Distillers on the Hill (WhiskyCast Episode 778: July 28, 2019)

It takes a lot to drag distillers away from their stills, but
when the stakes are as high as the current debate over extending
a federal excise tax cut for craft distillers - that's enough to
put them on a plane for Washington. More than 150 distillers from
around the country converged on Capitol Hill this week for the
annual public policy conference sponsored by the Distilled
Spirits Council and the American Craft Spirits Association. It
also gave them a chance to put some pressure on their
representatives in Congress to extend that tax break currently
scheduled to expire at the end of this year. We'll talk with ACSA
President Chris Montana of Du Nord Craft Spirits in Minneapolis
and several of his colleagues about the politics of making
whiskey on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Diageo now faces
strike votes by both unions representing workers at its
distilleries and bottling plants in Scotland following a
breakdown in contract talks. Beam Suntory is reviving an old name
for its flagship Jim Beam Distillery in Kentucky as part of a $60
million dollar expansion plan that will include a new craft
distillery named for master distiller Fred Noe. We also have a
bunch of new whiskies to talk about, and we'll also look at
whether it's possible to distill whisky in space on Behind the
Label.