Review: True North Rye Vodka
True North Rye Vodka is mashed, distilled, and bottled at Grand Traverse Distillery in Traverse City Michigan. GTD also crafts a vodka made from wheat and 3 flavored vodka’s made from that wheat vodka base. Ken Rabish grew up on a small family farm in Pinconning Michigan. He opened Grand Traverse Distillery in 2005. His son Landis is the Master Distiller. Besides vodka they produce 2 gins, 9 whiskey’s, and 2 rums. All are made with local ingredients. True North Rye is a 100% straight Polish style rye vodka. It is made from rye grown on the Send Brothers farm in nearby Williamsburg Michigan. The milled rye is fermented for 3-5 days and small batch distilled on a 1200 liter copper reflux still custom made in Germany by Arnold Holstein. The 16 plate still evaporates and condenses 1600 times. The spirit is gently filtered and brought to proof with glacial water from the Great Lakes, and bottled onsite. Read more 
Review: Detroit Steam Vodka
Detroit Steam Vodka is distilled and bottled by Rusted Crow Spirits in Dearborn Michigan. The distillery was established in 2013 by Joe Schebel who partnered with his father of the same name. Joe grew up in Dearborn Michigan and he graduated from College For Creative Studies in Detroit. His love of Industrial Steam Punk Style is on display in each bottles design. The Detroit Steam Vodka bottle not only features the old Cadillac Building but also a column still, and the Rusted Crow custom fabricated 1930 Ford Rat Rod Joe built with a 350 Chevy Motor. He used 7000 rivets to puzzle piece copper together with used bourbon barrels on the side. The Rusted Crow spirit lineup also includes Ginger Devil Sinnamon Whiskey, Ginstache Gin, Grey Stache Earl Grey Tea Flavored Gin, Davy Jones Rum, Straight Rust Belt Bourbon, and Murder Mitten Moonshine. Detroit Steam Vodka is made from 100% Michigan grown corn and is distilled 12 times and filtered through activated coconut charcoal. The spirit is blended to proof with artesian alkaline Michigan Spring water. Read more
Review: Our/Detroit Vodka
Our/Detroit Vodka was the second member of the Our/Vodka family. Our/Vodka was started by six entrepreneurs in Stockholm Sweden in 2011. Our/Vodka is a global family built by local partners in cities around the world. Our/Detroit is a collaboration between Pernod Richard and local partners Kate Bordine and Catherine Kelly. Currently there are seven city members including Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, London, Los Angeles, and Miami. More are in the development stage. Each location starts with a raw wheat distillate sourced from Ahus Sweden. Each distillery then adds their own local ingredients. Our/Detroit is made in Hubbard-Richard, a neighborhood in Southwest Detroit in a building that once housed Bagley Billiard Center, and later a liquor store. After several years of neglect the building was rehabbed to give life to this micro distillery. Our/Detroit Vodka adds a corn based ethanol sourced from Hiram Walker just across the Detroit River in Canada. This is re-distilled with the raw wheat distillate and then blended with Detroit city water before hand bottling onsite in a 375 ml squat beer bottle shaped container, topped with a metal crown cap. Read more
Review: Two James 28 Island Vodka
Two James 28 Island Vodka is crafted at the first licensed distillery in Detroit since prohibition. The Two James Distillery was founded in 2012 by David Landrum and Peter Bailey in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. The distillery is built in what was originally a turn of the century donut manufacturing plant. Two James is named for the founder’s fathers, James Bailey and James Landrum. The vodka is named for the 28 islands on the Detroit River. These islands were used as hideouts for bootleggers during prohibition. 28 Island Vodka is made from a blend of 70 percent corn and 30 percent soft winter wheat. Two James is small batch distilled in a 500 gallon copper pot still. Read more
Review: Valentine Vodka
Valentine Vodka was launched March 2009. It is crafted by founder and distiller Rifino Valentine who after graduating from Cornell, spent 11 years on Wall Street as an independent trader. He than returned home to Michigan to open the first micro distillery in Detroit since prohibition. Valentine Vodka is crafted with a blend of 50% corn, 25% Red Michigan wheat, and 25% barley, all locally sourced. This is the same 3 grain mix Van Gogh selected to craft their original unflavored vodka, and continues to use as a base for their flavored vodka. Dragon Bleu Vodka is made with barley, wheat, and rye. Ultimat Vodka is made with potato, wheat, and rye. Valentine Vodka is small batch distilled in a 225 gallon Christian Carl still with two 35 foot columns, housing 42 trays. It is then slow filtered for 24 hours in a double false bottom 50 gallon drum through a proprietary activated carbon system made from coconut shells. A one week aeration to oxidate, esterficate and create long-chain-molecule flavor compounds follows. Water filtered through reverse osmosis is blended to reduce to proof before the vodka is hand bottled. Read more
Review: Leaf Alaskan Glacial Water Vodka
Leaf Alaskan Glacial Water vodka, is one of two vodka’s crafted at the Temperance Distillery in Temperance Michigan. Their other vodka is crafted with Rocky Mountain Mineral water. These two vodkas are both made from organic wheat that is distilled five times. The only difference between the two vodka’s is the water used. Their Alaskan vodka uses water that starts out as four glaciers that melt and wind their way down the mountain into Alaska’s Blue Lake. Read more