Making Sloop Betty Vodka

Most people feel nervous making a cake out of a box, so can you imagine crafting a vodka in your kitchen? That’s exactly what Chris Cook and Jon Cook did when they created Sloop Betty vodka, the first product from Blackwater Distilling™, Inc. Blackwater is the first distillery in the state of Maryland in more than 35 years.

We’ve tasted Sloop Betty and the vodka is absolutely fantastic, with a crisp taste and subtle undertone. Sloop Betty blends beautifully into mixed drinks, although a Baltimore bartender said he prefers to serve the vodka as a stand-alone because it tastes so good.

We wanted to know how Chris and Jon make Sloop Betty, so we asked them a few questions about how they distill the vodka in their distillery in Stevensville, Md.

Q. How does the process of making Sloop Betty begin?

A. During our extensive recipe development process, we searched for the finest raw ingredients and chose a proprietary combination of wheat and sugar cane to craft Sloop Betty because that blend yielded a clean, balanced spirit of the highest quality. Our process (which we discuss later) weeds out undesirable elements, such as burn from the wheat and excess sweetness from the cane.

We experimented with several different combinations of conventional grain available locally, but ultimately, we found that the premium product we wanted to create would include ingredients found at organic farms outside the Mid-Atlantic Region. Our Italian wheat and sugar cane from Belize are delivered from organic farms to create the distillate that is the basis for Sloop Betty. The final ingredient is water, as two-thirds of what goes into most vodkas is water.

Q. Where is the water from?

We source ours from Maryland’s ShoreGood Water Company. The water that is the basis for Sloop Betty has been nationally recognized for its purity and excellence in taste.

Q. How do you actually make the vodka?

At our distillery on the Eastern Shore, we craft the spirit using the secret filtering and blending process we’ve processed over the years. Taste is the most important factor we considered as we honed the recipe for the vodka.

The distillate begins at 190 proof, and we filter it down to 120 and then again to 80 using our proprietary processes. This filitration is critical to Sloop Betty’s taste that many have described as “clean” and “crisp.” This is because our specialized carbon filitration removes elements of the raw material that are less desirable.

Q. Did you ever think of making a spirit other than vodka?

Yes, we experimented for some time. We made recipes in our own pot still. Once we decided that starting with vodka was our passion, we played with the recipe many times, experimenting with rye and different ratios of wheat and sugar cane. It was amazing to us that everything affected the taste and changed the flavor of the vodka. We’re proud of the amazing reviews Sloop Betty has received and look forward to bringing a different craft spirit to market in the near future.

As the first distillery licensed by the federal government and State of Maryland in 35 years, Blackwater is proud to lead the revival of Maryland’s fine heritage of custom, handcrafted spirits. Sloop Betty is the only Mid-Atlantic vodka crafted from a unique wheat-and-cane blend, so she’s truly in a class all her own.

Sloop Betty on Fox 45 Baltimore

Joel Smith and Fox 45 Baltimore stopped by to visit Sloop Betty at Blackwater Distilling last Friday, April 1st. If you missed the live segment, you can check out Sloop Betty and Joel's April fools joke here at the Fox 45 website. 

 All photography by Stacey Viera