THE UNITED STATES OF WHISKEY // BUSINESS IS BOOMING

For those of us here at Distiller, it’s not just the spirit in the bottle that we’re interested in. From start to finish, we’re keen on every single aspect of whiskey, from grain to sale. A big part of that, for us, is the business - not just the dollars and cents, but the true economic impact of the spirits industry across the globe.

Every year, DISCUS (the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States - the self-governing body of the spirits industry at large) releases its report on the business for the year prior. Earlier this week they released the 2014 annual report, and we couldn’t have been happier about what we saw…

To back up just a little bit, the 2013 report was, to some extent, a vindication for us. It showed a massive growth in the whiskey industry from all sides here in the United States, something that we knew had to be having an economic impact, but having the hard data from the industry itself showed us just how right we were.

This year’s report showed even more strength in whiskey, and there are some key points that we’d predicted internally, but again, hard data is always good to have. Most notably, Discus is taking notice of the rise of tech (like, y'know, us, and our friends & partners) and the impact that we’re having in the marketplace. So that’s pretty awesome. Additionally, whiskey in the US has continued to grow in the last year, while most other segments of the adult beverage industry slowed or even shrank, whiskey continues to boom.

On to the data! Some key numbers:

• Whiskey accounted for over 65% of all US spirits exports, valued at $1.02B
• 2013’s report showed 400 craft distillers in the US. 2014’s report showed 700!
• Premium & Craft brands will continue to drive growth in 2015
• By production volume, US whiskey grew 7.3% last year
• Irish whiskey in the US, by volume grew 9.1%
• Blended whiskey in the US grew by 42% (!!!)

So what does all of that mean? Well, basically, that our predictions for 2015 are all right on track. Irish, blends, and experiments, alongside premium brands will all continue to drive growth in 2015, and that while whiskey slowed in the rest of the world (along with the economic impact globally of the US Dollar’s value) - US whiskey continues to grow. 

Tech as a new driving factor though, let’s come back to that for a second. Teams like us and our friends and partners across the growing digital spirits industry, we’re still just getting started. As we all continue to expand, providing you with newer, better information, recommendations, access and options in a burgeoning marketplace, we’ll all be defining a new era for the adult beverage industry, not just whiskey (but whiskey will always be our first love).

You’d better believe we’ll drink to that.