Craft Spirits March 2021

VOL. 3, ISSUE 1 | MARCH 2021

CRAFT SPIRITS

BUSINESS SENSE

ADVISORY NETWORKS ON-PREMISE

SAVING BARS & RESTAURANTS

THE ART, SCIENCE AND BUSINESS OF DISTILLING

$2.70

FET REFORM: AN ORAL HISTORY KEY PLAYERS DETAIL THE SUCCESSFUL, DECADE-LONG FIGHT FOR PERMANENT FEDERAL EXCISE TAX RELIEF

A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN CR AF T SPIRITS ASSOCIATION

CONTENTS

MARCH 2021

46

FEATURES 30

The Journey to Permanence An Oral History of FET Relief for American Craft Spirits Makers

BY JEFF CIOLETTI AND JON PAGE

50

42

Pandemic Holdovers The craft spirits industry has been tested but may emerge from the pandemic with many more tools in its toolbox.

BY ANDREW KAPLAN

46

Starting Up in a Shutdown Amid closures and quarantines, startup distilleries forged ahead during the pandemic.

BY JON PAGE

50

Survival of the Genuine The future of European craft spirits remains unknown as the pandemic continues.

BY JENNIFER CIRILLO

54

54

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Made in Memphis Old Dominick Distillery honors the past and looks toward a bright future.

BY JON PAGE

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DEPARTMENTS

14

8

Editor’s Note

12

Contributors

NEW SPIRITS 14

Recent Releases from The Family Jones, Durham Distillery and More

INDUSTRY UPDATE 16

Bourbon Women Association Names Maggie Kimberl President

18

LEW’S BOTTOM SHELF 22 Hold What You’ve Got

BY LEW BRYSON

WHAT’S STIRRING 24

Flavorful Concoctions From Dog and Shrub Distillery, Ghost Coast Distillery, Lugo’s Craft Distillery, Appalachian Gap Distillery, Spirit Hound Distillers and Old Dominick Distillery

ACSA AFFAIRS 28

ACSA Toasts to Long-term Federal Excise Tax Reform

24

ACSA Unveils DtC Campaign During State Guilds Roundtable

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C R AF T S PI R I T S MAG .CO M

DISTILLING DESTINATIONS 58 Reclaiming the Past

Georgia distilleries look ahead to a bright future.

BY JOHN HOLL

BUSINESS SENSE 62 Expert Advice

What are the keys to developing a solid advisory network?

PACKAGING 64 Top Stories

In the first in our ongoing series on the future of closures, Amorim gives us a glimpse at some of its innovations.

BY JEFF CIOLETTI

SAFETY 66

Safety is Love A conversation with craft beverage safety specialist Matt Stinchfield

58

RETAIL: On-PREMISE 68 Under Pressure

How distilleries can join efforts at a local and national level to save their restaurant and bar partners.

BY KATE BERNOT

CLOSING TIME 70

Shipping Matters A look at the most important issues facing the craft spirits industry now that FET relief is permanent.

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CRAFT SPIRITS MAGAZINE C EO, A M E R I C A N C R A F T S P I R I T S A S S O C I AT I O N | Margie A.S. Lehrman, margie@americancraftspirits.org E D I TO R I N C H I E F | Jeff Cioletti, jeff@americancraftspirits.org S E N I O R E D I TO R | Jon Page, jon@americancraftspirits.org M E D I A S A L E S CO N S U LTA N T | Ashley Guillermo, ashley@americancraftspirits.org A RT D I R EC TO R | Michelle Villas CO N T R I B U TO R S | Kate Bernot, Lew Bryson, Jennifer Cirillo, John Holl and Andrew Kaplan AMERICAN CRAFT SPIRITS ASSOCIATION O P E R AT I O N S A D M I N I S T R ATO R | Teresa McDaniel, teresa@americancraftspirits.org E D U C AT I O N CO O R D I N ATO R | Kirstin Brooks, kirstin@americancraftspirits.org M E M B E R O U T R E AC H M A N AG E R | Carason Lehmann, carason@americancraftspirits.org ACSA ADVISORS M E E T I N G S A N D LO G I S T I C S | Stephanie Sadri, HelmsBriscoe S T R AT EG I C CO M M U N I C AT I O N S | Alexandra S. Clough, GATHER PR L EG A L | Ryan Malkin, Malkin Law, P.A. P U B L I C P O L I C Y | Jim Hyland, The Pennsylvania Avenue Group ACSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 2020-2021 P R E S I D E N T | Becky Harris, Catoctin Creek Distilling Co. (VA) V I C E P R E S I D E N T | P.T. Wood, Wood’s High Mountain Distillery (CO) S EC R E TA RY/ T R E A S U R E R | Jeff Kanof, Copperworks Distilling Co. (WA)

EAST Ryan Christiansen, Caledonia Spirits (VT) Becky Harris, Catoctin Creek (VA) Jessica J. Lemmon, Cart/Horse Distilling (PA) Tom Potter, New York Distilling Co. (NY)

CENTRAL & MOUNTAIN Gina Holman, J. Carver Distillery (MN) Colin Keegan, Santa Fe Spirits (NM) Thomas Mote, Balcones Distillery (TX) Amber Pollock, Backwards Distilling Company (WY) Colton Weinstein, Corsair Artisan Distillery (TN) P.T. Wood, Wood’s High Mountain Distillery (CO)

PACIFIC Dan Farber, Osocalis Distillery (CA) Jake Holshue, Rogue Ales & Spirits (OR) Jeff Kanof, Copperworks Distilling Company (WA) Molly Troupe, Freeland Spirits (OR)

EX OFFICIO Thomas Jensen, New Liberty Distillery (PA) ACSA PAC Stephen Johnson (VT) ACSA PAST PRESIDENTS 2 0 1 9 -2 0 2 0 | Chris Montana, Du Nord Craft Spirits 2 0 1 7-2 0 1 8 | Mark Shilling, Treaty Oak Brewing and Distilling Co. 2 0 1 6 -2 0 1 7 | Paul Hletko, FEW Spirits 2 0 1 4 -2 0 1 6 | Tom Mooney, House Spirits CRAFT SPIRITS MAGAZINE EDITORIAL BOARD Eli Aguilera, Lew Bryson, Alexandra Clough, Sly Cosmopoulos, Dan Gasper, Dr. Dawn Maskell For advertising inquiries, please contact Ashley Guillermo: ashley@americancraftspirits.org.

For editorial inquiries or to send a news release, e-mail news@americancraftspirits.org P.O. Box 701414, Louisville, KY 40270 • 502.807.4249 © 2021 CRAFT SPIRITS magazine is a publication of the American Craft Spirits Association.

Where Science Meets Art Yeast, Nutrients, Enzymes and Bacteria

Our single source philosophy provides the highest quality ingredients, tailored technical service and education, and industry leading experience to support your needs. Your spirits are our passion, your needs are our motivation.

Contact us to learn more today. www.lallemandcraftdistilling.com © 2020

Editor’s Note

JOIN US IN THE V.I.P. LOUNGE I’ve always liked to think of the CRAFT SPIRITS magazine readership as a community and have been looking for ways to build that relationship with further opportunities to support each other. With that in mind, we’re proud to announce the creation of the CRAFT SPIRITS magazine V.I.P. Lounge, a series of enhanced subscriber tiers that enable readers to access premium experiences and special thank-you gifts for nominal annual fees—not unlike a Patreon model. Before I get into those tiers, I’d like to stress that it is 100% optional to join. If you choose not to sign up, you’ll still get the digital magazine delivered free of charge to your email inbox every other month. But if you do opt in, here’s what you’ll get beyond the regular complimentary subscription: Tip Tier For an annual fee of $20, folks signing up at the Tip tier receive each issue of CRAFT SPIRITS magazine up to a full week before the rest of the general subscriber base receives it. Get a jump on the rest of our readership with early access to industry insights and business intelligence.

You’ll also get a persnal shoutout in the magazine when you join.

Happy Hour Tier In addition to receiving the issue before everyone else, Happy Hour subscribers who pay $40 a year also gain access to our exclusive, virtual happy hour pub quiz, scheduled every other month, after each issue of the magazine drops. The pub quiz will feature prizes and special industry guests for an added networking bonus. Participants will get to interact one-on-one with leaders in the industry. Additionally, we’ll host special events throughout the year (virtual or in-person, depending on the state of the pandemic), outside of the regular bi-monthly pub quiz, to which subscribers at the Happy Hour tier and above will have exclusive access. Invites will go out well in advance, so you’ll never have to miss out on these gatherings.

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Toast Tier The top level, available for $60 per year, comes with all of the benefits of the previous two tiers, plus a special gift: an exclusive set of two Glencairn glasses featuring the CRAFT SPIRITS magazine logo. A very limited number of the glasses have been produced and once they’re gone, they’re gone. They’d be a great addition to your glassware collection.

We’ll offer a new slate of new thank you gifts and programs each year when it comes time for V.I.P.s to renew.

Beyond receiving the premium offerings of joining the CRAFT SPIRITS magazine V.I.P., you will play an active role in supporting the official publication of the American Craft Spirits Association. You will help us further ACSA’s mission to elevate and advocate for the community of craft spirits producers by enabling us to continuously improve our efforts to deliver quality industry journalism.

We plan to open registration for the V.I.P. Lounge in mid-March. All current subscribers will receive a notice the moment that registration is open. You’ll be able to join via a link on CraftSpiritsMag.com. The CRAFT SPIRITS magazine team looks forward to building the community with you.

Once again, there is absolutely no obligation to sign up for any of these premium tiers. But we’d love to have you hang out with us in the V.I.P. Lounge.

Cheers! ■

Jeff Cioletti Editor in Chief

C R AF T S PI R I T S MAG .CO M

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Thank You, Sponsors!

Arglass

In an industry largely focused on products that require long production runs, we offer the glass container market a superior alternative based on our three principles: flexibility, efficiency and sustainability. Arglass will transform the glass container market in the United States by creating a network of next-generation manufacturing plants that will be at the same time flexible, efficient and sustainable. arglass.us

Berlin Packaging

Berlin Packaging is the only Hybrid Packaging Supplier® of plastic, glass and metal containers and closures. We supply billions of items annually along with package design, financing, consulting, warehousing and logistics services for customers across all industries. Berlin Packaging brings together the best of manufacturing, distribution and incomeadding service providers. berlinpackaging.com

BPS Glass

BPS Glass has grown to achieve a global reach that benefits its customers and allows business models to thrive by offering a global connectivity in all the services it provides. bpsglass.com/

eGRANDSTAND.COM

Fisher & Company

Fisher & Company is the leading investment bank adviser to artisan spirits, beer and wine brands. Fisher has advised on some of the most important merger, acquisition and strategic investments partnerships among American Craft Spirits Association members in recent years. linkedin.com/in/johnafisher/

FIVE x 5 Solutions

Glencairn Crystal

Grandstand

Malkin Law

Midwest Custom Bottling

Moonshine University

FIVE x 5 Solutions believes that software should scale with you. We’re more than a service provider: we’re a committed partner in your distillery’s success, and take pride in providing the most complete solution for your growing operation. We take your business as seriously as you do.

Fx5solutions.com

Glencairn Crystal is a leading manufacturer of bespoke crystal and glass.

For over three decades, this family business, based in Scotland, has gained an international reputation for fine crystal and glassware. Best known for the creation of the Glencairn Glass, the official glass for whisky. glencairn.co.uk

Grandstand is a leading printing and branding company that provides custom decorated glassware, apparel, promotional items and creative services. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped businesses large and small simplify their efforts, conserve time and differentiate their brand. egrandstand.com

LALLEMAND BIOFUELS & DISTILLED SPIRITS

Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits

The leader in supplying fermentation products and services to the distilled spirits industry, we specialize in the research, development, production, and marketing of yeast, yeast nutrients, enzymes, and bacteria; as well as a solid belief in education of the distilled spirits industry. lallemandcraftdistilling.com

The Barrel Mill

Malkin Law focuses on serving the needs of the alcohol beverage industry. We regularly assist with licensing, review of industry specific agreements, trade practices and navigating state laws. Malkin Law is also honored to be Legal Counsel for ACSA. malkin.law

The Barrel Mill is one of the most respected cooperages in the industry, with a history in lumber dating back over a century. By combining old-world craftsmanship with state-of-the art equipment and technology, we deliver the best wine and spirit barrels for many of the leading craft brands. whiskeybarrel.com

Founded in 2008, Midwest Custom Bottling seeks to serve small customers and provide them with custom bottling solutions that fit their needs.

We can find a solution to bottle your exclusive product, whether that entails a uniquely shaped bottle design or a low volume specialty test run. bottlingllc.com

Thousand Oaks Barrel Co.

Thousand Oak Barrel Co. manufactures barrels to age and serve your spirits. All products offer a variety of options for customizing and branding with your personalized design.

1000oaksbarrel.com

The nation’s premier educational distillery, bringing together specialists from every facet of the industry to provide education, training and professional services to start-ups and existing companies. Moonshine University is housed next door to sister company Flavorman, an international custom beverage development company. moonshineuniversity.com

Ultra Pure

Signature Spirits, a division of Ultra Pure, is the leading independent supplier of bulk spirits in the U.S. and has the largest selection of alcohols stocked across its nine warehouses. We supply approximately 1,000 distilleries and brand owners with virtually every type of alcohol from all over the world. ultrapure-usa.com

The American Craft Spirits Association would like to thank all of our annual sponsors and our key supporters of education. We are grateful for all of your support throughout the year. Cheers!

Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.

Since 1876, we’ve been supplying the highest quality malts in the industry. We’ve distinguished ourselves by developing the most extensive line of specialty malts made by any malting company in the world.

We provide everything from malts to pure malt extracts, brewers flakes and filtering aids. briess.com

BSG Distilling

As the craft distilling industry grows, BSG Distilling has been focused on supplying distillers with the best ingredients from around the world. Today, the craft distilling market trusts BSG Distilling to deliver the finest ingredients at competitive prices, without sacrificing customer service. bsgdistilling.com

Export-Import Bank of the United States A U.S. federal government agency with the mission of supporting U.S.-based jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. We help companies of all sizes compete for global sales by offering financing solutions including export credit insurance and more. exim.gov

Haskell

Image Apparel Solutions

Independent Stave Co.

ISTS

Park Street

Saverglass

Supercap

Tapì

We are a global network of experts providing integrated design, engineering, construction and professional services to clients and communities.

We bring a history of innovation and thoughtful expertise to craft the optimal solution for every project or program, regardless of size or market. haskell.com

Park Street delivers productivityenhancing and cost-saving back-office solutions, advisory services, working capital, compliance management, export solution, integrated accounting and human resources management solutions to more than 14,000 alcoholic beverage brands from the U.S. and around the world. parkstreet.com

Your full, turn-key, branding solution.

As your partner in all things logo, spirit and athletic wear, let our 25-plus years of experience work for you. We provide top-notch service with the highest attention to detail. Our in house design and production team work with you to get every project delivered on time. image-apparel-solutions.com

Saverglass provides for premium and super-premium spirits, still & sparkling wines and craft beers. Recognized for its innovation, its glass-making expertise and the quality of its glass, products and designs, Saverglass is the partner of choice for brand creators, craft makers and the largest wine and spirits groups worldwide. saverglass.com

We’ve been in this industry for over 100 years, during which time we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes a great barrel to age great spirits. We have hundreds of barrels currently in experimentation. Partnering with distillers, we think outside the box to develop new products that push your vision forward. iscbarrels.com

Supercap has been producing closures for spirits since 1999. We are present in the United States with a great sales network with partners and agents, thus being able to help and advise you in the choice of the best stopper for your spirits. supercap.it

Since 2001, ISTS has offered costeffective, solid expertise in safety training, consulting and management services. We make workplaces safer, employees ready and compliance uncomplicated. ISTS has extensive experience working with the spirits industry, so our programs are totally customized to address your site. istsky.com

Tapì is an international group specializing in the design and production of miniature packaging design masterpieces. Our closures are based on cutting-edge functionality and technology, with an exclusive style that elegantly showcases each product. tapigroup.com

DISTILLERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Whalen Insurance

Whalen Insurance is a second-generation insurance agency owned and operated by Peter Whalen. Peter started a program to insure craft breweries in the mid 1980s and expanded to craft distilleries almost 10 years ago. The program provides all property and liability coverages needed to safely operate a distillery, as well as multiple coverages designed to address the unique exposures facing distillers. whaleninsurance.com

Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) is the national trade association representing the wholesale tier of the wine and spirits industry. It is dedicated to advancing the interests and independence of wholesale distributors and brokers of wine and spirits. wswa.org

Whiskey Systems

Whiskey Systems Distillery Management software is a complete production tracking, cost accounting, inventory management and audit-ready compliance reporting system that’s tailored to the unique needs of distillers.

Making, blending or bottling, Whiskey Systems handles any process and any spirit type. Unlimited users, affordable options and best in class support. whiskeysystems.com

Contributors

Lew Bryson has been writing about beer and spirits full-time since 1995. He was the managing editor of Whisky Advocate from 1996 through 2015, where he also wrote the American Spirits column, and reviewed whiskeys. He is currently a senior drinks writer for the Daily Beast, and also writes for WhiskeyWash.com, American Whiskey and Bourbon+. He is the author of “Tasting Whiskey” (Storey Publishing, 2014) and the just-released “Whiskey Master Class.” He’s also written four regional brewery guidebooks.

Jennifer Cirillo is a drinks trade expert with more than a decade of experience. As a former journalist/editor covering the global drinks arena for leading magazine, Beverage World, she has a firm understanding of the industry. Her journalism background has led her to become a B2B drinks PR specialist working on accounts including Maxxium UK (Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier, Harveys, Bols, etc), Zamora International (Licor 43 and Villa Massa) as well as Global Travel Retail (Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Beam Suntory and Jägermeister).

Michelle Villas is an art director with more than 20 years experience in publication design. After spending 16 years working on magazines in New York for a variety of titles, incuding Beverage World, Michelle headed out to California where she now calls the South Bay home. She is the creative director on a range of lifestyle publications for The Golden State Company. A true typophile, she carries her obsession with fonts into every project.

Kate Bernot is a reporter covering beer, food, and spirits. She was formerly an editor at The Takeout and DRAFT Magazine; she now regularly writes for Good Beer Hunting, Craft Beer & Brewing, and other publications. She is a certified beer judge and lives in Missoula, Montana, with three backyard chickens and a wellstocked bar cart.

Andrew Kaplan is a freelance writer based in New York City. He was managing editor of Beverage World magazine for 14 years and has worked for a variety of other food and beverage-related publications, and also newspapers. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewkap.

John Holl is a journalist covering the beer industry. He’s the author of several books including “Drink Beer, Think Beer: Getting to the Bottom of Every Pint” and “The American Craft Beer Cookbook.” He is the co-host of Steal This Beer, a podcast and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast and more. John has lectured on the culture and history of beer and judged beer competitions around the world.

