FAQs

Because it's six! Ok, there is more to it than that and it's not like the old joke about turning the volume to eleven. Multiple distillations produce a purer, cleaner vodka. It really is that simple. What makes it hard is that every time we distill our vodka again we must be careful not to contaminate the vodka or accidentally add unintended flavor components through poor distilling techniques or inattention. It is also very expensive to do. There is the cost of the energy to re-distill the vodka six times and we still remove heads and tails after each batch resulting in a total smaller output.

We often refer our copper pot still for brevity's sake, but we actually use a copper pot still along with a copper reflux column. Larger manufactures usually utilize the column distillation method and their column still is often made with stainless steel. Column distillation is more efficient and less expensive, but we think it produces an inferior vodka. Additionally the copper in copper stills work to remove impurities such as sulfites.

Yes, it is. Each batch is made to taste. Heads and tails are cut by taste. While we use specially designed food grade, explosion proof pumps ( remember we are pumping alcohol!) to move our product from collection tanks to blending and storage tanks to the bottling machine, all bottling, labeling, and wax sealing is processed by hand. You won't find any high speed bottling lines at our distillery. Our distiller personally bottles each and every bottle, carefully inspecting each one. We bring in a team to label and wax seal each bottle. It's an inside joke at the distillery that the bottleneck of our operation literally is the bottleneck. Hand sealing those bottlenecks takes up a lot of time.

Well, of course it does. We use specially selected corn for our vodka. Does it make it a superior vodka? We think it does, but opinions vary. Try Indiana Vodka side by side with a wheat or potato vodka. You will be impressed.

We believe the corn used in Indiana Vodka contributes to a sweeter, cleaner finish. Think about what wheat bread or mashed potatoes taste like compared to corn on the cob. Bread and wheat are pretty bland compared to corn on the cob. We believe there is a similar difference in vodka.

One distillation takes about eight to nine hours. Of course, we do six of those. It takes about 30 minutes to bring the still up to temperature. Once the distillation process starts and we are producing distillate, we take taste test to do a heads cut (did we mention there were fringe benefits to this!). Our pot still produces a slow, steady stream that takes about 7 to 8 hours.

Classic Wax Sealed Editions

Carefully! Ok, sometimes it is a struggle to open our old fashioned wax seals. That's probably why all the big guys went to shrink wrapped plastic long ago. We still produce limited edition wax sealed bottles from time to time.  We think our wax sealed bottles look cool, and anything good should take a little work, right?

That said, here are our tips: 1) Don't freeze or chill Indiana Vodka before removing the wax seal. The seal gets hard and is harder to cut and remove. 2) Pull the wire wax cutter straight up and over the cap. Roll it around the prong of a fork if you can't grab it easily. 3) Gently pry the seal apart from the bottom like opening a book. 4) If it won't come apart easily, take a waiter's corkscrew knife or a paring knife and cut along the wax seam to near the top of the bottle and then try to pry the wax apart. 5) It should come apart in one piece. 6) Untwist and remove the wire. 7) Any cloudy residue you see on the bottle is oil from the food grade wax. It is not harmful and can be left in place or easily wiped off with a clean cloth. 8) Gently twist and pull off the removable and reusable synthetic cork cap. 9) Enjoy.

Easy Opening Shrink Wrapped Bottle

Ok, if you need instructions for our easy opening shrink wrapped bottle, maybe you should cut back your consumption!  That said, pull on plastic tab in back then twist off cork topper.  Easy.

We use a hand selected corn or maize specially processed for the distillery.