Microdistillery - Movement

Movement

The modern microdistilling movement grew out of the beer microbrewing trend, which originated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and quickly spread throughout the United States in the following decades. While still in its infancy, the popularity of microdistilling and microdistilled spirits is expanding consistently, with many microbreweries and small wineries establishing distilleries within the scope of their brewing or winemaking operations. Other microdistilleries are farm-based. Anchor Brewing Company and Dogfish Head are two examples of American craft breweries that have begun expanding into microdistillation. Leopold Bros. is an example of a microdistiller that began as a microbrewery, and now operates as a distillery alone.

Some of the newer microdistilleries produce only spirits. Plain and seasonally-flavored vodkas are popular products. As with the emergence of microbrewing, California and Oregon have experienced the highest number of microdistillery openings. Significant recent growth has also occurred in the Midwest. Microdistilleries for gin and vodka have also now started to re-emerge in London, England, after being restricted and effectively banned for over a hundred years due to UK government restrictions on still sizes, which have now been partially relaxed. There are now 4 licensed distilleries in London: Beefeater and Thames Distillers (not microdistilleries), and Sacred Microdistillery and Sipsmith, which are. At the same time, European micro-distilleries have been a key element in the absinthe renaissance in several countries, including Switzerland.

South Africa has experienced a relative big growth in microdistilleries and produces mainly pot distilled brandies, fruit brandies, fruit based eau de vie (locally called mampoer), husk based spirits (like Italian Grappa) and a wide range of liqueurs and flavoured vodkas. A local microdistillery training academy, Distillique, is one of the few training academies worldwide which provides craft and microdistiller training courses on a regular monthly basis for microdistillers. Microdistillers include the Jorgensen's distillery, Dalla Cia Distillery, Nyati Jjj Distillery, Schoemanati distillery, Tanagra distillery and Wilderer Distillery.

In the 1990s the liquor industry established the notion of super premium spirits offering a higher-quality (and usually more elaborately packaged) product at a higher price. The higher prices created an opportunity for small distilleries to profitably produce niche brands of exotic spirits that did not need massive economies of scale to maintain profitability. The first decade of the new millennium saw the creation of hundreds of such distilleries producing products that were designed and marketed in a way that resembled celebrated restaurants more than alcoholic spirits marketing. Numerous competitions and publications were formed to support the burgeoning sub-culture of spirits.

It is no longer the case that microdistilleries are producing at the premium end of the market only; the established brands are under threat from local microdistilleries at all price points (with the possible exception of the ultra discount supermarket brands such as Sainsbury's and Tesco's "value" brands, which are close to loss leaders).