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C R AF T S PI R I T S MAG .CO M

YOUR SHOT AT GLORY, GLAMOUR AND GOLD 2021 Judging of Craft Spirits ACSA’s 8th Annual Judging of Craft Spirits is open for entries. Enter your products into the ONLY craft judging competition assembled, organized and overseen by you, the distilling community. ACSA’s blind-tasting competition recognizes the best craft spirits in the categories of Vodka/ Grain, Gin, Brandy, Rum, Ready-to-Drink, Whiskey, and Specialty Spirits.

Due to COVID-19 we will not be accepting international entries in this year’s competition.

ENTRY FEES

ACSA Members:

Non-Members:

Regular (1/2/21-2/28/21):

$250 per spirit

$350 per spirit

Late Riser (3/1/21-3/12/21):

$275 per spirit

$375 per spirit

Registration Deadline: March 12, 2021 Receiving Deadline: March 17, 2021

For more information on how to enter, visit americancraftspirits.org/programs/judging/.

(502) 807-4249 judging@americancraftspirits.org

New Spirits

Tattersall Distilling of Minneapolis announced that its bottled Manhattan and Old Fashioned are now available as cocktail shorties. Unlike most single-serve, pre-mixed cocktails on the market, Tattersall has opted for 100-mL glass bottle packaging and uses its own house-made spirits. This marks the first time any Tattersall product will be available in this format.

At 70 proof, both of Tattersall’s shorties are shelfstable, but best served chilled over ice.

Marble Distilling Co. of Carbondale, Colorado, released the 80-proof Paonia Peach Brandy, its first peach brandy.

The inaugural batch was created with handpicked peaches from Riverside Orchards in Paonia and aged in thirdgeneration American oak casks, formerly filled with Hoovers Revenge Bourbon and Marble’s Gingercello Reserve for three years.

In partnership with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Pittsburgh ‘s, Wigle Whiskey created a limited edition batch of its whiskey in tribute to Pennsylvania’s favorite groundhog in his 135th year of prognosticating.

Wigle has made Phil’s Shadow, a 92-proof straight rye whiskey finished in maple barrels from Paul Family Farm. The barrels help deliver a velvety sweetness to the to the rich, dark cherry rye.

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Catoctin Creek Distilling Co. of Purcellville, Virginia, has released its annual Rabble Rouser Bottled in Bond Rye Whisky. Bottled at 100 proof and aged for four years, Rabble Rouser is distilled from 100% rye at a lower proof, which captures a lot of extra flavors typically lost to the pot stills. Its extensive tasting notes provide a rustic profile that pays homage to the history that rye whisky played in the state of Virginia, including nectarines, clover, honey, deep earthy spice, forest, sandalwood, uncured bacon, white peaches, peanuts and a hint of mesquite.

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New Spirits

Durham Distillery of Durham, North Carolina, has unveiled Conniption Barrel Aged Gin Series No. 1 2020 Release, the newest member of the Conniption Gin family, joining Conniption Navy Strength gin and Conniption American Dry gin. The No. 1 2020 Release of Conniption Barrel Aged gin is inspired by the botanical blend in Durham Distillery’s Conniption Navy Strength gin, then complemented by 10 months of aging in bourbon barrels sourced from High West Distillery. Savory notes of juniper, rosemary and caraway are balanced by spicy cardamom, sweet fig and lemon.

On Inauguration Day, Colorado-based The Family Jones released a whiskey that was exactly one presidential term of office in the making. The distillery bottled Inauguration Rye—a 100-proof, bottledin-bond Colorado straight rye whiskey—at its Loveland production facility on the morning of Jan. 20, four years to the day it was first put into barrels on Inauguration Day in 2017.

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Just months after the highly successful introduction of cask-strength single malt Etiquette Whiskey, J. Carver Distillery has announced the limited release of its second cask-strength single malt Trifecta Whiskey. The distillery calls it “an unusually complex whiskey distilled from a trio of malted barleys and aged over four years in three types of experienced J. Carver spirits barrels produced by three local cooperages—a true trifecta of sorts.”

Four-Year Rye Whisky, the latest release from Lyons, Coloradobased Spirit Hound Distillers, is a part of the Spirit Hound Barrel Program, a unique communitybased celebration of the distillery.

The 90-proof spirit has been aged for more than four years in new, fully charred American oak barrels before being bottled in an unblended “single-barrel” fashion.

With a grain bill made up of 70% rye and 30% Colorado-sourced malted barley, this is a high-rye whisky with strong notes of black cherry and stone fruit.

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Industry Update

BOURBON WOMEN ASSOCIATION NAMES MAGGIE KIMBERL PRESIDENT New leadership announcement coincides with the organization’s 10th anniversary.

The Bourbon Women Association, the organization for women who are passionate about exploring bourbon and the culture that surrounds it, in January announced that it has named spirits expert, speaker and journalist Maggie Kimberl its new president—just as the association celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Kimberl offered CRAFT SPIRITS magazine some insights on her goals as president and how she plans to meet some of the challenges the industry faces.

What do you see as the most important elements of the Bourbon Women Association’s mission?

Maggie Kimberl: The most important thing we do at Bourbon Women is support and empower women, period. This takes many different forms. We are the first-ever consumer group specifically for women in the whiskey world, so a major part of our mission is to give women a safe space to learn about and appreciate bourbon and other spirits. We also aim to bring women together in a way that is both fun and intellectually stimulating—we are not a drinking club but rather a group organized around a shared love of bourbon. Finally, we aim to support women in the bourbon and distilled spirits industries, whether they have been in the industry for decades or they are looking to make a career change.

What are some of your key goals as president?

My immediate goal is to support our members through these difficult times in any way that I can, which is something I am still working to identify best practices for. But I also have long-term goals, which include growing not only our membership base, but also the reach of our message—that women belong in the appreciation of distilled spirits as well as in the industry itself.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges facing the bourbon category right now?

Across the board, the pandemic, recession and trade war have stifled growth and threatened the stability of producers as well

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as bars and restaurants, package stores and the like. Distillery tourism has continued in some places at a scaled-back level. Jobs and businesses are threatened by factors we have no control over, such as the pandemic, but they are also threatened over factors we could change today, such as the trade war. Ending the trade war is something that could really help alleviate the pressure distilleries, bars and retail are facing, while comprehensive distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine will take care of the rest. That said, even after both of those conditions are met, it will still be some time before the industry is fully able to recover from what has been lost, particularly when you are talking about bars and restaurants.

When someone new to bourbon (or any whiskey for that matter) asks you to describe the spirit to them, what’s your sort of elevator pitch?

It’s heaven in a bottle! It tastes like a freshly-hayed Kentucky meadow on a spring day! I don’t know that I have ever actually described bourbon that way to anyone and I usually encounter people who are already interested, but one of the things I like to help people to understand is that there is a lot of history and heritage in a bottle of bourbon. What you are tasting when you try a Kentucky bourbon is the culmination of thousands of years of agricultural history that has been concentrated in one region for more than two centuries and which really exemplifies the experience of being a Kentuckian.

What was your own entry point into bourbon? When did you realize you were passionate about it and what’s been your overall journey with the spirit to becoming the expert you are now and, ultimately, leading the Bourbon Women Association?

Back in 2010 I started a part-time job at my local liquor store/smoke shop. I had been a stay-at-home mom for more than three years and I needed to have conversations with adults. Back then, Kentucky Master Distillers

would sit in a store and sign bottles and do tastings, which is almost unheard of today.

But that was one of the things they did to revive the industry.

I met Jim Rutledge about three years later when he was doing a tasting and bottle signing during Derby week. It was really busy so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him during the three or four hours he was there, and as he was packing up to leave I had to go on break. The next thing I knew he was in the breakroom teaching me the proper bourbon tasting technique along with a bit of history about Four Roses, including why they have 10 different recipes. I had become more interested in the bourbon industry already because of my love for the farm-to-table movement, as it is an obvious distinctive product of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

But that was the “aha!” moment that made me realize this was something I needed to be

C R AF T S PI R I T S MAG .CO M

Industry Update

“What you are tasting when you try a Kentucky bourbon is the culmination of thousands of years of agricultural history that has been concentrated in one region for more than two centuries and which really exemplifies the experience of being a Kentuckian.”

—Maggie Kimberl

a part of. I quit my job shortly after that and started writing about whiskey.

What have craft spirits producers done to raise the profile of the category and what should they be doing to continue that?

Because the farm-to-table movement has endured, those craft distilleries that are excelling are doing so by placing themselves in their local ecosystems. This allows them to be part of the larger conversation by finding a localized or philosophical approach to their end product that is not a copycat of another successful product, like Kentucky bourbon, but rather its own niche, which serves to broaden the distilled spirits category as a whole. In simplified terms, craft distilleries are looking toward flavors or styles that are specific to their region, like American Single Malt whiskey smoked with peach wood at Copper Fox in Virginia or mesquite-smoked

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American Single Malts in several distilleries in the Southwest. In Michigan we see Traverse City Whiskey Co. making both cocktail cherries and a cherry whiskey that uses actual cherries for the flavor because that is what that region is known for. In the Pacific Northwest, we see Westward making American Single Malts based on the region’s strong background in brewing, as well as Westland making barrels out of Garryana oak for different takes on a regional identity. Throughout the country we are seeing different takes on Heirloom grains, particularly corn — Widow Jane, Whiskey Acres, Treaty Oak, Jeptha Creed, Ironroot Republic, Balcones, MB Roland and more all have their own relationships with heirloom and/ or open-pollinated post-heirloom or hybrid corn, which is making for some exceptional and unique whiskeys. I strongly urge craft distilleries to find their own regional or philo-

sophical takes on the styles of whiskey they are producing.

What does your own home bar/personal collection look like?

I have a home office that is quickly being overrun with bottles. I handle the samples for American Whiskey Magazine, where I am the Content Editor, so I like to think of it as a whiskey library. In fact, my kids call me a “libourbian!” I have a growing collection of bitters and other cocktail gear so I can experiment with cocktails for fun and for stories. I guess my aesthetic is mad whiskey scientist?

What are you drinking right now?

Whatever you’re pouring. And I mean that genuinely. I always want to learn about new spirits or things that people have just discovered that they love. I want to share the experience, not just the dram.

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Industry Update

SPIRIT WORKS DISTILLERY MOVES INTO 2021 WITH NEW ACCOLADES, PROMOTIONS The team at Northern California’s acclaimed Spirit Works Distillery started the year on a high note with the promotion of Krystal Goulart to the helm of its diverse distilling program and the announcement of its third national Good Food Award, this one for the distillery’s latest bourbon release, a Four Grain Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

Goulart arrived at Spirit Works in 2018 to apprentice with the all-female distilling team after more than a decade of work in the

Krystal Goulart and Ashby Marshall

wine industry. After earning a degree in enology and viticulture from California State University, Fresno, Goulart honed her skills abroad in Australia’s Margaret River Valley and Portugal’s Douro Valley before settling in Sonoma to work as an enologist and cellar master for such esteemed wineries as Chateau St. Jean and Cruse Wine Co. While working with wine, Goulart had observed with great interest the boom of the craft distilling industry around the U.S. and in her own Sonoma County backyard, an interest which led her to the Spirit Works team.

“We are absolutely thrilled to promote Krystal into such an integral role with our team in this new year,” said Ashby Marshall, Spirit Works proprietor and original distiller, in a press release. “With a background in wine production and with several years under her belt with Spirit Works, Krystal has demonstrated the palate, demeanor, intellect and logistical skills essential to her new role with this creative team. We are excited for everyone else to get to know her and see her stamp on our spirits moving forward.”

As the leading creative force behind the still, Goulart already has a number of projects underway, including an Amaro with a sloe berry twist and a new recipe for a second batch of Exploratory Gin. “I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity,” added Goulart.

“Working alongside an innovative female-led team has been inspiring and has allowed me to refine my skills over the past three years. I look forward to maintaining our signature award-winning style, while challenging myself and my team to push our creative energies towards every aspect of the distilling process.”

DISTILLERY 291 ANNOUNCES NEW VP OF WHOLESALE SALES & MARKETING Colorado Springs-based Distillery 291 is excited to announce Hannah Thomas, Colorado native and hospitality professional, as VP of wholesale sales and marketing.

Thomas’s background includes experience with Breakthru Beverage, where she represented the Diageo and Moet Hennessy portfolios, as well as experience in the restaurant industry, managing alongside James Beard Award-winning chefs.

“Distillery 291’s motto, Hardmade the Colorado Way, truly resonates with me,” said Thomas, in a press release. “It represents my journey as a woman in whiskey and what I had to do to get here. I am thrilled about the opportunity that we have at 291, as we expand into new channels and new markets—in the U.S. and internationally.

I can’t wait to bring 291 Colorado Whiskey to new friends and old friends throughout the industry.”

While earning her WSET Level II designation, Thomas took note of the small but emerging representation of women in the whiskey industry. She has since committed herself to enhancing the visibility of women in all aspects of the spirits business.

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Industry Update

OOLA DISTILLERY RELOCATES TO SEATTLE’S GEORGETOWN NEIGHBORHOOD After 10 years in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, both OOLA Distillery and 10 Degrees art and event space recently announced a move to the Georgetown district in South Seattle. Owners Kirby Kallas-Lewis and KT Niehoff have been part of the fabric of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in various capacities for over 25 years, supporting the arts and small business communities.

“We are sad to leave the Hill,” said Kallas-Lewis in a press release.

“KT and I have been a devoted part of the neighborhood for almost 25 years. COVID-related challenges created a sooner than expected departure, but we are staying positive and looking forward to joining the Georgetown community.”

The businesses will inhabit two buildings in Georgetown—one on Airport Way and one in the Port 106 building. OOLA’s production will be moving into a 14,000-square-foot space in the Port 106 building.

Almost triple the size of the Capitol Hill space. “We are thrilled to having the breathing room we need to meet the demands of sales and distribution” said Lewis.

The Airport Way space offers bottle sales and an intimate cocktail tasting room. 10 degrees will utilize the large skylight room for public and private events.

“I look forward to continuing to support the local arts community, accommodating larger parties, and partnering with OOLA on an expanded cocktail program,” said Niehoff. “We are excited to share the building with two independent breweries, Lowercase Brewing and the Portland-based Great Notion Brewing and work together to create a

vibrant destination for craft spirits and beers.”

Cocktails and tastings will commence as per the state’s COVID-19 guidelines. The event space is currently being renovated and will be ready to host events in May 2021 (or when it is safe to do so).

“It will be refreshing to finally have the visual and organizational space we need to ramp up our production. It definitely offers a whole new perspective for growth,” said Jess Bartow, head of production.

“I have learned to navigate the forklift with millimeters to spare,” said distiller Jason Saura on the expansion. “I am looking forward to unabashedly racing it around our new place.”

Both Kallas-Lewis and Niehoff are hoping to open a small sales and tasting room on Capitol Hill soon. “We just can’t imagine not having a presence on the Hill. It is where our roots are.”

UBER TO ACQUIRE DRIZLY Uber Technologies, Inc. and e-commerce beverage alcohol marketplace Drizly recently announced that they have reached an agreement for Uber to acquire Drizly for approximately $1.1 billion in stock and cash.

After the completion of the transaction, Drizly will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber. Drizly’s marketplace will eventually be integrated with the Uber Eats app, while also maintaining a separate Drizly app.

Drizly says it plans to innovate and expand independently in its fast-growing and competitive sector, while also gaining access to the advanced mobile marketplace technologies of the world’s largest food delivery and ridesharing platform. Merchants on Drizly will be able to benefit from Uber’s routing technology and significant consumer base.

“Drizly has spent the last eight years building the infrastructure, technology, and partnerships to bring the consumer a shopping experience they deserve,” said Drizly co-founder and CEO Cory Rellas in a press release. “It’s a proud day for the Drizly team as we recognize what we’ve accomplished to date but also with the humility that much remains to be done to fulfill our vision.

“With this in mind, we are thrilled to join a world-class Uber team whose platform will accelerate Drizly on its mission to be there when it matters—committed to life’s moments and the people who create them.”

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Industry Update

APPALACHIAN GAP DISTILLERY COMMITS TO BECOME CLIMATE NEUTRAL CERTIFIED Appalachian Gap Distillery of Middlebury, Vermont, is proud to announce it has committed to become Climate Neutral Certified.

The company will be working with Climate Neutral, an independent non-profit organization that helps companies measure their carbon footprint, offset it in its entirety by purchasing quality carbon credits, and reduce emissions moving forward.

Climate Neutral has set rigorous certification standards that all companies must meet before being granted the Climate Neutral Certified status.

“Consumers today are yearning for evidence that companies are aware of their contribution to climate change and committed to erasing it,” said Climate Neutral CEO Austin Whitman in a press release.

“We’re thrilled to have Appalachian Gap Distillery commit to this journey. Soon they will join our growing list of certified companies that are proving that we’re living in a new era of leadership on climate by top brands.”

For Appalachian Gap Distillery, the decision to join this movement was a natural next step in the distillery’s journey to reduce the impact of making quality craft spirits. “Doing the right thing, whether making delicious spirits with integrity or distilling in a way that was easier on the planet, has always been part of our ethos as a brand,” said distillery co-founder Lars Hubbard in a press release. “The first thing people see when they visit our distillery are six solar arrays that provide all of our electricity and are symbolic of our commitment to sustainability.”

Other actions the distillery has taken to reduce its environmental

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impact are less visible but equally important. “We renovated the building with high-performance building standards in mind, by ensuring the distillery was highly insulated, installing efficient heating and cooling equipment, installing daylighting skylights and double-insulated windows, and equipping all lighting with motion sensors” co-founder Chuck Burkins added. “Another thing we’re proud of is that all our spent grains, which are mostly sourced from local farmers, are sent to a biodigester to be turned into clean power.”

The distillery has made its operations so clean that it is no longer required by the Town of Middlebury to have an industrial discharge permit; the distillery is adding less liquid waste to the system than a residence does over the course of a month.

The distillery still relies on natural gas to power a high-efficiency steam system for its processes, and this is an area the team has identified as an opportunity for further reducing its reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and are switching over to renewable natural gas (RNG).

The environmental case for reducing carbon has been well understood for years and now the business case for committing to climate neutrality is more compelling than ever. “Customers care about how products are made and are supporting brands that commit to operating responsibly,” added Will Drucker, head of sales and marketing at Appalachian Gap Distillery. “I’m proud to work with a brand that has made sustainability a core value and am excited to offer our customers products that address the climate crisis in addition to being delicious to drink. Given the choice, more people want to do good by drinking well.”

Over the coming months, the distillery will be compiling information about its carbon footprint, including direct operations, upstream sourcing and downstream shipping in order to create a comprehensive accounting of emissions. Once this is complete, Appalachian Gap will offset its emissions as necessary and commit to actions to further reduce its climate impact in the future. “We will be certified Carbon Neutral this year, which is the last step in our journey towards having our operations reflect our values, one of which is responsibility to the planet and its inhabitants,” said Hubbard. “It is the right thing to do.”

