Exploring Vodka- Vat Izzit?

Exploring Vodka- Vat Izzit?

In my last blog entry I spoke about The Devil’s Cut- a “new” way of making booze using a barrel that had previously been used to aged whisky. The Jim Beam people poured water into these barrels and after extracting the whisky flavor, blended it with some of their bourbon to make this “new” product.

We called that swish when I was younger.

Now let’s look at vodka. While others spirits are made from something specific (Brandy from grapes, Whisky from grains, Tequila from agave), vodka is made with any product that will yield sugar once fermenting is initiated using yeast and water.

The distillation process works like this: you add yeast and water to a product (potato, fruit, beets, honey, whatever) that will break down to produce sugars. You will then have a wash , also called green beer, which will top out at about 15% alcohol. Then the yeasts will die. That’s why wines A.B.V. (alcohol by volume) will be between 12 and 15%. 

To get a higher proof, you would need to distill the wash. This process separates the alcohol from the water, concentrating the alcohol. The more times you distill it, the more flavour you leave behind and the higher the proof. At 100% alcohol (if you could even do this), you would have no flavour left. 95.75% ABV is about as high as you can get. This is what is called a Neutral Spirit.

After the distiller has added water to lower the ABV to around 80 and 100 proof, and It has been filtered through various means, it is sold as vodka. 

So: the flavour of the ingredients used in the initial fermentation is largely removed by distillation, and the rest of the flavour is removed by filtrations and being cut with water.

This results in what the marketing refers to as “clean”, “pure”, and is really “flavourless”.

The better to mix with your favourite juice or soda, without any alcohol flavour getting in the way!

Note the overwhelming appearance of water! You already know that Aqua Vitae means water of life in Latin and so does uisce beatha (uisge beatha) in Irish Gaelic. Coincidence? Metaphor? Or a nod to the process?

One of the aims when Kettle Creek Small Batch Distillery makes vodka is to retain the characteristic flavour of the ingredients. Flavour without the ethanol burn. Smooth and truly adding to the cocktail, rather than just diluting it. It will be more than just alcoholic water!