Craft Spirits Weekly
Welcome to the 12th 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.
Kings County Distillery Releases Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
New York City’s Kings County Distillery has become one of a small group of craft distillers to join the exclusive Bottled-in-Bond club with the release of its own Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, available in allocated quantities in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, DC, Delaware, Kentucky and Tennessee. (The Drinkable Globe)

Albany Distilling Co. Announces $1M Expansion 
Albany Distilling Co. announced Friday that it will renovate a former warehouse at 75 Livingston Ave., into a new bar, tasting room and storage facility expected to open this summer. The company makes whiskey, rum, and vodka. (Times Union) 
Black Button Distilling Increases Production Capacity 
For Jason Barrett, head distiller and president of Black Button Distilling since it opened in 2014, a big moment came in 2016: he started getting paid. With the large spaces, expensive equipment and hands-on labor required to produce spirits commercially, it takes a critical mass of sales and production for a distillery to become profitable. New equipment and a planned Buffalo tasting room promise to help Black Button cross that threshold. (WGRZ News)

Connecticut Spirits Trail Showcases State’s Distillers
Connecticut became the birthplace of American vodka after a Russian immigrant named Rudolph Kunett purchased the rights to the Smirnoff brand in the 1930s and set up shop in Bethel. A few years later, Hartford businessman John Martin purchased Smirnoff and successfully marketed vodka to a national audience, helping to invent the Moscow Mule cocktail along the way. So, it’s fitting that Connecticut is flexing its distilling muscles. In recent years several distilleries have opened and several more are on the way. (Connecticut Magazine)

Koval Founders Named Small Business Persons of the Year 

Koval Distillery announced that founders Sonat Birnecker Hart and Robert Birnecker have been named Small Business Persons of the Year for the state of Illinois by the U.S. Small Business Administration. (BevNet)   
Construction begins on Stoll & Wolfe Distillery
Construction has begun in Lititz, Penn., where Stoll & Wolfe will operate a distillery and tasting bar. Stoll & Wolfe, which has already been blending whiskey and bottling it in Lancaster, will make its rye whiskey and apple brandy at the new location. (Lancaster Online)
Iowa Craft Spirits Producers Optimistic About Law Change

Small Iowa distillers soon may be toasting a new state law that would permit them to sell their product on site. After years of pleading for changes to—in their view—level the playing field with their cousins in beer- and winemaking, small distilleries would be able to sell their product in single servings on site if legislation continues to advance through the Iowa Legislature. (The Gazette)
ASW Distillery Makes Atlanta’s First Legal Rye Since Prohibition

Justin Manglitz drinks only one cocktail: “It’s one part whiskey and two parts whiskey,” says Manglitz. He may be goofy, but he’s a smart, driven guy. Now he makes whiskey in a more official capacity for ASW Distillery, where he’s just masterminded the first legal rye produced in Atlanta since before Prohibition. (Atlanta Magazine)
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