The Liquor Landscape: Industrialized vs. Craft Distilling

No one likes to think about the mass produced nature of the liquid they are pouring into their tumbler but since the end of prohibition, large conglomerates have controlled the liquor industry. In 2009, companies like Diageo, Bacardi, and Beam Global Spirits accounted for roughly 80 percent of all liquor sales in the United States. Consolidation is even more apparent within individual market segments. For instance, Bacardi brand rum accounts for 43 percent of all rum sales in the United States, while Captain Morgan rum accounts for another 22 percent of rum sales. Given that a handful of manufacturers account for such a disproportionate percentage of liquor sales, it also stands to reason that a handful of companies are responsible for distilling a disproportionate amount of the liquor produced in the U.S.

Industrialized Distilling: The Continuous Column Still

Manufacturing nine million cases, which was Bacardi’s output in 2009, requires a very big still. Enter the Continuous Column Still, the 800 pound gorilla of the distilled spirits industry. Invented in 1826 by Robert Stein in Scotland and improved and patented in 1831 by Irishman Aeneas Coffey, a Continuous Column Still commonly has a fractioning column that stands about 100 feet high. The still runs 24 hours a day for months at a time, producing millions of gallons of liquor. Continuous Column manufacturing is the liquor industry’s dirty little secret. Much of the liquor produced by these monolithic stills is purchased on the cheap by smaller brands, rebottled, and then marketed as a premium, craft-distilled spirit. Consumers are lured into believing they are buying a product of higher quality by buzz-words like “triple distilled” and “charcoal filtered.” The reality is they are buying the same product being sold by well-known, cheaper brand names found on the shelves of most liquor stores. While not illegal, this practice is certainly a disingenuous way of doing business, and is antithetical to the artisan credo of distilling.

Artisanal Distilling Takes Hold

In an ironic twist, the craft-distilling movement owes its success in large part to major brands like Grey Goose, Belvedere, and Kettel One, which established the high-end spirits market in the late 1990s. With the introduction of premium price-points, the economics of craft-distilling began to make sense. The movement was supercharged in the early 2000s by two major developments: One, states around the country began easing legislative barriers to entry, allowing qualifying distilleries to conduct tastings and sell directly to the consumer. The second development was a shift in consumer taste towards local, artisanal goods. As higher price-points, less-stringent laws, and the artisanal movement coalesced in the mid-2000s, small-scale distilling burgeoned. In 2000, there were less than ten craft-distilleries in the U.S. In 2010, there are roughly 184. The movement, however, is still in its infancy. Craft-distilleries account for less than one percent of U.S. liquor sales. Bully Boy Distillers is honored to be a part of the transformation of homogenized liquor production into a more regional, quality driven marketplace. As Boston’s first craft distillery, we look forward to providing consumers with a product that is truly handmade.

Pictured Above: An Industrial Column Still