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Try Sugar Beet Craft Vodka at the Fort Greene Greenmarket This Weekend

By Janet Upadhye | March 27, 2015 1:59pm
 Orange County Distillery is joining the Fort Greene Greenmarket this year and offering boozy samples.
Orange County Distillery is joining the Fort Greene Greenmarket this year and offering boozy samples.
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Flickr/ jalbertgagnier

FORT GREENE — There's always fresh produce and creamy cheeses at the Fort Greene Greenmarket — but this year vodka and bourbon are joining the lineup.

For the first time Orange County Distillery is set to bring craft spirits to the Greenmarket from Upstate New York.

Fort Greene is the first market in Brooklyn to host the boozy vendors — though they currently grace the Union Square Greenmarket.

The distillery, that prides itself in "pulling a sugar beet out of the ground and turning it into vodka in a week" will offer samples of its products that range from corn whiskey and bourbon to gin distilled from locally grown grains.

The samples will be three quarter ounces in size and limited to three per person under New York law, Bryan Ensal, who co-founded Orange County Distillery with his friend John Glebocki, said.

The distillery fits right in with the farm-fresh theme of the market — all the grains, corn, beets and barley are grown on the farm next to the 1600-square-foot barn where the liquor is produced.

"Every single ingredient is grown right here," Ensal said. "The taste is rare and our sugar beet vodka is one of only three in the country.

Greenmarket organizer Laura McDonald called the distillery "about as small batch as you can get," and added that it has been "hugely popular in Union Square."

Orange County Distillery will be at the Greenmarket, located outside of Fort Greene Park on the corner of Washington Park and DeKalb Avenue, starting this weekend — March 28 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays for the rest of the season.