Sugar Producer

18 SUGAR PRODUCER | APRIL 2023 Sugar has been used in alcohol production ever since. Europe has a long history of making vodka from beet sugar and rum has been made with both sugarcane juice and molasses for hundreds of years. However, vodka made from sugarcane juice, and spirits made from beet sugar are relatively new to the United States. A handful of distilleries throughout the United States are now making these products, and say these innovative new beverages are here to stay. "Sugarbeet vodka is a best kept se- cret," said Weldon Spangler of Minneap- olis, MN. Spangler, along with his wife Amy and son Wayne, own and operate BĒT vodka (pronounced "beet") and use beet sugar produced in the Red River Valley region of Minnesota and North Dakota. Wayne Spangler originally moved to Minnesota from Washington state in 2011 to attend law school at the Uni- versity of St. omas in Minneapolis and ended up becoming a permanent resident of Minnesota. "We then moved to the Twin Cities four years ago. Wayne is our only child and we all always wanted to have a small business together," said Amy. "BĒT Vodka was created in 2016 and was the first Midwest vodka brand made entirely from sugarbeets. e founders were selling the company, and we purchased it in No- vember 2022. My father was born in Polk County, MN, and his parents were Swed- ish immigrants who lived and worked on a sugarbeet farm. It felt like coming full circle and returning home to our roots." e family fell in love with the dis- Alcohol has played an important social and economic role in people's lives since 6,000 BC, according to evidence of wine production discovered in the Caucasus region. tinctive flavor of BĒT vodka, according to Weldon. "I had previously worked for Star- bucks and spent a lot of time in the coffee business. Vodkas differ in taste, just like coffee," he said. "Sugarbeet vodka is smooth and has a 'mouth feel.' e flavor is a bit peppery with a hint of vanilla as it fades away." Amy is a retired teacher, Weldon is a businessperson, and Wayne is a lawyer. "We have no distilling experience, although we are learning every day," said Amy. "We own the recipe and product, and our distilling is done by Paul Werni at 45th Parallel Distillery in New Rich- mond, WI. Paul and his team distill our vodka a few times a year." Sugarbeet vodka is very new in the U.S., according to Werni. "e craze of vodka began in the early 2000s and started with importers in Minnesota," he said. "Because alcohol is made by fermenting sugar, sugarcane and sugarbeet crops are the easy ingre- dients to convert into alcohol." Werni was a stay-at-home dad from Minnesota who wanted to do something creative on a manufacturing level. "I got my federal permit in 2007. ere were only about 50 distilleries in the country that could make vodka at that time, and not all of them were. ere was nothing in the Midwest. When I started, I couldn't even get literature on distilling and existing big distillers didn't want to share their knowledge. I learned by asking a lot of questions and getting information from chemistry professors," he said. "Today there are 3,000 American distilleries, many of which make vodka. Most of the new distilleries made vodka because it was a hot category and did not require aging so you could sell it right away to make money. ere are also training programs for distillers now. My head distiller trained in Scotland." Making sugarbeet vodka takes close to a month, according to Werni. "ere are two weeks of fermentation and then three days of distillation, filtra- tion and blending. Making vodka with beet sugar is like making a really pure rum. ere are not a lot of nutrients in the fermentations, which are long and slow," he said. "Making whiskey is about retaining impurities, but making vodka is about removing them. BET vodka is tripled distilled, which means impurities are removed in stages. It takes a couple of distillations to get to the desired puri- ty level and get a good yield." In Denver, CO, Tim Kelly and his busi- ness partner Kim Veiga are making vodka out of organic sugarcane juice. eir com- pany is called Felene Vodka (pronounced "felony") and they describe their product as being "criminally smooth." "Vodka is the most widely consumed spirit worldwide, as well as in the U.S., so it's been very popular for decades. at said, it has had a reputation for being all punishment and no reward from a taste profile. Until 2021, vodka was legally classified as 'tasteless, odorless and without character,' by the U.S. gov- ernment," Kelly said. "Sugarcane-based vodka is much smoother than people anticipate. It's quite fun watching their reactions when they try it. In many cases, people can be seen actually bracing for the unpleasant experience before tasting the vodka. It is a lot of fun to see them relieved aer tasting Felene, and we con- vert almost 70 percent of the people who sample our product into buyers." Kelly is working to show consumers firsthand that not all vodkas are created equal. "Traditionally, a lot of people think all vodka is the same and so a lot of peo- A Look At Sugarbeet, Sugarcane's Increasingly Popular Roles In American Spirits Raise a glass to toast sugar FROM THE SUGAR ASSOCIATION By Courtney Gaine, R.D., Ph.D., President & CEO

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