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Industry Update

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL ANNOUNCES RETURN IN DIGITAL FORMAT

PENNINGTON DISTILLING CO. ANNOUNCES THREE NEW HIRES

Tales of the Cocktail Foundation (TOTCF) is pleased to announce the dates for Tales of the Cocktail 2021 (TOTC). The world’s largest cocktail conference will return for its 19th year from Sept. 20-23, 2021, in a digital format that will be available free of charge to cocktail professionals and enthusiasts across the globe, with supplemental physical activations in key cities around the globe, wherever safe and feasible. Additionally, The Foundation opens up its annual seminar process for the 2021 conference.

September 2020 marked the Foundation’s first foray into converting its annual festival into a digital conference, a decision born out of necessity due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The organization connected thousands of attendees across 100 countries to experience over 125 events, broadening the depth and reach of its programming and audience. For 2021, the Foundation is offering a digital format once again to prioritize the health and safety of its attendees and ensure a global audience has complimentary access to participate in its programming. While the festival will largely be digital in September, the Foundation is still leaving the door open for local activations in global markets wherever it proves both safe and valuable for attendees.

The financial impact of the pandemic on the spirits industry heavily influenced the format and timing of this year’s event. The Foundation opted for fall as opposed to its traditional Summer timeframe with the knowledge that early 2021 will continue to be a crucial time for establishments to focus on recovery efforts. The organization is once again offering programming complimentary to all attendees, so that cost does not present a barrier to education or opportunities housed within the TOTC platform. The Foundation intends to return to a primarily in-person format in New Orleans in 2022.

The 2021 theme for Tales of the Cocktail Foundation will be “Community.” Selected by the Foundation to underscore the global drinks industry coming together to share knowledge and compassion after an unprecedented year, “Community” also serves as a rallying cry for communing thought leadership to drive future advancement.

“As New Orleanians, we know resilience when we see it. There’s no doubt that the spirits industry had the tenacity and the grit to make it through 2020,” shared Caroline Rosen, president of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, in a press release. “Now, as we look ahead to 2021, it’s time to focus on the goal of true advancement of not only our craft but our industry’s culture and how we rise together.”

Tales of the Cocktail 2021 will be hosted on a digital platform accessible across all time zones and will offer the educational, cultural and lifestyle programming that routinely draws industry and consumer attendees in the thousands. The conference will host a library of on-demand, pre-recorded videos in addition to live, interactive programming, networking opportunities and partner booths. Seminars, both pre-recorded and live, will follow Tales’ existing educational tracks—Beyond the Bar, Business, and Culture—and will provide attendees with the high-caliber education opportunities they expect from the annual conference. English closed captioning will be available for key seminar programming that is recorded in other languages.

Pennington Distilling Co., an awardwinning spirits company in Nashville, Tennessee, announces three new additions to the team.

Sarah Smith has joined as sales manager and will manage the onand off-premise sales team as well as assist in the management of the company’s distributors in 17 states.

Prior to working for Pennington, Smith worked at Best Brands, a family-owned wine and spirits distributor, for 12 years.

Garry Rausch has joined the team as plant manager. Rausch will manage all aspects of operations including the distillery, production, facilities, maintenance, quality control, research and development, and inventory. Prior to working for Pennington, Rausch was operations manager for Blefa Kegs Inc. Sean Jewett has joined Pennington Distilling as head distiller.

With more than 10 years and several awards in the alcohol beverage industry, Jewett was already blending his own unique recipes by aging beers in Pennington’s Davidson Reserve Whiskey Barrels. He will focus on product development and production innovation while maintaining the distillery’s excellent reputation for quality.

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lew's bottom shelf

HOLD WHAT YOU’VE GOT

BY LEW BRYSON

I had another column cued up for this issue, ready to go. But you’ll get it next time, because there’s something going on that we have to talk about. Depending on what state you’re in, there may be some legislators trying to take money out of your pocket.

Yeah, I know: that’s what state governments do. But these bills are crisp, brand-new, pandemic money. They’re the money you’re making on cocktails to go, on full bottles to go, on unlimited bottles to go. Right now that might be a vital part of keeping the doors open, but it’s still going to be needed down the line to try to claw your way back to where you would have been without the damned virus. And not for nothing; your customers like it. But if you don’t get in lobbying gear now, you might lose all of it.

Let’s back up a bit. Because of the hit from COVID-19, a number of states loosened the regulations on takeout sales for distilleries (for other producers and bars, too) to make up for the loss of on-premise sales. Some of you had built up a nice tasting room or cocktail bar business, and sunk a lot of money into building a bar, buying equipment and glassware, hiring staff, and various levels of advertising and promotion. Now that was all shut down, and through no fault of your own.

Quick lobbying led to some states swiftly passing temporary adjustments to liquor codes that allowed cocktails to go, or eased restrictions on in-house direct sales. That allowed some cash to keep flowing, and kept some people employed. No one was making piles of profit, but at least stock was moving, and your customers kept a nodding acquaintance with you.

Meanwhile, a lot of you stepped up and jumped through the regulatory hoops to produce sanitizer. You donated it to hospitals and first responders, you sold it pretty much at cost to walk-in customers. I bought it, and it’s still the only sanitizer we can find on a regular basis. We were desperate (we still are), and small distillers met the need.

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And what thanks did you get? Some states still haven’t relaxed the limits on distillery to-go sales. Most of the states that did loosen the regs on takeout spirits and cocktails put limits on how long it would last, some of them expiring at the end of 2020. We kinda blew through that, at an accelerating pace.

That’s what set me off on this column. I got a press release about the Virginia General Assembly passing a bill that would extend allowing cocktails to go from distilleries, restaurants and bars until July 1, 2022. If you’re looking at that and thinking ‘Hey, that’s almost a year and a half away—that’s great,’ you’re a likely diagnosis for Stockholm Syndrome.

This is a glass half empty, not half full. They weren’t granting you a favor, they were throwing you a bone. If you survive, if you somehow make it through the dark weeks Dr. Fauci is predicting? On the other side of it, you go back in the cage!

Why is this even an issue? Almost all states allow breweries to fill growlers (glass or metal jugs) with draft beer for takeout, or sell packaged beer. Wineries are almost universally allowed to sell bottles to go. Once again, nasty bad spirits are punished, even though there is plenty of evidence to show that’s misguided.

What evidence? It’s the clear lack of evidence. What we just went through, involuntarily, is what legislators are always looking for: a pilot program, a probationary period, a trial. And you passed! As a friend of mine who runs a bar program in Sacramento said of cocktails to go, “There isn’t rampant public drunkenness or misbehavior. Being drunk in public, open containers on the street are already illegal; we have a law addressing those concerns. Customers like it, bars like it. Just make it permanent.”

Iowa and Ohio have made cocktails to go permanent, about a dozen other states are considering it, and I salute them for it. But honestly … since when have Iowa and Ohio been leaders on sensible liquor laws? We need this nailed down, you have earned this.

What we just went through, involuntarily, is what legislators are always looking for: a pilot program, a probationary period, a trial.

And you passed!

How about this? Instead of talking about how long you’ll be allowed to do these completely unexceptional things, get it together, go to your capital, and present a plan for standardized, common-sense regulation of cocktails to go: useful container rules, reasonable seals, maximum single servings, labeling. On the direct sales issue, push hard on the fairness angle for the same limits as liquor stores.

For now, hold what you’ve got. When the vaccines and prevention measures finally end the pandemic, don’t let go of your new freedoms. Make the case for their permanence. ■

Lew Bryson has been writing about beer and spirits full-time since 1995. He is the author of “Tasting Whiskey” and “Whiskey Master Class.”

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WHAT’s Stirring

DRINKS TO SAVOR FROM ACSA MEMBERS Dog and Shrub Blueberry Lavender Shrub Dog and Shrub Distillery of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, got its name in part because of co-founder Kim Campbell’s love of cooking, visiting local farmer’s markets and playing around with seasonal fruits and vegetables to create a variety of shrubs. This one is made with Michigan blueberries and lavender from Washington Island, Wisconsin.

Blueberry Lavender Shrub Ingredients 1 cup sugar, white granulated 1 1/2 pints blueberries 1/2 cup water 1/3 cup red wine vinegar 2 tbsp lavender Shrub Directions Mix sugar, blueberries and water in a saucepan and heat until simmering. Remove from heat and add lavender. Let steep in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to three days. Strain. Add red wine vinegar to half of the strained blueberry syrup. Let sit refrigerated for at least 24 hours. Add the remaining blueberry syrup. Store refrigerated.

Cocktail Ingredients 1 ounce blueberry lavender shrub 1 1/2 ounce vodka Sparkling water Cocktail Directions Fill a highball glass with ice and add vodka and blueberry shrub. Top with sparkling water.

Gently pour back and forth from highball to mixing glass to combine. Garnish with mint.

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Purple Haze Margarita Cameron Khourie of Ghost Coast Distillery in Savannah, Georgia, created this margarita with Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” in mind, to represent the untamed and unique flavors that the distillery’s Tio Tommy Agave offers. It is made simply with lime juice, agave simple syrup, and butterfly flower tea to let the natural agave flavors of vanilla and oak shine bright.

Ingredients 2 ounces Ghost Coast Tio Tommy Agave 1 ounce lime juice 3/4 ounce agave simple syrup 1 ounce butterfly flower tea Directions Combine all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake. Strain into a salt-rimmed Collins glass and add crushed iced. Garnish with a dehydrated lime wheel or fresh lime slice.

The Old San Juan This recipe was created by Daniel Enrique (@cococo.mixing on Instagram) for Lugo’s Craft Distillery in Lakeland, Florida. It features Lugo’s Pitorro Rum, and the citrus notes coupled with the natural sweetness of the unique rum creates an exotic flavor in this sophisticated blend.

Ingredients 2 ounces Lugo’s Pitorro Rum 1/2 ounce Cappelletti Aperitivo 2 dashes of orange bitters Directions Pour two dashes of orange bitters into an empty mixing glass. Add Cappelletti Aperitivo and Lugo’s Pitorro Rum. Then add ice and stir in the mixing glass. Strain into a glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel.

Mythic Martini From Appalachian Gap Distillery in Middlebury, Vermont, Mythic is an American-style gin made in the spirit of a Dutch genever (among the first spirits distilled in this country). This means the mashbill of barley, corn and rye build a slightly sweet foundation for the unique botanicals like balsam fir, chamomile and Sichuan peppercorn that make Mythic so distinctive. The martini is the perfect cocktail to let Mythic’s flavor and aroma shine.

Ingredients 2 ounces Mythic gin 1 ounce dry vermouth 2 dashes orange bitters Directions Add ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon peel.

The Map Room This cocktail from Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons, Colorado, was created by Amanda Engelhorn, the distillery’s tasting room manager, for Spirit Hound’s science and spirits series.

The name is a nod to a scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Ingredients 2 ounces Spirit Hound Colorado Honey Whisky 3/4 ounce turbinado or demerara simple syrup 3/4 ounce lemon juice 1 tsp grated fresh ginger Large dash orange peel bitters 1 drop bergamot oil Directions Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake. Double strain (through a mesh sieve) into a martini glass. Grate fresh cinnamon over the top.

Gin and Tonic This cocktail showcases the complexity of Formula No. 10 Gin from Old Dominick Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee. The gin is carefully crafted with eight botanicals and bottled at 95 proof. Earthy, sweet and complex, juniper dominates the nose balanced by whispers of citrus that transition to sweet licorice on the palate. The sweet, smooth finish is rounded out by hints of black pepper.

Ingredients 2 ounces Old Dominick Formula No. 10 Gin 1/4 ounce fresh lime juice 3/4 ounce Jack Rudy Classic Tonic Syrup 4 ounces high-quality soda water Directions Add gin, lime and syrup to glass with ice. Stir to chill and dilute. Top with soda water and garnish with a lime wedge.

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ACSA Affairs

ACSA TOASTS TO LONG-TERM FEDERAL EXCISE TAX REFORM Following approvals in the U.S. House and Senate, in late December then-President Donald Trump signed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) as part of an omnibus and stimulus package, giving the country’s 2,200 craft spirits producers much-needed, permanent tax relief and parity with their counterparts in beer and wine, that have enjoyed lower rates for many years.

Federal excise tax (FET) reform has been ACSA’s top legislative priority, and the President’s signing marked a major victory for the distilled spirits industry.

In addition to the hardships the industry faces as it crawls back from distillery closures

due to COVID, distillers faced a 400% tax hike this year without legislation.

Prior to the act’s passage, ACSA, together with other major beverage industry groups, worked tirelessly to rally support for FET relief, which was set to revert back to $13.50 from $2.70 for the first 100,000 proof gallons removed from bond annually.

CBMTRA had garnered tremendous bipartisan support with endorsement by more than three-fourths of the House and Senate.

This permanent extension provides significant, continued relief, and marks the culmination of a nearly decade-long push for tax parity.

ACSA CALLS FOR ACTION TO SUPPORT NEW BILL In February, U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) introduced the Fairness for Craft Beverage Producers Act (H.R. 1035), a bill to provide parity for tasting rooms and distilleries with respect to SBA loans and the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) borrowing. The bill already has bipartisan co-sponsorship.

The American Craft Spirits Association is urging members of ACSA and state guilds to contact their Representatives and encourage co-sponsorship of this important bill.

As background, the Second Draw PPP Loan program was authorized as part of the bipartisan COVID-19 relief deal signed into law in December 2020. The program increases the maximum loan amount from 2.5 times Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) monthly payroll costs to 3.5 times for small businesses in the hospitality industry such as restaurants and bars that have faced the greatest impacts of the pandemic. Additionally, the SBA will make principal and interest payments for five additional months for businesses in food service and hospitality for a total of eight months for those with a 7(a) SBA loan.

The payments are capped at $9,000 a month. As we all know, our tasting rooms function much like a bar, and just like bars and restaurants, we have been hit hard with closures and restrictions on customers.

ACSA is supporting the bill, and with enough support and co-sponsors in Congress, Rep. Wexton hopes to pass it soon.

Please call your representative in Congress and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 1035.

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Since 2011, craft spirits producers across the U.S. have rallied together in an effort to push forward long-term FET relief, and it is clear that this grassroots storytelling effort has worked.

Over the past five years, ACSA has facilitated thousands of meetings with Members of Congress and their staffers. Even amid a COVID-19 shutdown, ACSA brought 150 craft spirits producers and the entire Board of Directors and Past Presidents to the Hill virtually to share their stories.

To read more about this victory, which was more than a decade in the making, read our oral history on the next page.

ACSA PRAISES HHS ACTION TO EXEMPT CRAFT DISTILLERS FROM SURPRISE SANITIZER FEES After the surprise, end-of-year announcement that craft distillers that produced hand sanitizer in 2020 would have to pay $14,060, ACSA praised the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for crafting a long-term solution to exclude craft distilleries and other small producers from paying the onerous Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fees.

On the heels of ACSA discussions with HHS Chief of Staff Brian Harrison and senior HHS leadership, together with an intensive outreach campaign to congressional legislators and members of the media, HHS in early January withdrew the FDA’s scheduled fees. ACSA will be a key stakeholder as HHS and FDA review future processes. As such, these alarming and sudden payments were no longer due on Feb. 11.

Craft spirits producers will still be required to register with the FDA and follow the agency’s guidance for the duration of the period in which they continue to produce and sell sanitizer. But distilleries will benefit from an extensive grace period during which they can wind down their sanitizer-making activities, deplete sanitizer stock, and de-register their facilities.

At some point in the future, distilleries that elect to continue making sanitizer beyond the national emergency will be subject to fees, and ACSA will continue to actively consult with HHS and FDA to ensure the fair determination of those fees.

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ACSA UNVEILS DTC CAMPAIGN DURING STATE GUILDS ROUNDTABLE In late February, ACSA unveiled assets for a direct to consumer (DtC) shipping campaign during a roundtable for state distilling guilds via Zoom. ACSA’s state guilds committee cochairs P.T. Wood (Wood’s High Mountain Distillery in Salida, Colorado) and Gina Holman (J. Carver Distillery in Waconia, Minnesota) welcomed distillers from across the nation to hear updates on DtC and upcoming legislation to benefit distilleries.

Dan Farber—ACSA board member, chair of ACSA’s DtC committee and founder and distiller of Osocalis Distillery in Soquel, California—provided an update on ACSA’s efforts to pave the way for DtC shipping.

While DtC laws vary from state to state, Farber mentioned that all distillers can benefit from changes in a single state. “If I’m granted the right to ship to consumers in my state, de facto you are granted the right,” said Farber.

“So by California opening up to DtC, that opens up the largest single market in the U.S. for every distiller in the U.S.” Farber then shared details on a collection of resources for guilds and distilleries to advocate for DtC changes, including a postcard to send to legislators, model guidelines necessary for elements of a model DtC bill, talking points and FAQs about DtC. Wood—ACSA’s vice president—reminded attendees about the importance of working as one. “One thing to impress is the importance of ACSA and the relationship we have with the guilds and getting things done,” said Wood. “I think that really stood out in getting the FET passed initially as temporary but ultimately getting it permanent. That was a lot of hard work between ACSA and state guilds that made that happen. Together we have a very strong and important voice and our folks in Washington want to hear from us.”

ACSA ANNOUNCES NEW DATES FOR CONVENTION To ensure the health and safety of all exhibitors and attendees, ACSA has rescheduled our 2021 convention to Dec. 4-6, instead of July 25-27 in Louisville, Kentucky.

All exhibitor and attendee fees that have been rolled over will automatically apply to the new dates. We will alert you in the coming weeks regarding registration, hotel arrange-

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ment, convention schedule and more. If you have any questions, please contact Teresa McDaniel at (502) 807-4249 and/or teresa@ americancraftspirits.org.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support. We look forward to gathering together to network, learn, and celebrate our industry’s grit and determination.

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The Journey to Permanence An Oral History of FET Relief for American Craft Spirits Makers

BY JEFF CIOLETTI AND JON PAGE

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Nicole Austin

Melkon Khosrovian

Mark Shilling

“I give credit to Ralph [Erenzo] and Melkon [Khosrovian] for being the ones that really originated this. I often call them the godfathers of FET.” Ralph Erenzo

I

n the first decade of this century, American craft spirits makers started to dream.

What if their businesses—minuscule in comparison to the behemoth, corporate, wellknown distilleries whose brands dominated liquor store shelves and back bars—could enjoy a reduced federal excise tax (FET) rate that was comparable to the reduced rate on craft breweries and small winemakers?

In the following years, their dreams came to life. They banded together and formed their own nonprofit organization—the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA). Their numbers grew from hundreds to thousands. They made countless phone calls and visits to members of Congress and walked countless miles on Capitol Hill. They celebrated temporary relief in 2017 when the FET rate was reduced from $13.50 to $2.70 per proof gallon (for the first 100,000 gallons removed from bond annually) and refused to rest until FET relief was made permanent at the end of 2020.

