Twin Cities Craft Spirits Owner Discusses Creating BET Vodka from Distilled Sugarbeets

Twin Cities Craft Spirits Owner Discusses Creating BET Vodka from Distilled Sugarbeets

By: Sam Schaust, Twin Cities Business ⋅ January 25, 2016

Minnesota is in the midst of a craft beer and spirits boom, and entrepreneurs are starting to get innovative to set themselves apart. Ben Brueshoff and Jerad Poling, founders of BET, are no exception: They’ve spent the last two years creating a vodka made from distilled sugar beets. Less than one month after launch, dozens of Twin Cities liquor stores now carry the spirit, which retails for $30 to $34. Brueshoff talked to TCB about why the company chose to produce vodka, the challenges of running an alcohol-based business and why he believes BET is ahead of the curve.

TCB: What was the idea behind distilling sugar beets into vodka rather than more conventional crops? And what pushed you to start with vodka instead of another liquor?
Brueshoff: We noticed what was occurring in the craft beer industry and we were very drawn to the social element of people coming together and sharing a drink with others. We felt, however, that the beer scene was quite saturated and a year or two too late, while, on the other hand, at the time of our early discussions (in 2013) there were literally only a select few craft distilleries in the entire state such as Prairie, Panther, I think. We drew from Jerad’s distilling experience and we decided that it would be a great opportunity for us to be on the leading edge of a post-prohibition renaissance. In other states, the craft spirits industry was beginning to take off and we knew it would only be time until it would arrive in Minnesota (for example, Portland had approximately a dozen distilleries at the time and is a similar market to the Twin Cities in terms of socio-economics and culture). We also knew that we needed to be different while maintaining a local element and story. In doing research we discovered that Minnesota is the largest producer of sugar beets in the United States. And, it just so happens that sugar beets turn out to be a very pure and ideal base crop for the creation of alcohol. Vodka is the largest spirit in terms of consumption and is very versatile, which means that we could reach more people and create more social experiences than other liquor types. Additionally, certain liquors require specific ingredients (i.e. rum must be made of sugar cane) and for us, we wanted to focus on making a spirit out of sugar beets.

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