We hear this a lot in the tasting room. And yes, Polish, and sometimes Russian, vodkas are typically made from potatoes. But vodka can be made from any source of fermentable sugar. At Copperworks, we make all our products — including our vodka — from un-hopped beer. So our base ingredient is malted barley. But distillers use a wide variety of base ingredients to make vodka.
In Washington State, we have distilleries making vodka from many local agricultural products: malted barley, wheat, apples, corn, honey, and yes, potatoes. Malted barley is one of the most expensive based ingredients to make vodka, but we think it produces one of the tastiest and smooth vodkas possible. Our Washington Malt Vodka is surprisingly easy to sip straight, and doesn’t even need to be cold to enjoy.