Ugly potatoes find new life in vodka

Every Tuesday night the Droge boys would get together for brothers’ night where they would joke about making a more lucrative product from their family crop of seed potatoes. Five years of joking about distilling vodka turned into a reality this spring. “I think every potato farmer out there has looked at a cellar full of potatoes and said, ‘We need to be making vodka out of these things,” says Dry Hills Distillery co-owner Jeff Droge. The Dry Hills Distillery received a grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture. The grant helped the company buy a potato peeler and dicer. Dry Hills Distillery currently sells their vodka and gin in 12 different liquor stores across the state. More