In recent interviews with CRAFT SPIRITS

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Ted Huber

magazine, some of the key players in pushing for FET relief recalled the struggles and highlights from a victory more than a decade in the making.

Part I: Grassroots Take Hold Years before the first bill was introduced in Congress, craft distillers frequently discussed the need for FET relief. Ted Huber of Huber’s Orchard, Winery & Vineyards and Starlight Distillery recalls those conversations picking up in 2005 or 2006 at American Distilling Institute (ADI) conferences that rotated between his distillery and St. George Spirits in Alameda, California.

Ted Huber (master distiller at Starlight Distillery in Starlight, Indiana): There [were] only a few of us craft distillers in the U.S. at that time. … A lot of us had functioning wineries or functioning breweries and knew what the FET reduction was because we were taking advantage of those things with our

—Mark Shilling wineries and our breweries, but yet we were paying the full tax on our distilled spirits.

What a wonderful thing it [would be] if we could take some of that tax credit from the federal government and reinvest back into [our distilleries.]

Around the same time, Ralph Erenzo of Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery started lobbying the state of New York to change its laws to allow distilleries to sell their products on site.

Ralph Erenzo (co-founder of Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery in Gardiner, New York): Shortly after it got passed here in New York [in 2007], our phone and email started filling up with people from all over the country asking, “How did you do this? Please send us a copy of your law so we can use it as a template.” And so we sent out a lot of copies and directed them to the New York State Liquor Authority’s site, where they could actually read the law and then use that as a template.

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“So much of the early years was spent, for all of us, just learning how passing a law works and learning that the “Schoolhouse Rock!” video that you watched was not at all accurate.”

—Nicole Austin Once we got New York settled, I turned my attention to the FET, the federal level.

Melkon Khosrovian (co-founder and spirits maker at Greenbar Distillery in Los Angeles): I wrote the proposal that morphed into our current law back in August 2008.

It was a post on ADI’s forums that spurred discussion and got most craft distillers to co-sign. … I didn’t have any real government policy experience beforehand. But I had worked in crisis communications and knew that we’d need a clear message and a unified voice to carry it to lawmakers if we hoped to get anything accomplished.

I think it took a good three to four years before we got our first bill introduced. … It felt like an eternity.

Erenzo: [Former U.S. Representative from New York] Maurice Hinchey was the first one to act on our behalf [by introducing H.R. 777, the Small Distillery Excise Tax of 2011]. And that was a result of me reaching out to him.

We were, at the time, the only distiller in New York. So we had a little bit of weight behind our request. Because I went to him and pointed out, “If we’re successful and if this New York state law turns out to be successful, then this industry is going to take off and the biggest beneficiaries are tourism, agriculture, tax revenue and employment.”

The distillery-specific bill had tax credits, rather than a reduced tax rate, on the first 65,000 proof gallons only for distilleries pro-

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ducing no more than 100,000 proof gallons. It languished, only gathering 15 co-sponsors.

Nicole Austin (general manager and distiller at Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and former co-chair of ACSA’s legislative affairs committee): We thought we had done this big thing when we had a bill and it was introduced and it had a bill number. I’ll never forget H.R. 777. It burned in my mind because it felt like, “We did it! We did it! There’s a bill!”

Khosrovian: I—naively—thought that our chances were decent, especially after Ralph helped pass legislation in New York. Boy, was I off by a country mile.

Erenzo: We ultimately agreed that tax credits were not the way to go because it isn’t a direct-cash-in-your-pocket method of relieving the tax burden of the small distiller. We really needed to have the reduced rate. Plus, it was not parity with wine makers and beer makers and that’s what we were looking for.

We made that point over and over again to legislators. This is not a special consideration.

The beer makers and the wine makers already have this consideration. We’re just looking for parity.

Khosrovian: We had lots and lots of discussion about who this legislation would cover and who it would leave out. Was 65,000 proof gallons too big or too small? Would DSPs that bought neutral spirits for their gins and liqueurs qualify or would everyone need to ferment and distill their own spirits? We spent many late nights arguing about issues that today seem academic but that meant everything at the time.

Austin: So much of the early years was spent, for all of us, just learning how passing a law works and learning that the “Schoolhouse Rock!” video that you watched was not at all accurate.

Mark Shilling (ACSA past president, chair of ACSA’s government affairs committee, founder of Revolution Spirits, and partner in Big Thirst Consulting): I think I remember saying way back in the beginning that my expectations were that it would take 10 years. Now, that was completely made up at the time. It just seemed like based on my previous experience that getting anything done in Congress would take a long time and require a lot of education and build up.

Austin: It’s a little like when you’re hiking a mountain. You think you see the top of it and you get there and you realize that was a false peak and 75% of the mountain is still in front of you.

Shilling: If you’re planning to push an issue in Congress, don’t expect anything to happen over night. Plan well; build a large coalition; include as broad a variety of stakeholders as possible; and be prepared to work your ass off and don’t give up. I think the lesson here is perseverance.

Khosrovian: I honestly thought that we’d get a bill introduced and turned into law in two years. There were similar laws for breweries and wineries, so I thought that we’d get there on simple equivalency and opportunity for a young industry following in the footsteps of those two types of alcohol makers.

Huber: I thought [Congress] would look at the beer industry and the wineries and say, “Look at the microbreweries, how they’ve done. Imagine if we had distilleries like the microbreweries or the wineries.”

Erenzo: Part of the problem was that the legislators really didn’t comprehend what we were talking about in the beginning. They kept referring to us as brewers.

Huber: I think a lot of people thought distilleries were factories. That’s the image that they had in their minds.

Austin: Early on, most of our time lobbying was spent explaining to people that distillers are not the same as brewers.

Huber: I had a couple of conversations with key senators and they were like, “Well you know that brewery over there, they went into that part of town and took that building over and put their brewery there and everybody started flocking there. Now you can’t park three blocks from there. All the stores, all those blighted buildings now have something. And the first thing that went there was a brewery.”

We would say, “That’s what distilleries are going to do.”

Part II: The Rise of ACSA As the early fight for FET relief continued, a growing group of distilleries saw the need to form a nonprofit organization to better represent their interests. In 2013, the American Craft Distillers Association was incorporated.

A year later, its name was changed to the American Craft Spirits Association.

Tom Mooney (ACSA’s first president, founder and CEO of Westward Whiskey in Portland, Oregon): It was clear to many of us that we would fail, both in the FET fight and as an industry, if we didn’t have an association representing us.

Scott Blackwell (founder and co-owner of High Wire Distilling in Charleston, South Carolina): I was glad to see it come together,

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but I remember thinking, boy, what a long shot. FET reduction? Huh. Little did I know that I would get totally wrapped up in it, kind of by mistake.

Austin: If there was one message that I’d want people to take away from reading this oral history, it’s how critical it is for us to have ACSA in the first place. Having a genuinely professional nonprofit trade association that represents your interests—none of this would have happened without that, because we would never as individuals have been able to shepherd this through the most critical parts of this process, which are really “inside baseball” in D.C. Mooney: We created ACSA to give craft distillers a voice, and at least a snowball’s chance in hell to change the industry landscape in a way that would allow us to survive.

FET was the first priority because we knew that an excise tax that took more than 10% of revenue away from producers—most of whom lost money or barely broke even—would mean craft spirits could never take off. FET was not only the glue that held ACSA together, it was the gravitational pull that brought us there in the first place.

Erenzo: There was a time in the beginning when we were struggling with the ADI question. ADI was representing themselves … in some circumstances, as the industry

association. And it took a while for us to make everybody understand that that particular industry association was privately owned and was a profit-making corporation and that the ACSA was industry-owned, member-owned and member-directed.

Mooney: At the start, the ACSA board were also the association’s staff. We had no CEO or executive director, and no money to hire one. Everyone on that first board worked two jobs, one for their distillery and the other for the future of the industry.

Austin: I was on the first board that we elected, and that was also when we created our committee structure. That was when I got really committed, it was when Mark and I started co-chairing that [committee] together.

Shilling: Because of my background in lobbying, I saw this as a place that as I was getting ready to enter this industry, an area that I could give back, that I had some knowledge and experience with. And I said, you know this is one of the things that I’m going to do to become a part of the industry.

Austin: Todd Leopold [of Leopold Bros. in Denver] gave us the first $5,000 so that we were able to hire Jim Hyland. That was a big deal.

Mooney: Nicole Austin, Steve Johnson and I met up on May 19, 2015, at Kings County Distillery, in Brooklyn, New York, to interview our finalists. There, in a room full of whiskey

and brandy barrels, we met Margie and immediately knew we had our leader.

Austin: Hiring Margie was one of the best things [we’ve] ever done.

Mooney: ACSA would not have survived a year without its first board, but it would have accomplished nothing without Margie. She is our industry hero.

Soon after she was hired as ACSA’s interim executive director, Margie A.S. Lehrman attended the organization’s first joint legislative fly-in with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) at a Holiday Inn on Capitol Hill. It was her birthday, and she was surprised to see her old neighbor, Jim Hyland.

Margie A.S. Lehrman (CEO of ACSA): Our kids grew up together. Same culdesac, same playground. So when I saw Jim, honestly, can you imagine how befuddled I was thinking, why is he at this meeting?

I was uncertain whether this group was something that I really wanted to get engaged with. I was content practicing beer, wine and spirits law and wasn’t sure I wanted to really switch careers, going back to my roots in association management. So that was my compromise to them saying, “How about I serve as your interim until I figure out whether this is a fit for both of us?” But then when I

“It was clear to many of us that we would fail, both in the FET fight and as an industry, if we didn’t have an association representing us.”

—Tom Mooney

Todd Leopold (left)

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Chris Montana (left, with Colin Keegan and Johnny Jeffery) at ACSA’s Distillers’ Convention and Vendor Trade Show in 2018

Jim Hyland, The Pennsylvania Avenue Group

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ACSA CEO Margie A.S. Lehrman

Tom Mooney, Westward Whiskey

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saw Jim there, I’m thinking, okay, this could be really fun. I get to work with Jim and we get to do some really cool things for the industry.

Maybe this is something to really sink my head into.

Jim Hyland (ACSA’s public policy adviser, The Pennsylvania Avenue Group): I remember one of the big distiller lobbyists I saw there, who was like, “Oh, so you guys are like a real association?”

Lehrman: I remember that, too! And I remember we talked about craft spirits and how they were in fact safe to drink! We had to validate ourselves as recently as 2015, that craft producers were not hobbyists—that it’s a real business that was really here to stay.

Erenzo: Margie was another huge asset to us and I enjoyed working with her entirely.

And her husband was very helpful as well. She really pulled the whole thing together as a professional.

Khosrovian: Starting the FET effort when the industry was in its infancy was fairly easy.

Most of us knew each other, which made it easy to hash out ideas, reach consensus and organize outreach. What we failed to grasp was how lobbying actually works and how closely we’d need to coordinate our efforts with larger players in the industry. Mark, Margie and the rest of the ACSA team understood this much better and got the job done.

Erenzo: Everybody hates lobbyists, you know. They have such a bad rep. But when you want to get a law changed, you need them. They’re your best friend because they have the roadmap through the system. Jim Hyland, he was fabulous. He was extremely helpful. And I think that ACSA owes him a great debt of gratitude—[as do] the small distillers around the country.

Austin: Working with Jim has been incredible. Just getting you into the room.

Knowing where people are. Knowing who actually is doing the work so you can talk

to the right person. And helping you build those relationships and helping you show up and look professional.

Part III. Unity and Advocacy Many of the people interviewed for this oral history agree that the fight for FET relief received a major boost thanks to the efforts of DISCUS. They only wish it happened sooner.

Shilling recalls a 2011 meeting he had with DISCUS lobbyists in D.C. Shilling: Their initial reaction was, “No. We’re afraid that even talking about this will result in excise taxes going up.” By the end of the conversation it was, “Well, whatever it ends up being, we won’t support anything that doesn’t treat everybody equally.” That’s how we ended up with the “up to 100,000 proof gallons.” … The original bill was that it would only apply to distilleries that made less than 100,000 proof gallons. It turned out DISCUS pushing us in that direction was good. Putting that hard limit means that it’s a disincentive for a distillery to grow beyond that. Having that meeting, it was beneficial because it did move DISCUS to get on board.

Mooney recalls attending a fly-in hosted by DISCUS later in 2011.

Mooney: My greatest takeaway was that nobody in Congress had ever thought about this issue, and I spent a good amount of time after the fly-in corresponding with staff members from the various offices I visited. As the adage goes, if you aren’t at the table, then you’re probably on the menu.

Erenzo: The biggest stumbling block there was that [DISCUS] simply didn’t want to give up or appear to give up any control or authority at all over anything distilling-related.

And it took quite a while for us to convince them that we were not the enemy, that, in

effect, many of us were the next acquisition targets and that our efforts were being made by distillers in every single state. Whereas DISCUS’s efforts in the U.S. were really being driven by a handful of very large distilleries in a few states.

Austin: I can’t speak for them but [they were probably like], “Are these guys going to be able to be professional?” We were a bunch of rogue distillers in Carhartts. And then we were like, “Are they really going to work with us or are they just trying to crush us?”

Erenzo: At first they wanted too much. For instance, they wanted us to dissolve our organization and blend into DISCUS. And we said, “Well, we’re in the same industry, but we’re not in the same business. And your interests won’t always match ours and we didn’t want to be run by the big guys.” And so we elected to stay independent and continued to support ACSA. And eventually DISCUS did come around, but it took a long time.

Hyland: I think they thought this had very little chance of getting enacted. But then I think they came around to a conclusion that an offense was a good defense. In other words, a way to prevent us from seeing our FET go up is to be advocating for it to go down.

Paul Hletko (Past president of ACSA, founder and distiller at FEW Spirits in Chicago): Once DISCUS finally got involved, and started promoting, it definitely was helpful.

Austin: Ted was really important to helping kind of bridge that and see that we had a lot of shared interests and that we could really complement each other in terms of what we brought to the table. … When we got over that hump and started working well and professionally together, that was really important.

Hyland: It wasn’t until [DISCUS president and CEO] Chris Swonger came on [in 2018], in my view, that they aggressively decided this industry has changed. He saw that this industry had changed and there

“Having a genuinely professional nonprofit trade association that represents your interests—none of this would have happened without that, because we would never as individuals have been able to shepherd this through the most critical parts of this process, which are really ‘inside baseball’ in D.C.” —Nicole Austin 34 |

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“We were doing a lot of phone calls and talking to a lot of staff members, just doing all of that hardcore groundwork.”

—Ted Huber were grassroots that could fight for distilled spirits fairness.

Lehrman: And, clearly, ACSA, with members in all 50 states, helped what ultimately remained a battle for parity.

Following H.R. 777, several members of Congress (including Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), Rep. Christopher Gibson (R-NY), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI)) introduced similar bills that would benefit craft distilleries.

However, none of them garnered more than 15 co-sponsors. In June of 2015, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced S.1562, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA), which included benefits for makers of spirits, beer, wine and cider. The following month, Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) introduced a companion bill in the house. The bills had tremendous support, with 51 and 288 co-sponsors, respectively. But they lacked a vehicle to move them forward.

Mooney: Our initial efforts were a bit like rolling a boulder uphill, and things would have continued that way if Sen. Wyden hadn’t stepped in. The senator and his staff were initially drawn in by a raging battle between large and small brewers, but they quickly realized there was an opportunity to develop consensus, industry-wide legislation to support beverage alcohol. The senator, his chief of staff Chris Arneson, and many others put hours and hours of work into bringing everyone together.

Austin: Everyone uses the phrase “a vehicle,” where you needed a vehicle, some other bill to have enough momentum behind it that it was going to pass, that you could attach yourself to and that that was the gateway that kept you from actually becoming a law.

And we didn’t control that, and we still don’t. … That started to feel a little bit daunting and a little bit frustrating, because it felt like we had reached the absolute limits of what we could achieve.

Shilling: It’s unusual for a standalone bill to get passed. Particularly a standalone tax bill.

So there’s always going to be the prospect [that it] gets rolled into this omnibus bill here or this tax extender bill here or some other thing somewhere else. This is a big frustration I think a lot of people have with Congress, is the way that they operate in terms of just waiting and rolling dozens and dozens of issues into one giant bill.

Mooney: We felt that we had it in the bag toward the end of 2016. And then, we didn’t.

Our bill made it to the second-to-last draft of a year-end tax bill, and we were edited out the day before the vote. It was crushing, and it meant that we would need to start from scratch in the new Congress in 2017. Then, we did what craft distillers always do—we picked ourselves back up and got to work.

Sen. Wyden and his staff did what they do, too, and they pursued the bill with even more energy than ever before.

Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell

Sen. Rob Portman

Throughout the years, ACSA members and distillers regularly made calls to members of Congress, sometimes in person as part of public policy conferences. Most were planned, but one initial meeting was spontaneous.

Austin: D.C. is not cheap. Most of us were spending our own money, getting ourselves to D.C., buying our D.C. hotel rooms. Most of us were shelling out $1,000 every time we went there of our own money because it’s not like our businesses have that kind of money. It was time and money and miles walked in very impractical shoes for women. It was absolutely miserable and sweaty to be walking around D.C. carrying a heavy bag of stuff and trying to look like a professional when your armpits are disgusting. It was just not easy.

Huber: We were doing a lot of phone calls and talking to a lot of staff members, just doing all of that hardcore groundwork. I would just take some afternoons and just pick the phone up, just start calling, talking to staffers.

I’d say, “Please go visit my website and look at what a distillery is.”

Austin: I was doing a lot of reminiscing—all the silly stories about our first public policy conferences, late night stapling of packets,

Sen. Ron Wyden and Tom Mooney

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Rep. Erik Paulsen

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and just calling people and calling people and calling people to say, “Did you call? Did you call? Did you call?”

Blackwell: Probably in 2015, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) visited the distillery. His son was living in Charleston and we knew his son and he loved what we did. They came in, [he] showed his dad, “Hey, here’s this cool place.” I remember [Sen. Portman] said, “Hey if there’s ever anything I can do, let me know.” In the back of my mind I’m thinking, “I doubt it.”

Shilling: I give credit to Ralph and Melkon for being the ones that really originated this.

I often call them the godfathers of FET. Scott, I think, is probably the guy that had the greatest single impact on this issue without ever being known for it. And that’s entirely because of his relationship with Rob Portman.

Part IV: Temporary Relief By 2017, former President Donald Trump’s first year in office, bipartisan support for CBMTRA continued to grow. The bills had 303 co-sponsors in the House and 56 in the Senate, respectively. That year, ACSA held its own legislative fly-in to Washington, D.C., with members and suppliers from all over the country.

Lehrman: It was incredibly important then, and moving forward, to let their stories be told. Legislators heard first-hand how the tax savings would be used.

