Best craft vodka distillery? Readers choose Prairie Organic Spirits

Everything from Prairie Organic Spirits starts with ingredients from Minnesota farms free from herbicides to help protect native wildlife. Organic corn is distilled in a copper still as many times as needed to produce the desired flavor profile. The leftover grains are then returned to local farms to be used as animal feed.
Photo courtesy of Prairie Organic Spirits

Red Arrow Vodka from Michigan's Journeyman Distillery is named for a local road in the community of Three Oaks. The spirit, triple-distilled from 100-percent organic wheat, exhibits a clean, smooth and crisp flavor, making it an excellent choice for cocktails or to drink straight.
Photo courtesy of Journeyman Distillery

This Boise-based distillery takes Idaho’s most famous agricultural product–potatoes–along with Brundage winter wheat and Rocky Mountain spring water to produce a line of smooth and distinctive vodkas. Flavored vodkas are infused with natural Idaho huckleberries, Rainier cherries and Sunnyslope nectarines.
Photo courtesy of 44° North Vodka / Facebook

Eli's Strongarm Vodka, made at Tom's Town Distilling Co. in Kansas City, is named after Eli Matheus, a rough-and-tough Prohibition-era riverboat captain. In contrast, his namesake vodka is smooth and pure, thanks to a 16-distillation process.
Photo courtesy of Tom's Town Distilling Co.

Utah-grown rye and wheat grains form the foundation for Dented Brick Distillery's Roofraiser Vodka. This European-style vodka has a spicy kick from the rye not often found in American vodkas more typically made from corn. It gets its name from an incident when the Salt Lake City distillery had to alter the height of their roof to accommodate the stills.
Photo courtesy of Dented Brick Distillery / Facebook

The flagship spirit from Durham’s Graybeard Distillery is their long grain rice-distilled vodka. A unique sweet floral nose gives way to notes of vanilla in this super sip-able spirit.
Photo courtesy of Bedlam Vodka / Facebook

Smugglers’ Notch Vodka is made from Idaho-grown grains and water from the Mount Mansfield watershed of Northern Vermont. The grain wash gets distilled in a four-column still and passed through a multi-stage filtration process for a smooth vodka with just a hint of sweetness. Smugglers’ Notch Distillery also makes an organic gluten-free vodka made from corn.
Photo courtesy of Smugglers' Notch Distillery / Facebook

Hangar 1's flagship Straight Vodka is distilled from a combination of Midwestern-grown grains and wine grapes, giving the finished product a fresh and floral nose, hints of honeysuckle and asian pear and a subtle floral finish. Flavored vodkas include Buddha's hand citron, mandarin blossom, Makrut lime, pink peppercorn, honeycomb and chipotle. 
Photo courtesy of Hangar 1

The corn-based vodka from Cascade Alchemy in Bend, Oregon is distilled 20 times to achieve its smooth flavor profile, perfect for mixing. Fans of flavored vodkas will love Cascade Alchemy’s Chai Tea Vodka (with the spices still in the bottle) and Hot Pepper Vodka infused with jalapeño, serrano and garlic.
Photo courtesy of Cascade Alchemy

The hand-crafted vodka from Old Fourth Distillery in Atlanta begins with regionally grown turbinado sugar, distilled three times in a CARL still to produce a gluten-free spirit with a neutral flavor profile and a hint of sweetness. The only byproduct of the entire process is distilled water.
Photo courtesy of Old 4th Distillery