How Vodka is Made
Vodka is a spirit that can be distilled from anything at all, including fruit, grain, sugar, and, yes, potatoes. Santa Fe Spirits prefers the delicate smoothness of vodka distilled from maize.
The first step to making a super-clean ultra-premium vodka like Expedition is no different than making any other spirit: fermentation. Yeast ferments sugars from the maize into alcohol essentially creating a maize beer. Next, the beer is stripped of its alcohol in a continuous column still designed to produce a relatively pure spirit of 95% ABV known as neutral spirit.
In order to achieve the purity of Expedition Vodka, Santa Fe Spirits takes this neutral spirit and dilutes it to a low ABV using Sangre de Cristo Mountain water that has passed through an RO system. Ions in the water, as well as the water itself, trap impurities from the neutral spirit and prevent them from carrying over into the final vodka. This process, known as hydroselection is critical to distilling a vodka as pure and clean as Expedition.
Come Visit Us!
Distillery Tours by Reservation Only
- Thursday - Saturday, 3pm and 5pm
- At our Distillery & Tasting Room
- Tastings and Cocktails at Our Downtown Tasting Room
- No reservation required
- Tuesday - Friday 3-10
- Saturday 2-10
- Sunday 12-6
- At our Downtown Tasting Room