Hyland: Trump surprises D.C. [and] gets elected. But I figured, okay, there’s going to be a tax bill because that’s a big issue with [Trump]. Sure enough that happened, but we didn’t get in the House bill. … We have to get a [Senate] amendment going here to get something in. And Margie and I had remembered that Scott Blackwell is close to Rob Portman’s son.

Portman serves on the Senate Finance Committee.

Blackwell: Margie and Jim reached out and said, “You mentioned that you know Portman.

Would you be willing to reach out to him?”

Kind of as a Hail Mary because it was in that subcommittee. I said, “Yeah, I’ll reach out to him.” I thought, I don’t know how much he’ll listen to me. I’ve never done this before. I got in touch with him and he said, “Actually you’d be better to get in touch with my tax counsel and talk it over with him.” … They call back a day later, they inserted it. It was one of 12 things that got put into the bill and Portman said he made it one of his top priorities to get us in the bill. He pushed it in the bill.

Hyland: But it got in there for only two years because the [Joint Committee on Taxation] scored it as being very expensive—losing like $4 billion over two years, which is a crazy amount of money. That’s all we could get.

Collectively, I think we were like, “We’ve got to take two years. We live to fight another day.”

Austin: We always were told, “It’s too expensive.” We kept having to say to people, “We’re not brewers. We can’t turn anything around in a year. Whiskey takes a long time to plan. We need stability.”

Becky Harris (Current president of ACSA and president and chief distiller at Catoctin Creek Distilling Co. in Purcellville, Virginia): I remember changing in my spreadsheet the tax rate from $13.50 to $2.70. It was like, “What! … Oh my God!” We had been paying the original rate all along and it was a really nice ability to make some changes in our production team that we had wanted to for a while … we basically added one more person full time in production.

Hletko: It really helped us increase our investments behind the business. With the temporary passage, we were able to move to U.S. glass, and we were able to increase our sales force.

Blackwell: We were paying $50,000 [in taxes] a year. That allowed us to actually add an employee. … When you’re a young business, everything gets reinvested. It was rubber meets the road. But I was always sort of on pins and needles when we would look at costs going forward.

Austin and Shilling celebrated the tempo-

ACSA board and staff members await the arrival of Sen. Ron Wyden in the Oregon senator’s Capitol Hill conference room.

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Craft distillers at the Capitol for the ACSA and DISCUS Public Policy Conference in 2019

AF T SHletko, PI R I T S MAG Past ACSA presidentsC RPaul Tom.CO M Mooney, Mark Shilling and Chris Montana at an ACSA board retreat in 2018

rary relief with a permanent impression. During a visit to Pittsburgh for ACSA’s Distillers’ Convention and Vendor Trade Show in 2018, they got tattoos.

Shilling: I’m going to give all of the credit and the blame for that to Nicole. It was 100% her idea. I will say I didn’t resist too much on it because I thought it was a pretty great idea. What we ended up with, it’s sort of a parchment scroll, which is to represent the legislation itself. It has the year 2017 in Roman numerals and the initials CBMTRA. I want to say that 90% of that design was Nicole’s idea.

Also in 2018, ACSA formed a PAC to add focus to its legislative goals. Once again, a $5,000 check from Leopold kicked it off.

Stephen Johnson (ACSA PAC): FET reduction was the only issue that really mattered at the time to the smaller distillers. A handful of the members had plenty of experi-

Click here to learn more about the ACSA PAC.

“In short order, distilleries were building the economies throughout the country. We peppered House and Senate offices with story after story of reinvestment in American small businesses.”

—Margie A.S. Lehrman C R AF TSPIR ITSMAG.COM

ence pushing the topic in Washington, D.C., and all of us had made at least one trip a year to meet with our elected officials. In short, we knew what to do and decided that ACSA having its own PAC would let the association pursue this original goal on our own terms.

Lehrman recalls that a coalition of alcohol beverage groups—including ACSA, DISCUS, the Brewers Association, the Beer Institute, WineAmerica, the Wine Institute, the United States Association of Cider Makers and American Mead Makers Association—began holding weekly meetings to discuss the passage of CBMTRA. Lehrman: Knowing craft spirits had the most to lose, I would continue to bombard Jim with ideas from videos to infographics to personal appeals in our communications with Congress. More often than not, I’d repeat to Congressional staffers, “This is the farthest thing from Politics 101! With this much support, why can’t we move this forward? Aren’t you tired of seeing us sharing the exact same stories? Common sense would dictate passage, right?”

In 2019, ACSA facilitated more than 1,000 meetings with members of Congress and their staff.

Lehrman: In 2019, stories of reinvestment became even more critical. If Congress wanted us to show them how the FET reduction was going directly back into the distillery, our members stepped up and gave us the data we needed: jobs, benefits, expansions, more grain. In short order, distilleries were building the economies throughout the country. We peppered House and Senate offices with story after story of reinvestment in American small businesses.

Also in 2019, ACSA brought more than 150 craft spirits producers and its entire board of directors and past presidents to Capitol Hill to share their stories. Lehrman secured a meeting with the group from the Joint Committee on Taxation which had previously suggested CBMTRA would be expensive. She was joined

by Jim Hyland and Chris Montana, who was president of ACSA at the time.

Chris Montana (ACSA past president, founder and CEO of Du Nord Craft Spirits in Minneapolis): Some of the assumptions they were making maybe could have been possible, but only by folks who had a few

million dollars to spend, and that’s not our industry. … They were asking questions and my answers often rang contrary to the assumptions that they based their score on.

Lehrman: There were lots of mistaken assumptions that Chris was able to set right.

Montana: I think they were under the assumption that we could [all of a sudden produce a whole bunch of whiskey and remove it from bond] and that distributors would just take our product and store it, which is absolutely not true. No distributor is going to take a bunch of craft products and just sit on it.

They’re only going to take what they can sell.

Hyland: It’s not like selling socks at a big box retailer where they just put 99 cents on it and put it in a big bin and hope it disappears in two weeks. Chris was able to inform them more about our industry.

Montana: I didn’t leave that room thinking that we had convinced them, but subsequently they re-evaluated the score and reduced it.

Reducing that score was critical because the higher that score was, the harder it is to get passed. We walked in there with data. We could show [that] we’ve been doing this and tax receipts are up. So as far as this costing the government a ton of money, it’s just not true.

Lehrman: The ACSA board of directors held its annual retreat in Baltimore in December 2019, in the event we needed to make an end-of-year push for FET reform. We piled into a bus to make it to the Capitol, repeating the stories Congressional staff heard again and again.

Montana: Every person that we talked to knew about our bill. Everyone knows what’s going on. We had damn near everybody in D.C. signed on to this bill, so there was no question about that. So we weren’t even there to educate anyone about the bill. We were … pleading with them to just remember us at the 11th hour. It was just, “Please remember us.”

Support for CBMTRA was indeed strong.

S.362, sponsored by Sen. Wyden and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), eventually garnered 76 co-sponsors (36 Democrats, 36 Republicans and one independent). H.R. 1175, sponsored

by Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), counted on 350 co-sponsors (180 Democrats and 170 Republicans). But in 2019, permanence remained elusive. Distillers received a one-year extension of FET relief in a year-end tax package.

Lehrman: Once we learned of a one-yearextension, it was hard to be overjoyed. We had worked so hard for only 365 days of

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additional relief.

Hyland: I was always worried that we would be in an extension mode for a while. There’s another bill that the regional railroads have wanted made permanent and this has gone on for 18 years.

Shilling: The most frustrating thing about it is that for so many years it was always just out of reach. It seemed like we were always just right around the corner and it was never about not having enough support in Congress to pass it. It was about other things getting in the way.

Part V: Permanence In early 2020, ACSA’s board of directors and member distilleries expected another year of political efforts, filled with trips to Washington, D.C., to ask legislators in person for permanent relief. But a global pandemic had other plans.

In late March, hundreds of distilleries shifted their focus to making hand sanitizer amidst a nationwide shortage. Later in the year, ACSA and DISCUS hosted a virtual Public Policy Conference and ACSA members participated in multiple call-to-action days in which they reached out to the offices of representatives and senators.

Lehrman: The pandemic caused lots to change. We learned how our senators and representatives decorated their homes as Zoom calls were frequently held from their kitchens or home offices or living rooms.

Harris: From the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic hit, it was like, this is going to be the year. We’re going to do it. And then it was like COVID-19 took up all of the air in the room and it was really hard to see whether there was going to be a path forward to get this to be permanent.

Montana: COVID shattered the distilling industry. It was the perfect storm, with limited access to distribution cutting off revenue from the shelves. The bars shut down, cutting off another source of revenue. And then people’s own bars, their tasting rooms, get shut down, cutting off—for many of us—our primary source of income.

Johnson: Last October we made a big push for funds to contribute to the November elections and it was clear that members were weary from the major challenges of 2020 and that funds were very tight. We didn’t have a choice really, but to say that if the bill is only extended for 12 months, that we had to just jump right back in, saying to the membership, “Yes, I know we just asked for your financial support and asked you to write letters and

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“COVID shattered the distilling industry.

It was the perfect storm, with limited access to distribution cutting off revenue from the shelves. The bars shut down, cutting off another source of revenue.

And then people’s own bars, their tasting rooms, get shut down, cutting off—for many of us—our primary source of income.”

—Chris Montana call your congressmen and senators, but we’re asking you to do it again.”

Shilling: In the last month or six weeks there was always some little grain of hope that there would be a possibility of permanency. It kind of ebbed and flowed.

Harris: From a political standpoint I made it pretty clear to my representatives in Congress that this was something we had to have done this year. … At one point I said, “If I just end up getting a temporary extension, you know you’ll see me in January.”

boxes, like, “Okay, if we’re going to make this permanent, what do we need to do?” The Customs and Border Protection said, “Well, we can’t enforce this. We don’t know what these people are doing overseas. They could be making more than 100,000 proof gallons in a foreign country, and they’re trying to ship it over here.” So they wanted to fix that problem … and they started working on it. So they got it to a point where it was fixable and because it was fixable, [the Joint Tax Committee] was going to score it as “costing less money.”

Harris remembers seeing Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who had yet to throw his support behind CBMTRA, at a county business roundtable meeting late in the year.

In December, as Congress was laying the groundwork for an omnibus and stimulus package, Blackwell asked if he should place another call to Sen. Portman.

Harris: It was kind of funny because he saw me and was making his rounds in the room and came over and said, “Alright, I’ve been thinking about the FET thing … maybe I’m letting the sausage making get in the way.

I’m not going to push against you guys on this. I haven’t been for it, but I think I’m going to change my mind on this.” And I was like, “Yes! Finally!” That fact that I had been up in his grill enough that he recognized me at that point felt like a success.

Blackwell: Mark was knocking down walls, Jim, Margie [and] all these folks that I was talking to on these legislative calls [were] doing everything that they could to push it over the line and it just felt like we were just one yard away and couldn’t quite get it there.

Hyland: The House started working hard in December and started checking the

Blackwell: Margie said, “Listen, it won’t hurt.” So I called and I talked to his tax counsel yet again because I just felt like it was the most effective … like this was the person that was on the ground that was writing and helping him put these packages together. She called me back at 10 one night. They were up there in the middle of negotiations and she said, “I can’t promise anything but it’s looking really good.”

My wife, Ann, and I are sitting there on Sunday night, just before Christmas. ... It’s a D.C. number [on my phone], so I thought it was his tax counsel. I pick up the phone and he’s like, “Hey Scott, Rob Portman. I just wanted you to be the first person I called, because I know we started working on this several years ago and I just felt like there weren’t many more times that I could pull the genie

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out of the bottle—but we got permanency.”

And I was just like, “Oh my God. … That’s the best Christmas gift ever.”

There were other levers getting pushed, so it wasn’t like Portman was it. But … this is a guy who’s sitting there on this committee, in there in meetings with these other people and he knows from the front lines what’s happening.

Lehrman: Scott called me right after he heard from Portman. Few things make me cry.

Feeling a victory after the enormity of the day-in and day-out fight was an enormous relief. Knowing how this relief would be the very lifeline for so many struggling distilleries, and how it would provide the much-needed hope for a brighter future, was somewhat overwhelming in that moment.

Hyland: It just all came together in one big fat package of 5,000 pages. … And it was permanent. And we were all like, “Oh my God, they actually did it.” We were thinking one year, three years, you know, who knows? And then, Trump didn’t want to sign the bill! We’re all thinking we’ve got it. He’s threatening to veto the bill! We’re like, ‘Oh ----!”

Harris: That week of limbo before the president had signed the bill, I was really considering what would happen if he didn’t. And how much that was going to cost me if I had to pay the increased excise tax in January. I had a big bunch of shipments that were going to be going out and would it be possible for me to get enough bottled in that week that I could take it out of bond to try to save the thousands of dollars that it would make the difference? We were busting our hump trying to get stuff in bottles just in case.

Lehrman: That week felt like a decade. Just put the pen to paper!

Blackwell: Trump wouldn’t sign the damn

bill! So we were back on pins and needles for a few days there. But thankfully he signed it.

Hyland: It was a cliffhanger. Ironically, something that helped: the two Georgia Senate races were up on Jan. 5 and he signed the bill on Dec. 27. One of them, David Perdue, had called Trump and asked him to sign the bill because it was creating problems. Had David Perdue won and therefore Republicans controlled the Senate, [Trump] might’ve felt like he could have vetoed it.

Harris: And once he had signed it I was like “Oh wow, I can take a day off.”

Johnson: So many distillery owners had contributed so much of their time and personal resources for nearly a decade. The win was even better after the brutal year the craft distillers faced due to COVID-19.

Mooney: It’s fair to say we wouldn’t be here without Sen.Wyden and his staff. They promoted the bill, they spent time with us helping us understand the playing field so we could do our part. The Senator even came in person to the ACSA board retreat at Westward Whiskey [in 2018]. He was our biggest advocate, coach, cheerleader and friend.

Blackwell: Once we got this, I looked at my wife and said, “Finally, we can really count on this and look at this as we go forward as investing this money annually into more jobs or whatever it is to growing the business.” Now we can count on it. It’s not like, “Well, we can do it this year but we don’t know about next year.” It really came down to that. If we didn’t get it this year, with COVID-19, we’d probably be faced with laying somebody off. It’s that thin right now.

Montana: That it was going to be permanent, that told me that Du Nord could grow.

Outside of that FET permanence, that was an

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(Left to right) Sen. Ron Wyden, Tom Mooney and Mark Shilling discuss FET relief via Zoom during ACSA’s Craft Spirits Virtual Summit in 2020.

open question. Could Du Nord grow? Or did we need to go into turtle mode to survive until we could reopen the cocktail room?

Shilling: If you look at all the added pressures over the last 12 months or so on distilleries, not passing this would have really just been like a chop block at the knees for a lot of folks.

Blackwell: It’s good for our suppliers, it’s good for our communities. This is just more money that we can put into our businesses that help ripple out and affect all these other businesses and potential employees. … If we’re successful, all ships rise with the tide.

Khosrovian: [I feel] like a proud parent—or maybe grandparent—I’m overjoyed. We can finally plan our businesses around it and grow our segment to its full potential to offer variety and quality on a smaller scale for drinkers who crave something different Austin: What we’ve accomplished here is pretty exceptional. … It’s genuinely remarkable.

Erenzo: It’s rare that anyone in the states has an opportunity to directly affect legislation and law. … We were not professionals at lobbying. We were stumbling through.

Austin: We went from nothing. It wasn’t like we were an established lobbying organization that was taking on a new initiative. We knew nothing. We knew nothing and we had no money. All of our money came from membership and the conferences. And even those— we were strapped in the early years. We were a scrappy little agency and we got a lot done with that.

Hletko: I think it speaks to the power that we all have collectively—together, our voice gets heard and makes a difference.

Huber: Getting the big distilleries and small distilleries, the big wineries and small wineries,

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Sen. Mark Warner, with Margie A.S. Lehrman and Becky Harris, in 2019.

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“It’s good for our suppliers, it’s good for our communities. This is just more money that we can put into our businesses that help ripple out and affect all these other businesses and potential employees.”

—Scott Blackwell the big breweries and small breweries—to get everybody together and to look at a common good is something that I’m not sure the last time it happened.

Shilling: There’s really no way to know if there was that sort of seminal thing that some distiller in say Iowa or Florida or wherever else happened to have a member of Congress out for a tour and talked about this. And it really made an impact on that person and they went from being opposed or not even knowing about it to becoming a supporter. And everyone of those adds up, right? There’s just no way to know who and where and when all those little things happened.

Lehrman: Associations are about community. I could not be more proud how ours came together. Grit, determination and perseverance within our family of craft distillers enabled our success. ■

Share Your Story

Do you have memories from the fight for FET relief that you want to share? Send a note to news@ americancraftspirits.org and we may publish them in our next issue or online.

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C R AF T S PI R I T S MAG .CO M

THERE IS

STRENGTH IN MEMBERS

The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) is the only national association of craft distillers created and governed by craft distillers.

Our mission is to elevate and advocate for the community of craft spirits producers.

WHY JOIN? •

Build long-term relationships and enhance industry connections

•

Engage in the battle to make permanent the reduction in the Federal Excise Tax

•

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•

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TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MEMBERSHIP ONLY OPPORTUNITIES BY

JOINING TODAY! A: P.O. Box 701414, Louisville, KY 40270 P: (502) 807-4249 E: membership@americancraftspirits.org

Pandemic Holdovers The craft spirits industry has been tested but may emerge from the pandemic with many more tools in its toolbox.

BY ANDREW KAPLAN

T

hey say necessity is the mother of invention. This has become abundantly clear for craft distillers during the past year as the pandemic has forced them to expand their businesses in ways they wouldn’t necessarily have during normal times.

Many of these new ventures have been so successful that they look forward to maintaining them once the pandemic ends.

For many distillers, it was moving up plans for new projects they had long eyed but never could quite find the time to focus on. Popular

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ones include ready-to-drink cocktail programs, making better use of their facility’s outdoor space, and more fully embracing the internet for sales. And it has even forced some to take a closer look at the way they go about managing their operations.

For example, Marat Mamedov, co-owner of Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, ponders for a second why Boardroom never came out with a line of ready-to-drink cocktails prior to the pandemic, especially considering they now comprise about 40% of

his sales. “There was never a need to do it before, I guess is one way of looking at it, which was kind of near-sighted, if you will,” he says.

“The pandemic in a way kind of jolts you into embracing and accepting different and new ideas that maybe didn’t make sense at the time before. And that was kind of the position that we found ourselves in.”

In Longmont, Colorado, Nels Wroe, co-founder of Dry Land Distillers, agrees, pointing to the many new ventures—ready-todrink cocktails, gift boxes, virtual corporate

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Boardrooom’s Marat Mamedov

Crater Lake’s Alan Dietrich

“The description of our sales staff has expanded from literally just trying to make placements and get us on the menu to being a more complete partner with our better accounts.”

