450 - Is American Single Malt On The Rise? with Steve Hawley, President of American Single Malt Whiskey Commission

There's a few things we talk about from time to time on the show. Sometimes it's RTDs, sometimes it's tequlia, and one spirit that seems to make it's way into more conversations is American Single Malt whiskey. However, I told myself that if we're going to talk about American Single Malt whiskey then we need a person that can really go indepth. What better person than Steve Hawley who is the President of the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission. Steve joins the show to talk about his background starting Westland Distillery and then formed the commission. We talk about the growth of the category, production methods, exports, and it's current journey to being recognized by the rest of the world.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the effect of climate change.
• How did you get into the whiskey business?
• If barley grows so well then why isn't there a history of it?
• What is the importance of trying to make American Single Malt an approved category?
• How did you become the president of the commission?
• How have case sales grown from 2010 till today?
• Is the SMWC analogous to DISCUS or KDA?
• What is the proposed definition of American Single Malt and what's the current status of it?
• What rules were valid versus ones that seemed really weird?
• Why do people prefer pot still for single malt production?
• When a heritage brand creates a single malt like Jim Beam and Heaven Hill, does this hurt or help?
• Are American Single Malt producers starting to look at exports instead of domestic education?
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