Tito's still made in Texas?

21,188 Views | 47 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by hoodlum98
Yesterday
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11:25a, 8/21/20
AG
Been drinking it since 2005 mainly because it was made in Texas, was pretty good and it was cheap. Was picking up a bottle today and a salesman at Total Win and More said I should buy another brand that is made in Texas and not New Hampshire. Said nah, I like this. But thanks.

Came home and fired up the old google machine. All I can find is some controversy over the claim that Tito's is hand made by the batch. But it's still made in Austin.

Was this guy smoking crack or what? Thanks
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WES2006AG
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11:47a, 8/21/20
AG
Don't know about where Tito's is made these days but My policy is to completely ignore any employee recommendations at Spec's or TW. They are just looking to push the own brands on you.
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CharlieBrown17
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12:01p, 8/21/20
AG
My understanding is that that Tito's buys bulk spirit and redistills it.
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Less Evil Hank Scorpio
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2:00p, 8/21/20
AG
Yeah it is neutral grain spirit from one of the big boys that they run through their pot stills to make it "handmade" as far as I know.
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austinag1997
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2:17p, 8/21/20
AG
Thats all correct. Facility is located off of SH 130 on Moore Road. They aren't pot stills... just stainless vats as best I can tell. I believe he distills multiple times.
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HTownAg98
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3:08p, 8/21/20
NM.
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ToddyHill
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In reply to Yesterday • 4:17p, 8/21/20
AG
I've been told by a reliable source that Tito's purchases 192 proof Grain Neutral Spirits and then distills it once more so they can state they distill it themselves (which the Feds allow). The one thing that I don't know is about their 'pot still' claim. Pot stills are very slow, and I've always wondered how they do that, given their business is growing at about 30% per year. Somehow, I assume they use a Column Still at some point, as that type of still can outproduce a pot still ten to one (or more) depending upon the size.

For what it's worth, I would hazard to guess that every vodka manufacturer in the United States is buying Grain Neutral Spirits and re-distilling it. It's just too convenient, inexpensive (a gallon of 192 proof GNS goes for $2.25 per gallon) and you don't have to worry about how to dispose of the grain mash (which can be a pain in the neck).
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Less Evil Hank Scorpio
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4:24p, 8/21/20
AG
Yep. I feel like anything other than super niche vodka is basically a commodity. Only difference would be the water used to get it to the proof they plan to bottle at.
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ValleyRatAg
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6:36p, 8/21/20
AG
We just completed a huge expansion of their facility which tripled their space but I wouldn't be surprised is they were outsourcing due to their growth.
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GoAgs92
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9:16p, 8/21/20
AG
Always found Tito's over rated.

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CyclingAg82
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In reply to GoAgs92 • 9:56p, 8/21/20
AG
GoAgs92 said:
Always found Tito's over rated.

I used to drink Tito's, but tried Hangar 1, I think it is smaller "boutique" producer (not sure).

Really good vodka.
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Mathguy64
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10:11p, 8/21/20
AG
NM Wrong thread.
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TikiBarrel
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8:33a, 8/22/20
AG
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AlaskanAg99
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6:08p, 8/23/20
AG
They don't make ***** They don't have mashtuns or fermenters. The buy bulk NGS and run it through their stills to claim it as "handmade". Which is legal, although deceptive. All they're really doing is proofing it down to 80.
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John Francis Donaghy
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10:46a, 8/24/20
It's vodka. The whole point is to distill it to super high proof in a column still to remove all flavor. Where it comes from, or who does the distilling doesn't matter. The end result by design is flavorless ethanol proofed down to be drinkable. Tito's does it as well as anyone.
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TXAG 05
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In reply to John Francis Donaghy • 1:03p, 8/24/20
AG
John Francis Donaghy said:
It's vodka. The whole point is to distill it to super high proof in a column still to remove all flavor. Where it comes from, or who does the distilling doesn't matter. The end result by design is flavorless ethanol proofed down to be drinkable. Tito's does it as well as anyone.


This. Once you get past the McCormicks/Taaka level, it's pretty much all the same.
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62strat
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In reply to AlaskanAg99 • 1:44p, 8/24/20
AG
AlaskanAg99 said:
They don't make ***** They don't have mashtuns or fermenters. The buy bulk NGS and run it through their stills to claim it as "handmade". Which is legal, although deceptive.
Isn't this the same concept as 75% of 'texas whiskey'?

Buy it from someone else.. bottle it up in TX and call it TX whiskey. Very deceptive.

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Ag_07
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1:45p, 8/24/20
AG
It all tastes the same in a bloody mary, mule, salty dog or whatever it is you're making with it.
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John Francis Donaghy
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In reply to 62strat • 1:55p, 8/24/20
62strat said:
AlaskanAg99 said:
They don't make ***** They don't have mashtuns or fermenters. The buy bulk NGS and run it through their stills to claim it as "handmade". Which is legal, although deceptive.
Isn't this the same concept as 75% of 'texas whiskey'?

