Handcrafted Spirits (and What That Actually Means)

In the past few months, big liquor brands such as Tito’s and Maker’s Mark (and most recently, Jim Beam) have been criticized for falsely advertising their products as “handmade.” Considering there is no regulatory body that governs this marketing method, essentially anyone can claim that their product is of the “craft” variety. Following the several lawsuits regarding these fabricated labeling tactics, one has to wonder what it really means for a spirit to be “handmade” or “handcrafted.” Let us fill you in:

The terms “handmade,” “handcrafted,” “artisanal,” etc. are all buzz words that ultimately evoke the sense of “the individual” in a company’s distilling method. However, this idea of “the individual” doesn’t necessarily imply that one person is creating a spirit completely by hand. But forget about the fancy promotion phrasing for a moment, as these words are mere placeholders for the actual terminology that qualifies a product as a “craft” spirit. The American Distilling Institute recently put into place several certified guidelines to establish what it truly means to create “craft-distilled” or “craft-blended” spirits:

To be a Certified Craft-Distilled Spirit:

• A certified craft producer must run the spirit through a still, and the label must state “Distilled By” followed by the name of the craft producer.
• Less than 25% of the craft distillery must be owned or controlled by alcoholic beverage industry members who are not themselves craft distillers.
• Maximum annual sales are less than 100,000 proof gallons.
• Craft distillers produce spirits that reflect the vision of their principal distillers using any combination of traditional or innovative techniques (including fermenting, distilling, re-distilling, blending, infusing or warehousing).

To be a Certified Craft-Blended Spirit:

• Less than 25% of the craft distillery must be owned or controlled by alcoholic beverage industry members who are not themselves craft distillers.
• Maximum annual sales are less than 100,000 proof gallons.
• *Craft Blenders produce spirits that reflect the vision of their principal blender using any combination of traditional or innovative techniques including fermenting, distilling, re-distilling, blending, infusing or warehousing. The blended components must be varied in each type — e.g., more than one barreling of whiskey, more than one type of neutral spirits, etc. — and cannot be limited to merely blending-down high-proof spirits with water, or by only adding coloring, flavoring or blending material.

See what you’ve learned? Now the next time your friend tries to turn you on to a certain “handmade” spirit, you’ll know exactly how to respond.