Prairie Organic Spirits

The Free Bacchus Story

Prairie began in 2008 as a partnership between Phillips Distilling, a family company in Minneapolis, and a farmer co-operative in Benson, Minnesota. The co-operative, which had 900 members and owned the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company, took an ownership stake in the brand itself, which was unusual.

The corn comes from certified organic farms. Two that Prairie names are on the federal organic register: Jonathan and Carolyn Olson’s farm at Cottonwood, Minnesota, with 1,101.89 certified acres, and Sather Organic Farms, registered at Gary, South Dakota. John Sather, one of the main suppliers, controls weeds with a flame weeder rather than herbicide.

Federal organic rules require land to go three years without prohibited substances before its crop can be sold as organic, which is what Prairie means when it says its farmers spend three seasons preparing their fields. They also plant a 25-foot buffer to keep chemicals from neighbouring farms off the organic corn.

The spirits are distilled in copper stills in Princeton, Minnesota. Ben Guderian, the chemistry graduate who supervises them, told a local television reporter that they distil to taste rather than a set number of times, and Prairie says a batch that isn’t up to standard goes back into the still. The organic certificate at the distillery is held by United States Distilled Products Co. and lists vodka, gin and flavoured vodkas by type rather than by brand; this page is about the core vodka and gin.