Buy it from someone else.. bottle it up in TX and call it TX whiskey. Very deceptive.



Kind of. With whiskey most of the flavor and quality of the end product is determined by the aging and blending of the product, whitch allows for more of a sliding scale of credit for the finished product. Many bottlers buy distillate from elsewhere, but then will barrel, age, and/or blend themselved to create a unique product, which accounts for pretty much all the flavor/quality of the whiskey anyway. Others, like you said, just buy, re-label and sell.

But for vodka, there is no aging or blending. The distillate is the finished product just as it is. There just isn't any room for a bottler to add anything but a cool bottle and a custom label.
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Duncan Idaho
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4:27p, 8/24/20
If I had to launch a new business IN ANY FEILD and needed someone head up marketing, I would hire someone that successfully launched a vodka or bottled water brand.


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ToddyHill
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In reply to AlaskanAg99 • 8:37p, 8/24/20
AG
I've found that legal, but deceptive is the norm with various Federal agencies. I used to work in USDA/FSIS facilities and found that many of the regs in the CFR were deceptive to the public.

Same goes for the CFR regs as it pertains to distilling. Some of the stuff they allow is bat **** crazy. Bottom line, the TTB wants their $13.50 of tax for every gallon of 100 proof spirits.
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FbgTxAg
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9:54p, 8/24/20
AG
Until Deep Eddy started making flavored vodka, the vodka industry was simply trying to make vodkas that taste like nothing. Most still are, but there is little difference between Absolute, Skyy, Tito's, Smirnoff, or dozens of others.

Vodka is easy. Whiskey is hard.
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Yesterday
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10:05p, 8/24/20
AG
Thanks for all the comments. Actually learned quite a bit.
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AlaskanAg99
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In reply to 62strat • 8:11a, 8/25/20
AG
62strat said:
AlaskanAg99 said:
They don't make ***** They don't have mashtuns or fermenters. The buy bulk NGS and run it through their stills to claim it as "handmade". Which is legal, although deceptive.
Isn't this the same concept as 75% of 'texas whiskey'?

Buy it from someone else.. bottle it up in TX and call it TX whiskey. Very deceptive.

It is to some degree. Most new distilleries aren't going to have aged product to sell, so they buy bulk aged spirits from NGP, slap their own label on it and write "Bottled in Texas" which is legal. You have to read the fine print for "Distilled and Bottled in Texas" to get a better idea. And even then, if you run it through your still you can write "Distilled", it simply has to touch the still. Now, you don't want to do that with previously aged product because you'll strip the aged barrel favor out. But this is how Tito's gets away with their marketing without actually mashing any raw ingredients.

For the whiskey distilleries I give them a pass if you know how the game is played. It takes time and a LOT of capital to sit on product for years. And in the Houston climate using anything less than a 55g barrel, you're going to lose too much product to the angles share to really make it viable. And that's why there are a ton of TX Whiskeys made like Bourbon but without the minimal aging. Whitemeyers is a great example. Their blue label is NGP product that they bottle, their white labels are their own juice, it's expensive but fantastic.

It makes no sense for a distillery to make vodka due to laws of bringing it to 190p before watering it back down to 80p. Another local distillery that wants to make whiskey and isn't a year old yet simply states, Vodka is our best selling alcohol, but it makes no sense for us to make it since even at purchasing and watering it down, it's our highest revenue generator. Simply put, they sell NGS Vodka in order to make their own whiskey. And they have 3 mashtun/fermenters and have just started to make their own. They also sell NGP whiskey.
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62strat
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In reply to FbgTxAg • 8:18a, 8/25/20
AG
FbgTxAg said:
Until Deep Eddy started making flavored vodka, the vodka industry was simply trying to make vodkas that taste like nothing. Most still are, but there is little difference between Absolute, Skyy, Tito's, Smirnoff, or dozens of others.

This is way off lol.

FYI, deep eddy came around in 2010, about ~15 years after the flavor vodka boom. I don't know your age, but I was in college late 90s, and flavored absolute bottles were ubiquitous.. especially as decoration in dorms/apartments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolut_Vodka#Absolut_Flavors
9 flavors out before deep eddy came around.

Read Tito's history. He initially started out making flavored/infused vodkas, because that is what was starting to hit the market at the time.. this is mid 90s.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/things-you-didnt-know-about-titos-handmade-vodka
Quote:
"They said the market was too crowded, but that if I could make a smooth vodka that young women could drink straight, I'd have something. I asked how. They said they didn't know, and told me to figure it out." Spoiler alert: He did.




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Buck Compton
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9:24a, 8/25/20
AG
Yep, Deep Eddy didn't invent flavored vodkas, but they did add coloring to them (marketing genius).

