Is the whiskey industry in trouble?

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

If you’re collaborating in Dry January this yr, you are not alone. One of many largest names in Bourbon, Jim Beam, has paused manufacturing at one in all its distilleries in Kentucky. In an announcement, the corporate says, we’re at all times assessing manufacturing ranges to finest meet client demand, and the choice follows declines in each spirit exports and in alcohol consumption right here within the U.S. Fred Minnick is a author and bourbon professional. He’s on the road from Louisville. Hey there.

FRED MINNICK: How are you doing, Mary Louise? It is good to listen to your voice.

KELLY: It’s nice to talk with you on this January 2. Inform me about this distillery that has been paused. How massive is it? What will get made there?

MINNICK: Yeah, so that is Jim Beam’s type of – you would say it is coronary heart, it is pulse, but it surely’s not really its largest distillery. The most important distillery for Jim Beam is definitely known as Booker Noe. It is about 7 miles south of this facility, which is the Clermont facility. The one which’s getting paused for a bit, for a yr, is definitely – it is nonetheless prime 5 within the nation, prime 10 on the earth by way of dimension, and it is producing a great deal of Jim Beam, all their mainstream merchandise.

However it’s not a complete throw within the towel for the corporate. What it’s greater than something is that they they’re feeling the impact of client demand being down, exports being down, they usually’re making a enterprise resolution to close it down so they do not get damage, I might say, in one other yr or two and should do layoffs.

KELLY: Yeah, their assertion says this can be a – not a closure however a pause for one yr.

MINNICK: Yeah.

KELLY: Even individuals who do not drink bourbon perceive that it is not made in a single day. It takes years. So are they basically betting that not solely is demand down, People are ingesting much less, but it surely’s demand goes to remain down, People are going to maintain ingesting much less within the years to return?

MINNICK: Effectively, the massive factor is that lots of people are circling 2030 because the yr that it type of bounces again in an enormous method. This technology, the brand new ingesting technology – to start with, millennials drink a lot. They type of set, like, a nasty normal for the trade. There was simply an assumption that everyone would drink as a lot as millennials as they turned 21.

KELLY: I am a Gen Xer, and I’ll say millennials set dangerous requirements in all types of how. However transferring on.

MINNICK: They actually did.

KELLY: Shifting on.

MINNICK: They like to drink bourbon, and they might drink all ranges of bourbon. This new technology, they don’t seem to be really reaching for the $25 bottle, like Jim Beam White Label or Jack Daniels Black Label. They’re wanting the 50, the $75 bottle. And so the thought is that this technology simply would not have the funds for but to truly fulfill the issues that they need to drink.

KELLY: Attention-grabbing.

MINNICK: So the thought is that in just a few years, as soon as this new technology will get a little bit bit extra money of their pocket, you already know, they are going to spend it on greater finish bourbons.

KELLY: After which what concerning the different piece of this, the tariff piece, the truth that exports will not be what they had been a decade in the past?

MINNICK: Yeah. Effectively, the factor concerning the tariffs is that the massive punch within the intestine was when Canada, all of the provinces in Canada, started to boycott, not even throw on a tariff. They’re like, you already know what? We’re simply not going to hold American whiskey. Get it off the cabinets. We’re now not going to reorder. That was one thing that we’ve not seen for the reason that Eighties once they began doing exams for sure carcinogens, and if a spirit had a carcinogen in it, they might block it from coming into Canada.

KELLY: For these of us who do take pleasure in a bourbon every so often, what sort of impression may we see?

MINNICK: Effectively, I feel it is a client confidence impression. It is the biggest model in your entire class. However what we have really seen is, within the downtrodden instances, plenty of actually small unbiased manufacturers stand up. That is the true separator proper now, is the massive corporations are at all times making an attempt to develop new relationships the place these smaller ones are like, hey, we do not care should you’re 22. We wish the 35-year-old who loves Bourbon already.

KELLY: So that you sound, Fred Minnick, and I understand you are not a completely impartial observer right here. Your work, your life is bourbon, however you sound bullish on the trade.

MINNICK: It is robust instances, however I’ve coated this for thus lengthy. You recognize, it goes by these cycles. And the most important menace to the bourbon trade is mainly individuals leaving bourbon for different issues. There is a big motion of sobriety. There’s additionally a motion of individuals going to hashish. Persons are not leaving bourbon for vodka. So the house of alcohol in itself is hurting. Bourbon is doing rather well within the alcohol house compared to how different classes are getting hit proper now with the motion in opposition to alcohol.

KELLY: Fred Minnick, thanks.

MINNICK: Completely. Pleasure.

KELLY: He is the writer of “Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, And Rebirth Of An American Whiskey.”

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.