—Alan Dietrich of Crater Lake Spirits events—that his company has expanded into, and hopes to continue once the pandemic ends. “We were surprised at actually how effective some of the things we tried turned out to be, which is great, kind of a relief,” he says.

And Cheri Reese, co-founder and owner of Far North Spirits, in Hallock, Minnesota, says the challenges posed by the pandemic forced her to get innovative. “The limitations of the pandemic helped me see how you could be much more creative about connecting with people,” she says. “And maybe because of all the Zoom calls and Zoom meetings and things, it’s just like, ‘Okay, wait a minute, we could actually turn this into like lemonade, you know?’”

RELAXED RULES OPEN OPPORTUNITIES With tasting rooms forced to close, many craft distillers have been able to take advantage of relaxed restrictions on direct-toconsumer (DtC) sales to make up for that lost business. And many were surprised to find that it opened all kinds of doors for them. As a result, many would like to continue these new ventures even after the pandemic is over.

One example is Colorado, which changed the statewide rules to allow craft distillers to sell their spirits and cocktails online in May 2020. “We started selling online soon thereafter,” says Wroe.

The rule change is set to expire in July of this year, but the Colorado Distillers Guild and Colorado Brewers Guild are working hard to get the legislature to make the change permanent. “We’re hoping this will at minimum be extended,” says Wroe. “The industry expects the pandemic effects to be felt throughout 2021.”

There’s a reason Wroe hopes the rule is permanently changed. Dry Land has built

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a thriving online-based business since the pandemic began. For example, during the holidays, between Dec. 1 and Dec. 20, he says, Dry Land delivered around 300 orders alone.

“I think COVID allowed our industry to really try some things that we have been advocating for for a long time,” Wroe says. “And we’re finding our legislators now see that ‘Oh, okay, nothing bad happened.’ In fact, to the contrary.

It can be a positive thing for an industry.”

Dry Land has also built a successful gift box business during the pandemic months that it would like to continue once things return to normal. It partnered with a local company, Colorado Crafted, that includes a bottle of Dry Land’s spirits with other local artisanal goods.

Wroe is especially enthusiastic about continuing the company-targeted part of the gift box program. “That is definitely something we will keep going after the pandemic,” he says.

It includes custom-built, make-your-owncocktail kits Dry Land delivers to a company’s employees. Dry Land personnel then arrange an online team-building event around the gift box. “We get everyone on a Zoom call and lead them through a team activity like doing a cocktail class together,” Wroe says.

With in-person visits such a challenge during the pandemic, companies have also turned to Dry Land to add an extra kick to their virtual sales calls. “One of the companies we were working with wanted to do something a bit more engaging, to engage key clients and prospects,” Wroe says. Such events can include a guided tasting and even a virtual distillery tour. Dry Land has such events booked up weekly through April, Wroe says.

“People love the social engagement, even if it’s in a virtual setting, of either cocktails or

spirits,” he says. “We find we have to limit the time for people asking questions about distilling and spirits to give time to talk about the actual corporate topics.

“We’ve had phenomenal engagement from these sessions, which is why the companies want to keep doing this. Because I think people are going to continue to do this even after the pandemic because many of these companies will continue to have their employees at home.”

For Mamedov, of Boardroom, the pandemic was an incentive to embrace a to-go business model. “I think the most important thing for us that is going to stay is the ready-to-drink cocktails that we introduced during this time in both the bottled and canned formats,” he says.

Mamedov says online sales will be a big focus going forward. To do so, Boardroom has transformed its tasting room into a space for storing pallets of inventory. “We transformed a whole tasting room into basically a fulfillment center,” he says.

When the pandemic ends Mamedov has plans to expand Boardroom’s focus to cater to what he expects to be a backlog of events like weddings, which his distillery would host. “We’re realistically going to convert ourselves to just becoming an event venue and kind of catering to that,” he says. He also envisions extending the distillery’s business into satellite locations that would function as cocktail lounges.

“There’s going to be so many really impatient and upset brides-to-be that haven’t had the chance to have their wedding and there’s going to be a lack of spaces, that might have closed during COVID,” says Stephen Oliver, AIA, principal, OPA Design Studio, Inc., of Austin, Texas. “There is a reason why the

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Sonoma Distilling’s Adam Spiegel

Far North owners Michael Swanson and Cheri Reese

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Base Camp Iron Fish

Roaring Twenties were the Roaring Twenties. After World War I and the Spanish Flu, everybody flocked to these kinds of venues to be together. And I think many of these facilities would stand to benefit from … that surge of people wanting to be back in these kinds of spaces.”

To get around any post-pandemic rules that would possibly restrict its blossoming cocktail-to-go program, Dry Land is in the process of filing for formula approval with the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) so it can continue to sell its to-go cocktails as packaged products. “It’s likely that the regulations will go back to where they were,” he says. “The state allows us to sell cocktails to go right now, but that’s a temporary change. … So we are filing for formula approval for these cocktails so we can actually sell them as products after that.”

Wroe says if it wasn’t for the pandemic, Dry Land wouldn’t have necessarily ever tried cocktails to go. “We probably never would have thought about packaging these cocktails or getting formula approval over the long term either because we were thinking more traditionally along our spirits as being the only product we sell,” he says.

HEADING OUTDOORS With tasting rooms shut down, many craft distilleries looked to their outdoor spaces to take up the slack—at least where the weather made it feasible. But some craft distilleries have gone even further—more fully integrating their outdoor spaces into their business models with the full intention of continuing that after the pandemic.

There’s perhaps no finer example of this than Iron Fish Distillery, located in Thompsonville, Michigan. Since the pandemic, Iron Fish has converted part of its land (it is Michigan’s first farm distillery) to take full advantage of the area’s year-round outdoor recreation.

“We’re an end destination in a northern Michigan outdoor economy, four-season economy,” says Richard Anderson, partner.

The distillery describes the resulting Base Camp Iron Fish as “a village of individual heated, waterproof, breathable canvas tents where guests can be cozy while enjoying spirits, cocktails and farm fresh wood fired pizza and snacks.”

The tents are three sizes and can accommodate groups of two to four or six to eight people and are available on a first-come, firstserved basis for a 90-minute timeframe. The space is fully refreshed and sanitized between each use.

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“I think COVID allowed our industry to really try some things that we have been advocating for for a long time.”

—Nels Wroe of Dry Land Distillers Dry Land’s gift box

“We love winter and playing outside in the snow,” says Anderson. “Being so close to Crystal Mountain, we have a lot of guests that feel that same way. We thought the tents kind of evoked the sense of a mountaineering base camp, so Base Camp Iron Fish was born.”

In addition to the heated tents, Iron Fish also offers seating on a heated, covered outdoor patio, and at picnic tables surrounding big bonfires. Outdoor, live music will continue throughout the winter, and a number of special events and guest chef pop ups are planned.

Also, a heated outdoor spirit tasting and merchandise area will also be available. This Spring they will begin construction on a permanent outdoor merch and tasting bar that will be located within a well-ventilated grain silo (about 24 feet in circumference).

LESSONS LEARNED For other craft distilleries, the pandemic forced them to consider new ways to operate their distilleries.

For example, Reese, of Far North Spirits, noticed enormous benefits from a simple reservation system that was required by the State of Minnesota to limit tasting room occupancy during the pandemic.

“That was a requirement to take reservations and make sure you were at 25 or 50% capacity,” she says. “And we found that the reservation was really kind of a nice way to do it. We decided to do two seatings and I think we’ll probably continue reservations. Just the idea of having a reservation really helps support the kind of laid-back, calm environment we want to have out here in our prairie

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cocktail bar.”

Other distillers have realized that they can use their team more flexibly. For example, Crater Lake Spirits in Bend, Oregon, learned that its sales team could play a valuable role during the pandemic helping its struggling on- and off-premise accounts.

“The description of our sales staff has expanded from literally just trying to make placements and get us on the menu to being a more complete partner with our better accounts,” says Alan Dietrich, the company’s CEO. This could include anything from sweeping the floor, stocking shelves or rotating stock, Dietrich says. He adds that in the next few years, as these accounts struggle to get back on their feet, being this more complete partner will continue.

Crater Lake also plans on continuing some best operations practices it put in place during the pandemic, such as more social distancing between the distillery’s staff and perhaps a more generous sick leave policy.

Along these lines, Adam Spiegel, founder and whiskey maker for Sonoma Distilling Co., in Rohnert Park, California, says the pandemic really drove home how dependent he is on his team. As a result, he decided to change his management approach. “It’s a wholly different experience when you realize you’re only as good as your employees and it’s a communal effort that decides what we do,” he explains.

“It’s not a top-down decision, it’s a bottom-up decision. That just feels really good. It feels really natural to me and it’s the way I would always prefer to run my business from day one. It took a pandemic to really show me how to do it.”

ONE THING NOT STICKING AROUND If craft distillers agree on one thing they’d rather not continue once the pandemic ends, it happens to ironically be one of the things they got the most positive attention for during this challenging experience—hand sanitizer. These distillers simply said that now that professional suppliers are caught up with the demand, the motivation, or need, for them to add to the supply was just no longer there.

A holiday season scare around a possible hand sanitizer fee for those distilleries who pivoted to make sanitizer probably didn’t help either. “It definitely filled a need in our county,” says Reese. “But when that fee came out from the FDA [on] New Year’s Eve, literally, that was such a freak-out moment for us.”

When the pandemic finally recedes, a more sharply honed craft distilling industry, which is more resilient and has more profitable tools in its toolbox, could very well emerge.

“The pandemic has not been fun,” sums up Wroe, “however, we have survived, slightly thrived to some degree. It’s actually creating new jobs for us sooner than we would have normally had. So, the revenue lines have held up, we’ve created these new revenue lines.

And it’s creating jobs. Maybe not now, but it will be later this summer, when we will have expanded our team by 40%. And it’s because we will be further along in some of our planning and we need some new skill sets.”

Adds Mamedov: “We’re either going to evolve or evaporate. Let’s get smart. We’ve lost this sales channel, and this sales channel, and this sales channel—well, how do we gain that back in a different sales channel or a different service offering, or something else?” ■

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Starting Up in a Shutdown Amid closures and quarantines, startup distilleries forged ahead during the pandemic.

BY JON PAGE

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Happy Raptor founders Mark Taliancich and Meagen Moreland-Taliancich (with their son, Zeek), and co-founder Peter Rivera

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T

he stills arrived on Feb. 11, 2020. After years of careful planning, chemists Rob and Kim Campbell were one giant step closer to opening Dog and Shrub Distillery in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and a global pandemic that would bring the world to a halt one month later couldn’t stop them.

“We had to get some cash flow,” says Campbell, whose distillery opened in June. “You’re getting to the point where you’re just bleeding money from the installation of equipment and buying supplies. … After we opened, even in the middle of getting ready, people [were] like, ‘Well why did you keep going?’ And I’m like, ‘Because we had so much invested.’ There was no turning back at that point.”

March 11 will mark the one year anniversary of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. In its wake, more than 500,000 Americans are dead and the world is still reeling. While the pandemic did force many distilleries to close their doors, startup distilleries across the nation forged ahead, even if they were forced to adapt their plans.

Campbell recently retired from 25 years of teaching high school chemistry and physics, but he was still teaching when the pandemic hit. He was teaching remotely from the distillery in April when steam lines and water lines were installed, allowing him to help troubleshoot during the day. “Otherwise it would have been this weird fiasco of them trying to catch me during a break at school,” he says. “I was probably one of the few people in those first two months where COVID was actually helping me get set up. … [And in May, I could] fire up the stills and do a mash or do a distilla-

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tion at the same time I was teaching, so I had almost the whole month of May to at least start learning the equipment.”

Dog and Shrub is named after Kim and Rob’s love for dogs and shrubs, the fruit-based sugar/vinegar syrups used in most of their cocktails. Rob first released a vodka, then a gin, and he’s starting to make whiskey. The pandemic forced Dog and Shrub to find local distribution sooner than anticipated, but Campbell says expediting a large patio may have been the distillery’s saving grace in 2020.

“We did in our first six months what I thought we would do in our first year,” he says. “We were way busier than what I ever thought we would be. I think what happened is because there were no fairs going on, no concerts going on, there was nothing to do.

So people were looking for local things to do.

And the fact that we had our patio, I think that was probably busier than it ever would have been without COVID.” Outdoor spaces were crucial for other distilleries—like Better Man Distilling in Patchogue, New York, and Happy Raptor Distilling in New Orleans—which opened soon before the pandemic. Getting involved with the community was also important, says Abby Gruppuso, head of operations for Better Man. The distillery made hand sanitizer early in the pandemic, and Gruppuso coordinated the Patchogue Virtual Bar Crawl, in which area restaurants and bars delivered appetizers and drinks. And during the holiday season, Better Man converted its office into a holiday shop filled with bottles and products from local vendors.

“We don’t have to be just a distillery in order to get through this,” says Gruppuso. “So

what can we do to create another experience for people, help other people in the community out and just get through it any way that we can?”

A similar mantra guides Lugo’s Craft Spirits in Lakeland, Florida. Once the distillery was operational in Florida, the family-owned business opted to first make hand sanitizer, rather than start production on its Pitorro Rum. “Having been in the corporate world for many years it’s kind of always a base foundation that I learned about making sure that we’re supporting and helping the community,” says co-founder and owner Peter Lugo. “[Our distillery] is hopefully something that outlasts us all, and you just have to create a solid foundation of who you are and what you want to be and you build on that. If you don’t have that right out of the chute, then it’s a difficult journey.”

Happy Raptor also focused on helping its community. In addition to making hand sanitizer, the distillery offered a 30% discount to essential workers at the height of the shutdown and co-founders Mark Taliancich and Meagen Moreland-Taliancich say the distillery made a little over $10,000 in local donations last year.

After a hectic push to open on Feb. 14, 2020, Mark and Meagen say the initial shutdown was a blessing in disguise for the distillery. Along with co-founder Peter Rivera, they were working on the distillery seven days a week prior to opening. “Then we had Mardi Gras,” says Mark. “We were there 15 hours a day for the next two weeks and when the shutdown happened it forcibly stopped us. We’d been going at 150 for two months at that point.” Adds Meagen: “It made us

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Burnt Church Distillery founders and brothers Billy and Sean Watterson

“After we opened, even in the middle of getting ready, people [were] like, ‘Well why did you keep going?’ And I’m like, ‘Because we had so much invested.’

There was no turning back at that point.”

—Rob Campbell of Dog and Shrub Distillery

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Dog and Shrub’s Rob and Kim Campbell

stop and get the foundation of our business underneath us.”

The foundation for Harridan Vodka, an 88-proof organic spirit that was first released in December, took root thanks to the pandemic. Bridgette Taylor was completing her MBA at Harvard Business School in the spring of 2020, and was eyeing a future in luxury retail and fashion. During quarantine, she developed a passion for making cocktails at home and saw room for alternatives in the vodka category. After a consulting job she had lined up was pushed off for six months, she started to seriously pursue spirits in May. “That was this moment where I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have from May when I graduated until 2021 doing nothing,’” recalls Taylor. “How can I make this time valuable?”

Taylor was turned off by most of her interactions with contract distillers, so she reached out to a distillery that wasn’t advertising contract services. At Myer Farm Distillers in Ovid, New York, president and master distiller Joe Myer says he regularly receives and declines unsolicited requests about contract distilling. But he liked what he heard from Taylor. “Everything she was saying kind of aligned with my view,” says Myer. “She came out to the distillery and we met and it was just bang, we were totally right in it.”

Of course, startup distilleries were not immune to slowdowns. Devon Trevathan and Colton Weinstein (a member of ACSA’s board of directors) had hoped to launch their nomadic spirits company, Travaleer Spirits, last summer. When the pandemic picked up steam, they were travelling in Europe and cut their trip, and plans to launch, short. They are now hoping to launch this spring. In Holt, California, Jack Zech says that the pandemic slowed down the permitting process for Sabbatical California Spirits. The fourth-generation owner and operator of Victoria Island Farms hopes to open the distillery this year.

And in Maryland, David Harris and Megan Draheim weren’t planning to open Song Dog Distilling by the pandemic, but it did significantly affect their plans.

“We had completed all plans and permitting for construction of a 15,000-square-foot facility and planned to begin construction in early June of 2020,” says Harris. “But as we moved through the spring and the initial economic shock from the pandemic, it became increasingly clear that our anticipated loans could not be approved in this climate. So after 18 months of meticulous and expensive planning, we had to scrap our existing plans and we are in the process of selling the building.”

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Harridan Vodka founder Bridgette Taylor

Harris and Draheim are now embracing the increased interest in open-air hospitality and are planning to open a farm distillery in Montgomery County, just outside of Washington, D.C. It’s a natural fit for a distillery that hopes to focus on terroir. Plus, Harris suspects that many consumer habits formed during the pandemic will remain for the foreseeable future.

“I think this is a lasting consumer shift,” says Harris. “I think that in America a year from now we’re going to see some people wearing masks. I think some of these things are going to stick around for a long time.”

In Bluffton, South Carolina, Burnt Church Distillery will open on March 5, and co-founder Billy Watterson says the distillery was able to learn many lessons from the pandemic.

“We’ve been able to learn from everyone

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Christian Lugo and Peter Lugo of Lugo’s Craft Distillery

else that had to scramble in terms of how to approach things,” he says. “Even touchless sensors now for soap dispensers.”

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, many people interviewed for this story wouldn’t change how it affected their businesses. Taylor believes that if she had tried to create Harridan prior to the pandemic, it would have been a suboptimal offering. “I was really able to hone in [the fact that] I want the best possible product there is and I will try every damn vodka and speak to every single person I possibly can to get the exact product that I’m envisioning,” she says. “If I didn’t have that time and that commitment, I wouldn’t have had the obsession with quality that ultimately led me to Joe and the incredible product that he produces.”

That’s a sentiment shared by Brian Higgins, who plans to open 1861 Distillery sometime this year in Thomasville, Georgia. “It’s given us time to slow down and rethink things and make sure we’re doing it right the first time instead of rushing through it,” he says.

According to Campbell, not having a year or two of production under his belt made it easier to shift gears from the start.

“I think because we opened in the middle of this, it gave us way more flexibility than we would have probably normally had,” says Campbell. “To be honest I think if we were trying to plan this during COVID we would have just said, ‘No.’ “Odd as it sounds, other than having to wear a mask all the time, I don’t know that I would change what we did.” ■

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Bar 1661 is dedicated to the revival of Ireland’s native spirit, poitín.

Survival of the Genuine

The future of European craft spirits remains unknown as the pandemic continues.

BY JENNIFER CIRILLO

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t’s been a roller coaster ride: ups, downs, unexpected turns and no certainty of when the final drop will be. As Europe faces a second lockdown, the fear is real and the future is unknown for the spirits industry as a whole, and in particular the craft sector.

While each country, and in some cases regions within that country, is facing their own individual challenges and restrictions and the majority of the on-premise closed (with the exception of takeaway) the spirits industry continues to suffer.

