout, Everycrisp, Fuji, Gala, Golden Supreme, Gravenstein, Honeycrisp, Idared, Jonagold, Jonamac, Kingston Black, Mountain Rose, McIntosh, Orin, Sansa, School House Red, Sonata, Sunrise, Tsugaru, Yarlington Mill, and Zestar apples. Who knew there were that many apple varieties. In addition to farming the apples, they produce a line of spirits that includes their original Bellewood Farms Vodka , Honeycrisp Apple Vodka, Raspberry Vodka, Gin, Brandy, and a new Coffee Liqueur. Bellewood Farms Vodka is crafted with a variety of fresh picked apples from their farm. The apples are pressed into a cider and fermented with a proprietary yeast. The spirit is distilled in a 24 foot tall 250 gallon column Vendome still custom build in Kentucky, before hand bottling at 93 proof. Read more
Review: Voltage Vodka
Voltage Vodka is crafted by March First Brewing and Distilling in Cincinnati Ohio. The name comes from the date the brewery and the state of Ohio were both founded. March First currently produces Beer, Hard Cider, Hard Seltzer, and a line of spirits that includes Sycamore Whiskey, Cooper Island Rum, and Voltage Vodka. Voltage Vodka was launched December 2017. It is distilled from wheat and a small amount of Ohio grown apples. The 100% apple juice used is a blend of apples including Johnathan and Winesap. Read more
Review: Rocket Vodka
Rocket Vodka was introduced in the fall of 2016 with the Limited Launch Edition of 1000 bottles. Founder Darius Paczuski soon followed that up with a second Launch II release of 2000 bottles. I am reviewing a bottle of their IV release. Rocket Vodka is handcrafted at Dry Diggings Distillery in El Dorado Hills California. Darius Paczuski was born in Poland but he soon moved to Norway with his parents. Darius picked ground apples for his fathers moonshine, which smashed and fermented fresh apples and then aged the spirit in oak barrels. At 20 Darius came to the US on a Cal State Long Beach University swimming scholarship. Darius first came up with the idea to craft a vodka while skiing in Lake Tahoe. Darius was a skilled and fast skier earning him the nickname The Polish Rocket, hence, the Rocket Vodka name. Rocket Vodka is made from a combination of fresh apple juice and apple concentrate from Fuji, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith apples which are sourced from Barsotti Farms in Apple Hill California. Yeast and pure Sierra Nevada Mountain water are the only other ingredients. Rocket is distilled twice in two different pot/column stills and is double carbon filtered. Read more