Craft Spirits Weekly
Welcome to the fifth issue of Craft Spirits Weekly, a service dedicated to bringing you the news most important to the craft spirits distiller. Check your inbox every Thursday to find a curated selection of articles and news pieces from the American Craft Spirits Association.
Craft Brewers Prosper Despite Headwinds
It’s tempting to compare craft distilling today with where craft brewing was 25 years ago. But craft distillers face unique headwinds compared to their beer-making brethren, including a bigger tax burden, greater difficulties learning their craft (home brewing is legal; home distilling is a felony), and additional thickets of state and local red tape, licensing requirements, and zoning hassles. (Baltimore City Paper)
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Whiskey Barrels Take Slow, Historical Route to New Orleans

 
In a bid to bygone days when whiskey reached its destination by flatboat, about 150 barrels of whiskey made in Tennessee, stored in a new Owensboro distillery and bound for New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were loaded onto a barge at the Owensboro Riverport Authority on Friday morning. (The State-Journal)
Memphis Whiskey Producer Aims for Spring Launch
After pouring at least $10 million into a craft distillery in downtown Memphis, proprietors of Old Dominick Distillery are nearly ready to start pouring spirits. (The Commercial Appeal)
PNW Distillers Festival Set for Feb. 18
Craft spirit fans can taste and familiarize their way through the Oregon scene Feb. 18 at Toast 2017, the seventh-annual distillers festival featuring more than 150 small-batch, handcrafted spirits from at least 40 distillers across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. (Portland Tribune)
Tuthilltown Weekend Tours Draw Enthusiastic Crowds
Why should holiday spirits end with the holidays? While vineyard tours seem like more of a summer and autumn pursuit, winter is a great time to explore the Hudson Valley’s burgeoning crop of craft distilleries. (Hudson Valley One)
Delaware’s Painted Stave to Expand
 
Owners of Painted Stave Distilling in Smyrna, Del. say they have finalized the purchase of the Old Smyrna Theater and plan to expand. The distillery had been renting the first floor of the theater for the past four years, but co-owners Ron Gomes Jr. and Michael Rasmussen said that in order to meet increased demand, they plan to construct 4,800 square-foot warehouse behind the current building. (The News Journal)
Adirondack Distilling Expands Nationally
 
Utica, N.Y.-based Adirondack Distilling Company is going national. The business has contracted with marketing and sales company Chopin Imports Ltd., which will manage national distribution and sales of the distillery's Adirondack Bourbon and, once it goes on the market in a few weeks, American Whiskey nationally. (Times Telegram)

D.C.’s Jos. A. Magnus & Co. Releases $1k Bourbon
You’d be hard-pressed to find a bottle of booze in DC’s nascent distillery scene for more than $100. But year-and-a-half-old Ivy City distillery Jos. A. Magnus & Co. is blowing way past that with a limited-release bourbon for $1,000. (The Washingtonian)
American Craft Spirits Association | americancraftspirits.org