3BR Distillery in New Jersey Is Giving Peas A Chance

Brothers Aleksandr and Maksim Zhdanov inherited two things from their grandfather: a recipe for vodka and resourcefulness.

Vodka Made From Peas

“My grandfather used peas in the Soviet Union to make alcohol because they were one of only a few things readily available year round,” said Aleks via email. “They grow easily and have a long shelf life along with being nutritional. The government couldn’t not have them available.” Aleks’s grandfather lived in the Soviet Union at a time when a pseudo-prohibition was in place. But peas were a food staple, so the resourceful man found a way to make vodka from it.

After securing the recipe for pea vodka from their grandmother, Aleks and Maks set to work, founding 3BR Distillery in Keyport, New Jersey in 2018 and releasing their first spirit in 2021.

3BR’s vodka, made entirely from peas, is named Mendel—after Gregor Mendel who conducted his research into heredity on pea plants. Mendel is now 3BR’s flagship product. Mendel is bottled at 40% ABV and is a clear, colorless spirit, but that is where the similarity to other vodka ends. Mendel boasts a unique flavor slightly reminiscent of tequila. But while some reject the notion of vodka with flavor, preferring a clean and neutral spirit, Mendel won Vodka of the Year at the New Orleans Spirits Competition announced at Tales of the Cocktail in 2022, proof that spirits experts appreciate the unique flavor.

“The liquid speaks for itself,” said Aleks in a telephone interview. “The competition was a blind test and we were the only vodka to be awarded gold.” So flavorful is Mendel that 3BR often uses it as a substitute for gin in cocktails made in the distillery tasting room.

3BR also uses peas to make an aged spirit called Gorovka, a mash-up of “gorokh,” the Russian word for peas, and “vodka.” But unlike vodka, which is made in a column still, Gorovka is made in a pot still. Gorovka is distilled only to about 60% ABV (vodka is distilled as high as 95% ABV) and then aged in a 133-gallon oak puncheon, solera style (vodka is typically an unaged spirit). Each bottling of Gorovka, cut to 55% ABV, only partially empties the puncheon after which the barrel is topped up with fresh spirit. Theoretically, a portion of every distillation of Gorovka remains in the barrel, so each new bottling contains older and older spirit.

Both Mendel and Gorovka are made from yellow golden peas—which are the same species of peas found at the groceries store, but which have been allowed to mature longer to get sweeter. To make their spirit, 3BR uses the peas in both malted and unmalted form. The starches in peas have a structure that makes them difficult to ferment—peas are sometimes referred to as a “stubborn starch”—so using the peas in both malted and unmalted form, together with some exogenous enzymes, helps to extract the sugars within the peas to make them available to the yeast for fermentation before the liquid is then distilled.

It’s Environmentally Friendly

3BR is the only certified carbon-neutral distillery in New Jersey. The certification of carbon-neutrality is of the distillery itself, not its individual products. But Aleks says the distillery achieves its certification because Mendel and Gorovka are based on peas, which are carbon-negative, offsetting the carbon production of other spirits—3BR also makes gin, whiskey, sochu and other spirits and liqueurs.

Not only does growing peas fix nitrogen into the soil in which they are grown, but they often do so as a cover crop—a crop grown between other cash crops for the purpose of minimizing erosion—so their economics are very helpful to farmers, which are often only marginally profitable, if at all. Any extra money can help tip farm income from red to black.

It Helps The Local Economy

While 3BR originally sourced its malting peas from Nebraska, for malting at New Jersey’s Rabbit Hill Farms, it is now working with a local New Jersey farmer who needed a replacement crop after the export market for the farmer’s soy all but dried up.

“He just finished harvesting,” Aleks said of the first crop of New Jersey peas. And while the yield was lower than expected, this was the first year for the farmer growing this crop. Aleks is hopeful future years will be more fruitful—and profitable—for the farmer. And the peas continue to be malted at Rabbit Hill Farms, making this portion of the pea supply entirely within New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the source of the unmalted peas is France, where they are pre-gelatinized to make the starches available for fermentation, but 3BR hopes to also bring that pre-gelatinization process to New Jersey—the company that supplies the product is already based in the Garden State. Supporting the local economy, which has the added benefit of being more environmentally-friendly, is part of 3BR’s ethos.

It Is Forward-Thinking

One of the Zhdanov brothers’ business partners is a PhD plant geneticist and breeder. Of course, early research into genetics by Gregor Mendel was conducted on peas, so it seems appropriate that Robert Mattera III, co-founder of 3BR and head of its bar program, has access to a USDA database of 500 accessions of peas which he is using in the hopes of creating hybrid varieties better suited to the New Jersey environment—soil and weather—and with higher starch content and higher enzymatic power to make the crop more profitable for local farmers and to make vodka and spirit production easier.

But plant breeding is a long game. Mattera expects it will take over a decade to breed his ideal pea.

To their knowledge, 3BR is the only distillery in America making spirit solely from peas. The Zhdanov brothers did it to honor their grandfather. But with their environmental approach to spirits making, 3BR is now a monument not only to their past, but also a nod to the future.

3BR’s spirits can be found in New Jersey and New York. Mendel retails for about $30 and Gorovka retails for about $45.