For craft spirits in particular, the on-premise serves as a stage for visibility and trial. In addition to hospitality being an important sales outlet for craft spirits, so is tourism. Travel retail, for example, serves as a window to the world for craft brands and this retail outlet was virtually erased overnight. As consumers travel to new places, visitor centers for spirits have proven not only successful, but vital for craft brands to share their story and allow consumers to experience their liquid first-hand.

“The experience factor of spirits tourism in Europe really has taken off,” says Ulrich Adam, director general, Spirits Europe. “The year before last in 2019 we were celebrating 50 years of spirits tourism in Europe. In 1969 Glenfiddich was the first brand to open a visitor’s center and that has been a key communication tool that has been copied by many distillers large and small, but particularly for craft spirits. The transparency, the experience—come and visit us and see where the magic happens—is really, really important.

This is the DNA of a craft distiller.

“There has also been a lot invested in visitor centers for spirits such as Scotch, Whisky and Cognac. We saw more than 2 million visitors in Scotland in 2019 and more than 1 million in Ireland. That will take time to come back.”

Adam relays that in some regions, like Asia, where travel retail has begun to reopen, it has rebounded quite quickly, so this is reassuring.

In Europe, the spirits sales in travel retail are down roughly by two-thirds, he says.

However, not all has come to a grinding halt. In the true nature of craft brands, some have proven resilient to overcome the hurdles that have arisen as a result of COVID-19 to keep their brands and stories alive.

Many resorted to making hand sanitizer in the first instance. While the big players got media attention for this initiative, the craft brands were also taking part to help

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their community when the first lockdown was administered.

In London, Bimber Distillery, producers of single malt whisky, was one of many that offered hand sanitizer when there was an immediate need. “We produced a batch of WHO formula hand sanitizer so that we could support our local community’s frontline health professionals,” says Matt McKay, head of marketing and communications for Bimber Distillery.

In a digital age when socializing in person has been virtually banned, social media became an important outlet for brands to continue to engage with their customers and consumers, staying top of mind.

“Bimber was one of the first distilleries in the U.K. to move to online tastings, hosting a range of bespoke virtual events (including digital tours of the distillery) from Q2 of 2020 onwards,” recounts McKay. “We similarly have supported a wide range of virtual festivals, producing exclusive tasting sets (many of which showcase work-in-progress and unreleased expressions) together with dedicated bottlings produced for these events. But perhaps our biggest success of 2020 in terms of innovation was the launch of our new membership option, Bimber Klub.”

Bimber Klub is a community for single malt whisky fans offering access to limited edition Klub bottlings, annual distillery tours and exclusive member events for a one-off fee of £40.

“Despite the worldwide circumstances, it has resulted in over 1,400 members globally in under six months,” he says.

Frédéric Bourgoin of Bourgoin Cognac, based in Saint-Saturnin, France, anticipates that 20% of his competitors won’t survive the pandemic. Bourgoin, who is the winegrower and responsible for bringing the brand, Bourgoin Cognac, to life in 2016, is heavily reliant on the on-premise with 98% of sales generated from that channel.

“I think that some of our customers will disappear, but I also think some of our competitors will disappear too,” he says. “It will accelerate the monopoly of the big groups because they have the money to keep safe.”

Bourgoin Cognac is family owned and operated and its story began in 1930 when Bourgoin’s great grandfather started the distillation of this single estate cognac. Today’s product range offers cognac to enjoy neat (Brut De Fut and Microbarrique), cognac for cocktails (Fine Pale and Verseau) and a vermouth French style (Pineau Des Charentes).

Bourgoin is taking steps to ensure his business and brand are able to come off the ride, albeit rattled, but not retired.

Social media has also played a key role for this brand. “It works because even though people are a bit concerned about this situation, they are still on social media looking for stories,” says Bourgoin. He is able to share every aspect of the brand and how it’s made from the soil where the grape vines are planted to the labels on the bottles. There are craft brands that don’t own their own production equipment, he notes, which could be yet

“Getting to pre-COVID levels in spirits both in volume and value will take time.

Two, three, four years in Europe.”

—Ulrich Adam of Spirits Europe another hurdle. “I think the future of who will survive and who will not survive will be there.

If you have all the raw materials to communicate with it’s easier,” he says. Some brands rely on images taken in the atmosphere of an on-premise account—a finished cocktail or bartender making a drink in a venue. “Without this it is difficult for those brands to create content and connect with consumers.”

As many brands that are reliant on the on-premise have shifted their focus to the off-premise, so has Bourgoin Cognac.

However, in France this shift is a challenge as the drinking culture is France is very social and wine and beer are predominantly sold in the liquor stores, making up about 80% of sales. “In France there are not a lot of people

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drinking cognac alone; it is not our culture,” he explains.

“We may also start to prospect the French boutiques, the bakeries and cheese shops,” notes Bourgoin. The types of shops that will be open in the cities that also focus on artisan, premium products.

Bartender engagement is also key in selling small batch premium brands. For Bourgoin, he is taking this time to re-engage with bartenders, sending them samples of the brand.

“We still send sample and letters to new bartenders,” he says, “and it’s a good time to do that because they are not in a rush.

Bartenders are typically working all night, sleeping during the day and running, running, running. Today, they have more time in their house to taste product. It’s a good time to prospect them at home, but it’s a good period to work on these types of things that we can do to engage.”

For the cocktail bars that had to shut their doors, the common approach to offset that sales loss has been to create premium, pre-batched cocktails for delivery or click and collect.

Dave Mulligan, who owns and operates Bar 1661 in Dublin, Ireland, found success in prebatched craft cocktails. Simply named, Craft Cocktails, and simply packaged in two sizes of glass bottles with bright and bold-colored labels with matching wax seal, the range of six cocktails has been a huge sensation.

“We moved pretty quick,” says Mulligan.

Because he also owns his own brand of Ireland’s native spirit poitín, Bán Poitín, this allowed Mulligan and members of his team to get the product off the ground in a short period of time. “I was lucky I had that,” he says.

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The team at Bar 1661, an award-winning cocktail bar and winner of Ireland’s Best Cocktail Bar in 2019 is also dedicated to the revival of Ireland’s native spirit.

Mulligan explains that the cocktail culture in Ireland is still in its infancy, so it was important to simplify the pre-batch cocktails in the way they were packaged and how they should be consumed. “Let’s get the classics out there,” explains Mulligan with his approach.

Made from 100% natural ingredients and available in 200-mL (serves two) and 700-mL (serves seven) the range includes Aviation, Pornstar Martini, Raspberry Negroni, Strawberry Daiquiri, Tommy’s Margarita and an Old Fashioned. Available to purchase via the bar’s website and a dozen retailers, Craft Cocktails has been a home run.

Now, there are 10 people working on the Craft Cocktail range and behind the closed doors of the cocktail bar is a factory and distribution center, jokes Mulligan.

In addition, Mulligan is also offering Dream Drams, 50-mL servings of Bar 1661’s favorite whiskeys, including rarities and exclusives, direct to consumer’s doors.

When the on-premise does re-open once more, the question remains, what will that landscape look like? How many doors will remain shut? How much space will there be on the back bar of those venues that do welcome consumers once more?

Adam of Spirits Europe shares the lockdowns across Europe will result in a 15-25% loss in sales for the bigger spirits producers for the year and he anticipates that for the craft distillers, that loss will be far greater.

“Getting to pre-COVID levels in spirits both in volume and value will take time,” he says.

“Two, three, four years in Europe.” However, the premiumization trend in spirits that has been ongoing seems to be continuing, which could be a positive for those craft brands that can weather the storm.

“If you look at the segmentation,” Adam continues, “generally in Europe it seems that the demand for premium products will remain high so that could be an opportunity for craft distillers because they are playing in the highend space.”

For Bimber Distillery, the premiumization trend helped bolster sales.

“Whilst 2020 has disrupted the competitive landscape and market dynamics of world whisky, the traits which underpin the industry remain robust and demand—particularly for high-quality, craft products—is still extremely buoyant,” notes McKay. “Bimber has seen this directly, with all of our 2020 releases selling out rapidly, despite the challenges of the continuing global health situation.”

For those craft spirits that have remained alive through it all, the knock-on effects of the pandemic on global economies will be the deciding factor for many industries.

“The longer this lasts, the endemic risks of an economic crisis in Europe is darkening,” notes Adam. “Then consumer spending will be affected and the whole thing could look completely different because people might start downtrading, there might be price pressures and that could offset craft and the high-end sector, so we are talking here today without having a crystal ball for the future. There are some silver linings, but this could go completely the other way.”

For now, the coaster continues at speed and the industry—buckled in—holds on. ■

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Bimber Distillery hosted a range of bespoke virtual events in 2020.

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member spotlight

Made in Memphis Old Dominick Distillery honors the past and looks toward a bright future.

BY JON PAGE

ver the course of five generations and several moves, the bottles and crates were shuffled from office to office, conference room to conference room. For many in the family business, they started to blend into the background.

Artifacts of a bygone era.

Along came an investment banker asking about the bottles. Chris Canale obliged, telling the story of his great, great grandfather, Domenico Canale. He immigrated to the U.S. from Italy in 1859 and later established D. Canale & Co. as a food wholesaler. He also created a whiskey dubbed Old Dominick and the Dominick Toddy, a bourbon-based cordial, which was halted by Prohibition.

O

“A week later we got an offer for the brand.

Just the brand,” recalls Canale. “He just wanted to take the story, the Old Dominick story, and turn it into a brand.”

Chris Canale and his cousin, Alex Canale, had a better idea. Looking to get back into a local, family business—D. Canale & Co. had previously spun its food and beer distribution businesses off and sold them—they started planning the creation of Old Dominick Distillery in 2013.

“It’s kind of in my blood,” says Chris. “That’s the kind of thing I grew up doing. We’ve got five generations of distribution experience.

We’ve got a brand. It’s our story. We kind of feel like it’s part of the fabric of the city of

Memphis, and off we went.”

Chris Canale brought a wealth of business experience to the project, with a resume that included working for the distribution company, the timber business and venture capital.

Alex Canale brought experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry. For Chris, the appeal of a local, brick-and-mortar business was strong. He has fond memories of his first summer job at the beer distribution company, working an ice machine.

“I really did miss tangible work,” says Chris.

“And having a real business that you can touch, with real employees and real customers. There’s so much value to that. As a young man I saw the tangible value in that. I’ve got

Click here to listen to a conversation with Alex Castle on The Craft Spirits Podcast.

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four kids of my own and that’s something I want for them too.”

When it came time to hire a distiller, the Canales found their eventual choice on LinkedIn. At the time, Alex Castle was a distillery supervisor for Wild Turkey who had no aspirations to work for a startup distillery.

She is also a Kentucky native, and moving to Memphis wasn’t on her radar, but she decided to take a chance and interview for the job.

The timing of her interview helped win her over. It coincided with Memphis in May, a month-long festival that includes a world champion barbecue cooking contest and more.

The Canales also took Castle and her husband to an NBA playoff game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors.

“They did it up right that weekend,” says Castle. “[We] got to see Memphis at its best for the first time, and in May it’s so easy to fall in love with this city because of all the festivals and there’s so much going on. It was a fantastic experience.”

Castle knew as early as high school that she wanted to be a distiller or brewer, but distilling won out during a co-op at Alltech in Lexington, Kentucky. After a few months of cleaning the copper stills, she finally got a chance to run them. “I don’t think I stopped smiling once the entire day, and I realized that brewing just wasn’t going to be enough for me,” says Castle. “I needed that one extra step. I needed distillation.”

Castle was the first female head distiller in

Tennessee, and she was promoted to senior vice president in 2019.

“That was never on my radar,” says Castle.

“I thought master distiller was where I wanted to be and that was the highest up the corporate ladder I would ever climb. So for me it was an honor that my owner actually thought that I was capable and the right person to step up into an executive leadership role.”

Castle is extremely active in the greater distilling community, as well. Last year she was elected as president of the Tennessee Distillers Guild. She also serves on the Craft Advisory Council for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and is on the board for The Spirit Hub Independent Distillery Preservation Fund.

“I used to think that my passion was strictly distilling and that’s what got me into this industry,” says Castle. “I’ve realized it’s not distilling, it’s actually just the industry as a whole that I absolutely love and am passionate about, and I want this industry to just explode. I want it to succeed and I want it to always be around. It’s honestly just wanting the best for the spirits industry and the spirits world that gets me through the day.

“And yes, I have a hectic schedule and I have a lot that I do from 5 o’clock in the morning until 9 o’clock at night, but it doesn’t feel like work because I can’t imagine being in any other industry.”

Currently, Old Dominick has several whiskeys on the market, under the Huling Station

line, that were produced to the distillery’s specifications by MGP. Castle says the distillery’s in-house produced whiskey should be ready for release in 2022.

“We have a Tennessee whiskey, of course,” she says. “That one’s a more traditional mashbill. It’s 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley. And then we actually do make the high rye bourbon and the wheat whiskey on site, as well, and it’s the same mash bill we did at MGP, just with slightly different proof targets at various different points of the process. So hopefully we’ll end up with similar products but very different at the same time.”

Old Dominick also produces vodka and a gin, which turned into a passion project for Castle. She read numerous books on the subject and took classes to learn more about botanicals. In the end, she landed on a spirit infused with juniper, coriander, angelica root, licorice root, grapefruit peel, chamomile, orris root and ginger root.

“What I was going for was something very different from a gin,” says Castle. “It ended up being this very earthy, very sweet light floral, light citrus gin flavor. I think it’s a very unique flavor but also very approachable.”

Ultimately, Castle hopes that consumers will think of Old Dominick and Memphis for its whiskey.

“When you think Memphis, you think barbecue, you think music,” says Castle. “But hopefully by 10 years you’ll think of bourbon and whiskey as well when you think of Memphis.” ■

“We’ve got five generations of distribution experience. We’ve got a brand. It’s our story. We kind of feel like it’s part of the fabric of the city of Memphis, and off we went.”

-Chris Canale of Old Dominick Distillery 56 |

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Cousins Alex and Chris Canale

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Distilling Destinations

Reclaiming the Past Georgia distilleries look ahead to a bright future.

BY JOHN HOLL

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Chris Sywassink of Ghost Coast Distillery

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alk with distillers in Georgia today and it does not take long for them to mention that their state once had the greatest number of stills per capita, before Prohibition came along.

Of course, the 18th Amendment did not kill spirits in this Southern state, it just pushed moonshining underground and made it a quiet family tradition that was passed on from generation to generation.

Even when hooch became legal to make again, spirits were largely left behind in the beverage industry, with beer taking the lead.

About a half dozen years ago, state laws were changed, making it easier for small distilleries to open, operate and share their wares with curious consumers.

“There is a strong opinion, that I share, that Georgia is the best state in the Union for distilleries,” says Britt Moon, the founder and distiller at Swamp Fox Distilling Co. in Buena Vista. “There is exceptional water quality in the majority of the state, the majority ties into the Florida aquifer.”

Water being the most important ingredient, Moon notes that his well is at a depth of 550 feet and is so pure that he does not have to dial in pH or make adjustments.

“It’s just straight from the tap to the tun,” he says.

There is also a matter of climate, says Justin Douglas, the founder and distiller of Simple Man Distillery in Alpharetta. Because of different regions and temperature swings, the state is able to grow a lot of diverse produce from apples and blueber-

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ries to, of course, peaches. Agriculture is big business in the state and the local distilleries are quick to mention that they are working with local farms for fruit-infused liqueurs, vodkas and brandies.

The state can also see temperature swings of 30 to 40 degrees in spring and fall, which is helpful in the production of bourbon.

“With the wood expanding and contracting we can have a full cycle in a day,” says Moon.

It’s the educational component, the distillers say, that is often the most fun and certainly the most rewarding. Being a relatively new (again) industry in the state there is a lot of curiosity from locals and giddy interest from tourists.

When Ghost Coast Distillery opened in Savannah in 2017, the founders chose a location in the historic district of the city, says general manager and co-founder Chris Sywassink. It was a way to capitalize on the large number of tourists who came through the city every year before COVID-19. Sywassink says that a lot of locals avoid that part of town, so they are usually speaking to visitors who are excited to try new things, have special experiences, and are likely to pick up souvenir bottles.

Over the years, Ghost Coast has collected visitor data and used that to fuel its distribution growth to new cities.

“We know that not a lot of these visitors are going to be coming back for another vacation any time soon, so we want to give them a chance to get bottles where they live,” says Sywassink.

The distillery also has a marketing plan for

local residents so that they can be a part of their drinking experiences, even if they avoid the more “touristy” aspects of Savannah.

“We make over seven different spirits,” he says “and our cocktail menu changes frequently following fruits, seasons, even feelings.”

With only a handful of distilleries in the state, there is also diversity. From the rums, including a coffee-infused version, from Colquitt-based Georgia Gold Distillery, to the bourbon, rye and corn whiskeys made by Lazy Guy Distillery in Kennesaw, there are options for every palate. Remedy Distillery of Gainesville has apple- and cinnamon-infused whiskeys, and LaGrange-based Wild Leap, which also has a brewery, has found success with canned ready-to-drink vodka cocktails.

Still, thanks to state pride, anything infused with peaches will get at least a taste, but usually a following, distillers say.

Scott Mayer of Blended Family Spirits in Roswell has had success pulling deep peach flavor from the fruit and infusing it into his spirits thanks to a technique he stumbled across in Japan by producers of plum wine.

The flavor and aroma, he says, “just evokes springtime with peaches and honeysuckle.”

There are plenty of farm and orchard relationships that are being built between growers and distillers, but barley production for spirits is still hard to come by in the state. However, many distillers said they are talking with farms to increase yields or to plant new fields.

There is also growth on the horizon. The owners behind New Realm Brewing Co., a

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Scott Mayer of Blended Family Spirits

Thanks to state pride, anything infused with peaches will get at least a taste, but usually a following, distillers say. popular craft brewery in Atlanta, soon plan to get into the distilling arena, following a trend by beer makers looking to expand. And in Thomasville, 1861 Distillery plans to open this year.

In Valdosta, glass producer Arglass Yamamura fired up its furnaces last December at its new plant, its first new construction in years. It is bringing nearly 200 jobs to the area and has a capacity for 265 million units per year.

There is a long way to go for Georgia to get back to its pre-Prohibition number of distill-

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Justin Douglas of Simple Man Distillery

eries, but today’s producers are not afraid of the hard work and most are happy to be a part of modern history. The connection forged with consumers now lays the groundwork for future success, says Moon. He refurbished a 1908 cotton warehouse to house his still and taproom and it offers a sense of what was with what can be.

“We’re a smaller distiller, less industrial,” he says, “but the feeling when someone comes in here is more about camaraderie and a sense of friendship. This is for people who love whiskey and when they are together they

automatically have something in common.”

He notes that all of the whiskey he produces are his recipes and are in-house, grain to-glass-production.

