Brooklyn Bounty is all about promoting chefs, food purveyors and our amazing local distilleries who are creating one-of-kind products in this diverse borough. This year, Industry City Distillery will be serving up historic cocktails with the help of mixologist David Wondrich.
ICD is a vodka distillery in Sunset Park where they are crafting “Brooklyn’s first sipping vodka.” The idea was created by Dave Kyrejko, engineer and distiller, and soon enough, a team of four guys joined him to build a distillery that uses precise science to create a vodka so tasty, you can drink it straight-up.
BHS visited for a tour of the distillery with Peter and Zac taking us through each step of distillation, starting with fermentation, where beet sugar is introduced to immobilized yeast bio-reactors and is converted into alcohol. Then comes distillation where they take a sample every 14 minutes, giving them 30 samples from each still run. “Some cuts taste like seashore or boots,” says Zac. “Which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just a set of all different flavors.”
The team then tastes each to figure out which cuts they want to combine for the finished product. Customers greatly appreciate this level of care– Industry City can’t keep up with demand — every batch sells out right away! ICD explains this is why they are ramping up production from about 800 each to 4,000—and they hope to achieve this by January 2013.
What is truly impressive about ICD is how each of the five founders brings an essential and unique skill to the operation, whether it’s Peter who’s in charge of Sales and Marketing, Zac who is a machinist and fabricator, or Rich who works with the labeling robot.
Beyond science and mechanics, Industry City also understands the importance of unique branding and creates all of their labels in house via their “printshop.” They’ve chosen a simple bottle and label for their No. 2 vodka that has a “ sort of a pharmaceutical, apothecary look.” We just love this look and the vodka inside speaks for itself.
“We want to be the bartender’s choice for Brooklyn… and for New York,” says Peter.
And they are well on their way.
– by Leslie Gordon and Jennifer Garvey
Brooklyn Bounty Interns
Brooklyn Bounty 
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