Then you knew how much deep eddy was in your drink while it was also perceived to be less harsh of a drink due to the colors. It was vodka that looked like a mixed drink. This is 100% what their former CEO attributed all of the success to before they sold the company for $450M
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Furlock Bones
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10:02a, 8/25/20
AG
Glenn's Creek Distillery in Kentucky loves to rip on Tito's "handmade" vodka. We toured these guys facility. They were hilarious.

https://glennscreekdistillery.com/our-products/

Quote:

S'OTIT Special Family Reserve Vodka distilled from grains, 100 proof and as close to tasteless as we could craft it!
S'otit Vodka is a centuries old recipe, first distilled by Commodore Boraslav Aleksander S'otit of the Swiss-Romanian Navy. Commodore S'otit wanted a near tasteless alcoholic beverage for his sailors to replace more expensive rum and limit the dependence on water which tended to go bad on long voyages.
S'otit Vodka was first distilled in Romanian copper and gold stills, hand crafted by the Commodore himself. Glenns Creek Distillery was entrusted to make the pure, nearly tasteless distilled spirit because the family felt that it must be made by truly tasteless distillers. We fit that description and wear the title with pride.
*REMEMBER that being tasteless doesn't mean being classless so enjoy S'otit Vodka responsibly.


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FbgTxAg
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In reply to 62strat • 10:07a, 8/25/20
AG
Agreed. I should have said "good" flavored vodka. Absolute and others had been making garbage flavored vodka for a long time.

I accept my shame.
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ILikeTacos
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In reply to Yesterday • 10:18a, 8/25/20
AG
Yesterday said:
Been drinking it since 2005 mainly because it was made in Texas, was pretty good and it was cheap. Was picking up a bottle today and a salesman at Total Win and More said I should buy another brand that is made in Texas and not New Hampshire. Said nah, I like this. But thanks.

Came home and fired up the old google machine. All I can find is some controversy over the claim that Tito's is hand made by the batch. But it's still made in Austin.

Was this guy smoking crack or what? Thanks
He was probably trying to push Tower Vodka that they have exclusively which is "made" in Pilot Point, Tx. Honestly I like it better, but again vodka is just being used in my house to mix with fizzy water and lime to be refreshing around the pool.
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CrawfordAg
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10:46a, 8/25/20
AG
I prefer Dripping Springs vodka over Tito's any day, curious if they have went the same route as Tito's...
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62strat
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In reply to CrawfordAg • 11:20a, 8/25/20
AG
CrawfordAg said:
I prefer Dripping Springs vodka over Tito's any day, curious if they have went the same route as Tito's...
I've heard the guy who started dripping springs was an early guy in Tito's.

They had different ideas of direction of the company, and what I heard specifically was the tito's guy didn't care about where ingredients came from, the other guy wanted TX ingredients.. so he eventually split and started dripping springs.

No idea the validity, that's just what I heard from, you guessed it, a Spec's guy.
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Duncan Idaho
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2:35p, 8/25/20
I always wanted to start a vodka company that used "lab grade" anhydrous ethanol as the starting point and then proofed it with "purified" water and packaged in Lab equipment (erlenmeyer flasks, beakers, graduated cylinders, etc)

The marketing is pretty self explanatory, but the actual product would probably be way too harsh due to the lack of dissolved solids.
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AggieZUUL
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6:30p, 8/25/20
AG
My go-to has been Dripping Springs.
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Rattler12
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5:03p, 8/28/20
Dude must be making a fortune selling it though. He's bought up a ton of land here in the area west of Spring Branch...Comal County's Spring Branch that is. His last name is Beveridge.
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BurnetAggie99
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11:08p, 8/28/20



http://www.dashvodka.com/our-story/

Keep Dash vodka in the liquor cabinet. It's Texas Vodka and IMO best tasting Vodka out there.

" Beginning with nothing but a family recipe for raisin vodka and a primitive pot still that he built himself in his family's farmhouse, DASH's founder and Master Distiller, Ali Ansari spent more than a year meeting with master distillers throughout Europe and experimenting with different fermentation and distillation methods to perfect the recipe for DASH. Upon doing so, Ansari returned to Texas to pursue his dream of producing his ultra-premium vodka. He formed Limited Spirits, LLC ("Company"), and secured the federal and state permits necessary to operate a distillery; he designed DASH's bottle, label, and packaging; and he located and purchased a land in Brookshire, Texas on which he designed and built the Company's state-of-the-art distillery featuring, among other things, a custom-designed copper pot still handcrafted in Scotland, and a fully automated high-speed bottling line.

Today, Ansari oversees the entire production process of DASH from fermentation through distillation and bottling, and DASH is produced from start to finish in the Company's Brookshire distillery.

Embracing today's craft distillation movement, Ansari offers his vodka as an innovative artesian alternative to the multi-national giants that currently dominate the liquor industry for premium spirits. It appeals to culinarians who are curious about its mysterious eastern origins, to mixologists eager to add a unique new offering and to consumers who increasingly want to be able to trace the pedigree of the brands they support."
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