This is Georgia, Moon says.

“We are about [tradition] and take pride in what we do.” ■ Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this article, several quotations from Britt Moon were incorrectly attributed to Scott Mayer.

This article has been updated to reflect the correct quotations.

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Business Sense

EXPERT ADVICE What are the keys to developing a solid advisory network?

It takes a village to start and run a distillery and that means never shying away from reaching beyond your immediate team to harness the expertise and sound counsel of outside advisors. Someone who’s an expert himself in this area is Dan Gasper, who co-founded and served as the COO of Distill Ventures. He now leads the Business Development Partnership, the consultancy he launched to coach entrepreneurs in the beverage space. (And this very publication you’re reading regularly draws upon his insight, as he’s a member of the CRAFT SPIRITS magazine editorial board). We chatted with Dan to get his perspective on the components of a successful advisory network.

What sorts of individuals/entities should distillers be seeking out when setting up an advisor network?

Dan Gasper: A great advisory network should focus on the areas that are both weak in the current team and important to the future vision and success of the business.

Many craft distilling businesses are great at production of great liquids and operations but many suffer from a lack of experience or expertise when it comes to national/international sales, trade advocacy and consumer marketing/brand.

Founders need to be very honest with themselves and ask themselves, “What are we bad at and where could we do better?” And

then find advisors who can support against the weaknesses.

Having strong provocation from experienced external voices is what you are looking for.

How do they find them and how should they be vetting them?

Once you have identified the skill gaps, it would be wise to then draft a paragraph about the type of support you are looking for—this is almost a short job spec and is essential to make sure you are getting the right person.

You can then hunt your future advisors in a number of ways: Route 1: Your network. Look through your LinkedIn or Rolodex and think long and hard if there are people you know who could fulfill the advisory role, or if there are people you know who might know a suitable candidate.

Route 2: Hero hunting. You may have heard a talk by somebody or you may have found an article or video about the area you are looking for advisory support—if you have a hero in this space, perhaps they could be your advisor—if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

How should craft distillers engage those advisors and how often? Does one-on-one work better or should it be more formalized into a sort of board or committee?

If you are just looking for advice in one area, you could invite them to be a guest at your current quarterly board meetings or just work one-on-one with them. But if you do not have a good board meeting structure already set up, I often think that a committee/advisory board who meet every three or six months is great.

This way you have to present your plan to the advisory board (giving them a pre read one week before, if possible, to ensure they have time to think of solutions ahead of the session etc.), and use the meeting to get a healthy debate or discussion going between advisors, in order to get the best from them.

Either way, in terms of a time commitment I would expect one three-hour meeting every three months plus three hours to pre-read the documentation provided one week ahead of the meeting.

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“Founders need to be very honest with themselves and ask themselves, ‘What are we bad at and where could we do better?’ And then find advisors who can support against the weaknesses.”

—Dan Gasper

Remember: You are not looking for a supporter or a yes person—you are looking for an expert with strong views.

Should those advisors be compensated and, if so, in what form? (equity, financial, in-kind, etc.?)

Some will do it for love, some will need $1,500 a day. I would only give equity options if they are incredibly important strategically/brilliant, or post-one year of working with them and you know you want them around for the next five years.

What are the biggest mistakes distillers make and should avoid when seeking outside advisors?

Don’t find yes people—you need strong

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provocation.

Don’t seek people like you—you need people who can support you and your company’s weaknesses.

Don’t seek a corporate person just because they have big brand experience—they may have “run Bacardi” or “built Patron” but if you are a small business and aiming to be medium before moving on to large, you need somebody who is an expert in that part of the journey and not someone who has only ever been a tiny cog in a giant machine.

Is there an opportunity for an advisor to play a more active role?

Sometimes, if you are building business competence in a particular area, you may ask your advisor to be more involved for a short

period. For example, if brand advocacy is what you are building, you may ask your advisor to create some new systems in the business or help you recruit a full-time team member into a brand advocacy role.

Other times, you may invite an advisor to join your board as a guest so they can give their opinion to your board/investors.

However, overall I believe that advisors should advise and that more active roles should be the preserve of team members.

Anything else you’d like to add?

One last thing—the best board advisors for you and your business may be younger than you—when it comes to modern marketing, be it consumer or trade focused, a great advisor may be 30-something, not 50-something. ■

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packaging

TOP STORIES In the first in our ongoing series on the future of closures, Amorim gives us a glimpse at some of its innovations.

BY JEFF CIOLETTI

A spirit’s bottle is often a distiller’s best shot of making a memorable first impression with its target audience, but let’s not overlook one packaging component that is a critical point of consumer engagement: the closure. After all, it’s the one thing that (quite literally) stands between the spirit and the consumer’s glass.

Wood top maker Amorim Cork is among the closure suppliers combining art and science to create new experiences for spirits drinkers. Last fall the company unveiled some of its latest developments in a virtual session at Global Bar Week.

Evolutive Series Amorim’s Evolutive bar tops are heat sensitive—thanks to the use of thermochromic paint—activated by body heat. A potential application for the Evolutive top could be for chilling vodka. “When you put it in the freezer and [it] reaches a certain temperature, it’s ready to be consumed,” says Eduardo Sousa, director of sales, spirits, for Amorim Cork America. “It’s also a way of calling people’s attention to the product on the shelf. It’s kind of cool if you touch a bottle and it changes color.” The design is customizable to a distiller’s specifications.

Ambiance Top Series The Ambiance Top Series creates a more visual experience for the bar topper, thanks to LED lights embedded in the closure.

Sousa notes that it’s definitely more of a niche offering, generally to help highlight limited spirits releases. “It’d probably be for a special edition that someone would like to launch and they’d need to stand out on the back of the bar,” Sousa says. “It’s a cool solution to show off [a product].”

Freedecor Another way to show off a spirit is through the Freedecor solution, which enables any design that the distiller chooses to be printed right on the stopper. In other words, the supplier can take, say, a specific design motif that appears on the bottle and print it on the stopper

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for a unified visual message. “It’s not just for wooden tops, but metal and ceramics that we use for the top,” says Sousa. “It opens up a lot more possibilities in terms of finishing color. It’s named Freedecor because it gives you much greater freedom in terms of design.”

Sense Tops Touch and sight aren’t the only senses that the manufacturer seeks to harness with its closures. In the case of the Sense Tops line, it’s olfactory. “We’re trying to create an experience, together with our customers, by including aromas in the tops,” Sousa says.

The key here is to convey to the consumer key aromatic elements of the spirit when they’re deciding on what to buy based on what their favorite flavor or aroma profiles are. The company implants within the wooden tops microcapsules that contain and release the specific scents.

Right now, Amorim offers chocolate, vanilla and coffee scents—obviously tied to some of the signature notes in various whiskey styles.

“If you have a bourbon with an intense vanilla character there’s a way we can have it on a stopper and start communicating that with the consumer right from the shop,” Sousa explains. “You can have the consumer interacting with your product even before they open the bottle.”

Sousa notes that the company can work in partnership with the specific distilleries to develop further aromas to closely align with their spirits’ signature notes.

Tap Series Finally, things take a techie turn with the Tap Series, which enables a company to embed pre-recorded information on a microchip within the top. The system uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to encode the message, which users can read via smartphones and other systems. The tops can link to brands’ custom apps and add another element to distilleries’ marketing programs.

There are practical applications for the back office as well. Producers can embed serial numbers in the code to ensure authenticity and guard against counterfeiting. Additionally, distilleries can track and control inventory levels on-site and at the distributor’s warehouse, as well as pinpoint exactly where in the market specific bottles are and where they’re first opened.

“We’re in a data-driven world,” says Sousa, “and we can now get that data from the market.”. ■

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safety

SAFETY IS LOVE A conversation with craft beverage safety specialist Matt Stinchfield For many in the brewing industry, Matt Stinchfield is the face of safety. He is the safety ambassador for the Brewers Association, for which he is writing a book on the principles, processes and culture of safety.

But as the craft beverage safety specialist for Massachusetts-based Whalen Insurance, Stinchfield also has a keen eye on safety for distilled spirits makers. We recently checked in with him to discuss his road to focusing on safety and more.

struck up a conversation. He was telling me about his insurance program, which at the time was one of the only business packages designed for craft brewers. He [asked if I would help] develop a loss-control program for the breweries, which would include developing some educational materials. We started offering to certain clients a floor audit. It wasn’t to question the policy, it was to see if we could offer them any advice that would lower their risk.

How did you meet Peter Whalen and start working with him?

Matt Stinchfield: I met him in 1997 at a brewer’s conference and we found out we both came from Massachusetts, so we

What do you see as the biggest difference between breweries and distilleries when it comes to safety?

At the core level it’s manufacturing and it’s beverage manufacturing so it’s got even more

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things in common than with a widget maker.

I started working on distilleries with Peter about three years ago. I’ve always had an interest in it and of course I did it in college because I was a chemist.

Some of the really big differences are how important fire code compliance is, not only in operating the still and making sure that you’ve got good ventilation in the space so you don’t develop fugitive vapor buildup. The other thing has to do with the management of spirit. A plastic IBC tote if you’re bringing in grain neutral spirits, that’s only for transportation. Those are actually disallowed by fire code for storage, so you’ve got to get it out of those totes as soon as possible. And then there are very strict volume limits of how

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much spirit you can have in some sorts of building structures.

You’re working on a safety library for Whalen Insurance, right? What is included in that?

I’m basically writing a catalogue of short blogs. What we have found is people’s attention span is pretty short because they’re busy and not part of a giant workforce in most cases. We try to write 300-500-word pieces. A lot of those are common, slips, trips and falls, forklift safety, compressed gas safety, all the moving parts of a packaging line, and more.

The other thing I’m working on, which is a little more complex, is an excel spreadsheet that provides a compliance list of all of the OSHA standards that are likely relevant to every distillery. But OSHA aside, I advocate building your safety program by understanding the hazards that come with every task, and then controlling those hazards with preventative and protective strategies. It’s called hazard assessment, and everyone should know how to do it like it’s second nature.

When you’re writing pieces, what is the main message?

Not to come from the standpoint that OSHA says you have to do this. I’ve trained 50 OSHA inspectors in a room at a brewery and said this in front of them. I get a lot of nods because they know, giving somebody this tome which is now on the internet and saying, ‘Read this, understand it and then comply with it,’ ... the craft beverage producers are going, ‘I’m already working three jobs to get this thing done and now you’re going to add a fourth one?’ … OSHA’s requirements are only the minimum required. It shouldn’t be that high of a bar.

What are some of the biggest problems you see when it comes to safety?

Appropriate training for staff and documenta-

Matt Stinchfield

tion of injuries and documentation of training.

Any business should be thinking about those things, anyways, right? Businesses should operate with standard operating procedures (SOPs). That process of going through that SOP development and then fattening it up a little bit, with ‘Here’s how we do each of these things safely.’ You’ve done an amazing compliance thing that you didn’t even know that you did. It doesn’t say OSHA anywhere on it, but if OSHA were to ever look at it, they’d go, ‘You did a hazard assessment.’

What drives safety performance and compliance?

Management support. company-wide communication, training. What we call inclusivity.

When you’re writing that SOP, all those people who are using it are going to be involved in it. You don’t have a third-party person come and write it and say, ‘Here’s your spirit run SOP,’ because they didn’t have ownership in it.

They don’t have as much belief in it.

“That process of going through that SOP development and then fattening it up a little bit, with ‘Here’s how we do each of these things safely.’ You’ve done an amazing compliance thing that you didn’t even know that you did.”

—Matt Stinchfield of Whalen Insurance C R AF TSPIR ITSMAG.COM

Those things all added up are culture. Even if we’re not talking about safety. Think about your retail operation—management support, communication, training, involving everybody in the workforce. That’s why safety culture is a subset to company culture, and you can still have an edgy brand. I know breweries that have an extraordinary safety culture and yet they have this edgy brand.

You’ve often said that safety is love. How did that come about and what do you mean by it?

Before the coronavirus reduced the Brewers Association staff, we had this amazing woman named Acacia Coast and she was the interface for all 50 state guilds. She was responsible for getting me my gigs. I was always sending her these blurbs and my blurb was evolving a bit and she was like, ‘Why aren’t you talking about OSHA and all that stuff?’

And I said because that’s not what safety is.

Safety is love for yourself and love for your co-workers. I didn’t make a big thing of it. It wasn’t my mantra, but she made it my mantra.

What is something you typically say at those talks with brewers that’s worth sharing with distillers for parting words?

The French philosopher Voltaire said, ‘Common sense is not so common.’ That’s definitely a big message I like to put out there is that ultimately you are responsible for your own safety and the safety of those around you, and almost all of those things don’t cost a dime. ■

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Retail: On-Premise

UNDER PRESSURE How distilleries can join efforts at a local and national level to save their restaurant and bar partners

BY KATE BERNOT

The enormity of the crisis facing on-premise restaurants and bars feels crushing. The National Restaurant Association reports the industry ended 2020 with total sales $240 billion below the Association’s pre-pandemic forecast for the year. Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and others have warned of an “extinction event” for independent restaurants.

Even Budweiser scrapped its regular Super Bowl commercial in favor of an ad promoting COVID-19 vaccine awareness, with the goal of eventually bringing drinkers back together again safely “at bars, in restaurants, or to celebrate life’s moments with our loved ones.”

In some areas, bars are faring even worse than restaurants as they’re not able to meet

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food requirements to offer service, or lack outdoor areas to serve patrons. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, bars and restaurants finished 2020 with 2.5 million fewer employees.

This has dire ripple effects for craft distillers, who often rely on bars and restaurants for sales, not to mention for word-of-mouth marketing of their products.

Such massive headwinds can paralyze the industry into inaction. But there’s reason to be hopeful: Hard-won legislative victories in some states are helping keep bars and restaurants alive, and charities or pro-bono efforts have tried to fill in the gaps.

Going forward, craft distilleries also have a role to play in advocating for relief

for the on-premise industry, says Mike Whatley, vice president for state affairs and grassroots advocacy at the National Restaurant Association.

“Craft distilleries are, like restaurants, much beloved in their communities,” Whatley says.

“It’s so powerful to tell those stories.”

Here are some efforts currently underway to help the on-premise recover—and how craft distilleries can plug in.

PERMANENT COCKTAILS TO GO Iowa was, in June, the first state to make its temporary permissions for to-go cocktail sales permanent. The result of a lobbying effort that included bar owners and the Iowa

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Restaurant Association, the law allows bars to offer cocktails for takeout and delivery.

Jason Garnett, managing partner of Juniper Moon cocktail bar in Des Moines, says to-go cocktails wouldn’t be enough to sustain his business long-term, but they were a critical lifeline for months.

“Early on, for months, it was really amazing how many [customers] supported it. We were shocked,” Garnett says. “We tried to offer it as much as we could.”

Also in Des Moines, cocktail bar The Bartender’s Handshake partnered with J. Rieger & Co.of Kansas City, Missouri, to offer bottled cocktails that were a boon to both distillery and bar. Rieger allowed the bar to use its 375mL bottles to package the cocktails (bottles and even mason jars were in short supply as bars all rushed to package cocktails), and The Bartender’s Handshake used Rieger spirits in those bottled cocktail recipes. Win-win.

LEGAL AID AT THE LOCAL LEVEL Payroll Protection Program loans, CARES Act stipulations, landlord-tenant negotiations—if a hospitality business generally feels overwhelmed by legal matters, 2020 would have been a doozy.

Several law firms across the country volunteered their services pro bono to hospitality business owners and employees struggling to navigate pandemic-related challenges.

One such firm was Arnold & Porter, which in April 2020 announced a partnership with the James Beard Foundation to make more than 70 of its lawyers in five cities available pro bono to restaurant workers with legal questions.

“This support is incredibly important to every small business owner and restaurant worker in the industry who may not have the resources at this time to get professional legal guidance,” Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation, said in a statement announcing the partnership.

The Illinois Restaurant Association also compiled a list of member lawyers who agreed to offer services for free. National law firm Messner Reeves created a Restaurant and Small Business Relief Effort to offer restaurants and small businesses up to four hours of legal services relating to the pandemic at no charge.

FULL-COURT PRESS ON LAWMAKERS Most hospitality businesses agree that what’s most urgently needed isn’t stopgap, charitable measures but massive governmental aid for restaurants and bars. The National Restaurant Association is lobbying lawmakers at a

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“Restaurants have uniquely been impacted and need a unique response from the government.”

—Mike Whatley of the National Restaurant Association

local, state, and federal level in support of the industry—and it could use craft distillers’ help.

“If a distillery has a relationship with lawmakers—which we find interestingly enough, many do—it’s reaching out to them to say ‘Our business is essential but we need restaurants to survive too,’” Whatley says.

“Even just taking a video of the distillery owner on-site talking about how important restaurants are, tweeting it out, and tagging a lawmaker. We’ve seen our digital efforts be really powerful.”

At a federal level, the National Restaurant Association has been lobbying since March 2020 for a restaurant-industry specific relief fund to provide direct financial assistance to struggling businesses.

“Restaurants have uniquely been impacted and need a unique response from the government,” Whatley says.

Small businesses interested in staying abreast of the association’s efforts at all governmental levels—and joining in—should subscribe to Restaurant Acts emails at restaurantsact.com. Those include 90-second video updates from the association team in Washington, D.C., keeping businesses clued in to key legislative efforts, and recapping the most important hospitality industry news.

That website also includes places to share your small business’s story, as well as information on the National Restaurant Association’s Public Affairs Conference, the restaurant industry’s most important annual policy gathering, which takes place this year on April 21.

In 2020, 40 state restaurant associations met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss the industry’s top policy priorities.

“The best way for small distilleries to plug in locally is to reach out to their state restaurant association,” Whatley says. “Those associations would love to get them involved. There’s so much opportunity for suppliers to be part of these efforts.” ■

To-go cocktails provided a critical lifeline for Juniper Moon early in the pandemic.

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closing time

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COVID-19 relief

3

2.6 Craft certification program

Availability of economic research

State-specific issues

3.7

3.7 Representation with TTB

Representation on Capitol Hill

DtC Shipping

4.5

3.7

Now that federal excise tax (FET) relief is permanent for American craft spirits producers, the American Craft Spirits Association asked craft distilleries and industry allies to rank the most important issues of the day. In the survey, respondents could rank each option from 1 (least important) to 5 (most important). Direct to consumer (DtC) shipping ranked highest with a score of 4.5, with 69% of 150 respondents giving it a 5. Representation of the craft spirits industry on Capitol Hill, representation of the craft spirits industry with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and state-specific issues tied for second with scores of 3.7

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SHIPPING MATTERS

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BACK ON TRACK

8TH ANNUAL DISTILLERS’ CONVENTION AND VENDOR TRADE SHOW

DECEMBER 4-6, 2021 KENTUCKY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTER HOST HOTEL: THE GALT HOUSE HOTEL

SADDLE UP — THIS IS THE CONVENTION YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS!

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