How Kentucky bourbon went from boom to bust | Hacker News Reader

How Kentucky bourbon went from boom to bust

bbc.com

62 pointsbookofjoe39 comments

> "That's worse than a tariff, because it's literally taking your sales away, completely removing our products from the shelves ... that's a very disproportionate response," Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman

Nonsense, it is a perfectly reasonable response to the disproportionate, capricious, and possibly-illegal Republican import taxes on Americans (tariffs) that were thrown onto Canadian everything while "joking" about violently annexing Canada.

If Mr. Whiting cared about reasonable and proportional trade, he should be aiming those complaints at his own politicians. He's been maxing out in his donations to the company PAC for the last several years, but I can't tell you for sure what candidates that money went to. [0]

------

P.S.: Fair disclosure, I live in a US state where Canada is--was?--the #1 international trade partner... You'd be surprised how little that narrows it down. [1]

[0] https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs...

[1] https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/07/usa-us-trade-canada-...

When walmart wanted to attribute their raised prices to tariffs President Trump directly called them out, the subtext being a threat. Once one person backs down, it becomes normal to back down. I don't have much sympathy honestly but it's not surprising.

If only there had been a way to see that bad things would be in store!

But but.. the leopards were supposed to eat OTHER peoples faces!

> Nonsense, it is a perfectly reasonable response to the crazy, abrupt, and possibly-illegal import taxes (tariffs) Republicans threw into Canadian everything while "joking" about annexing the country.

>If he cared about reasonability and proportionality in trade, he should be aiming that at his own politicians.

+1 again.

Republicans are so dumb I can't even believe it. They seriously think they can bully their customers into buying their goods. I mean - what do they not understand here?

>They seriously think they can bully their customers into buying their goods.

Entitlement is a crazy master. Same kind of person thinks they can tell advertisers to fuck off and then sue when they do.

they claim to love capitalism, but when the free hand turns away from them they call foul and institute social programs for the owning class

Every one of these responses from American companies lamenting the loss of Canadian money seem to do everything but speak out against the government Canadians are reacting to.

The reason for that should be obvious

>he should be aiming those complaints at his own politicians

Which Kentucky politician supported the tariffs? This one: "But Republican Senator Rand Paul, who represents Kentucky, said the tariffs will hurt local businesses and consumers in his home state"? Maybe famous Trump yes man Mitch McConnell? Or did you mean the Democrat governor?

> Which Kentucky politician supported the tariffs?

If you think that's some kind of "gotcha", you're out of touch.

Back in March, virtually every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted to change the House rules to shield Trump's arbitrary tariffs from scrutiny. (With Massie as a notable exception, that's still a majority of Kentucky's delegation. [0])

They did this by suspending the part of the IEEPA which says any congressional action on the temporary Presidential "emergencies" needs to actually get heard and voted on within a certain number of days [1] and then just... never letting it be debated.

That's a concrete and willful pro-Trump-tariff action right there, to say nothing of spoken support, like Rep. Barr's tweet that Trump's "approach on tariffs is the right one... I stand with President Trump 100%."

> Or did you mean [Kentucky's] Democrat governor?

You're grasping at straws here. You know individual states aren't able to impose international tariffs under the Constitution, right?

______________

[0] https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/KY#representatives

[1] https://www.ntu.org/publications/detail/when-is-a-calendar-d...

I was gob-smacked when the American ambassador went on CBC and called Canadians "Nasty" for boycotting American goods. Then he kept doing it! It doesn't matter whether it was because the Americans selected a inept ambassador or if they gave their ambassador inept instructions. This is precisely the opposite of what an ambassador is supposed to do. The U.S. is a very poorly governed country right now.

Bourbon is back on the shelves in my province (because our premier is spineless), but I still won't touch the corn swill. Even before this nonsense broke out, I'd have taken Canadian rye over bourbon any day!

It's the enshitification of government -- there are no more adults left in the room.

> This is precisely the opposite of what an ambassador is supposed to do.

They were not speaking to Canada

Because they didn't think Canadians would hear it? Unfortunately, everything is now public and for everyone all the time.

Good news is that Bourbon can be made anywhere in the world. 51% corn mash aged in a single use charade oak barrel and no adding of artificially flavors.

Kentucky's Bourbon ambassador made false clams that Bourbon only comes from USA Kentucky. Go on any tour and that will tell you the message above.

Produce your own Bourbon Canada and the problem is solved. It might even help create an international market to help your country.

Fun fact, some US Bourbon distilleries actually produce Bourbon that is never sold in the USA and only in select counties like Japan.

There is a significant segment of the US population that is very sorry about this, and hopes in a few years we’ll see a change that will let us go back to being best friends.

Unfortunately without some deeper reforms to the US political system, potential recovery will be limited to Best Friend Struggling With Abrupt Violent Psychotic Breaks.

(Plural because 2025 isn't really the first time, just the worst-so-far.)

Meh, I'm up in Canada and I'm actually a fan of the tariffs. If Trump can dislodge the utter stupidity of supply management from my country, it would be of great benefit to us. Our politicians never will because of political factors (Quebec and to some extent Ontario are full of wankers basically).

You think the tariffs will hurt people you don't like in your country ( those from Ontario and Quebec) more than yourself so you are in favor of them?

Patriotic of you.

I think it is worth it if it stops the bad policy of supply management that harms everyone except a small group of farmers. Quebec and to a lesser extent Ontario being full of wankers is why we have supply management when it is obviously stupid, not who will be hurt by tariffs (although they will hurt from the tariffs and they have earned it, unlike the rest of us who are hurt by the same tariffs)

I can agree about the odd supply management rules.

I started drinking bourbon because for the money, some of it was phenomenal whisky. In particular the higher end Jim Beam products were on par with extremely expensive scotch, imo, particularly Booker's.

I remember thinking that a $65 bottle of Booker's could easily go head to head with some of the $200 Scotch bottles I'd sip from.

However, now Bookers is over $100 and hard to find, Knob Creek doesn't have an age statement anymore, and generally the quality has gone down.

Bourbon was definitely on the downswing before this (note that any spirit made in the US will have the same issue with tariffs).

First, as noted, there are generational (and cyclical) shifts in spirits.

Second, bourbon’s “box” is very narrow. There are LOTS of innovative things that scotch manufacturers can and do pursue. Bourbon has to be barreled and bottled at specific proofs and, more importantly, must be majority corn and aged in a new oak barrel. There’s only so much differentiation you can have between distilleries, which is why some of the more innovative distilleries like High West often do “American whiskey” instead of bourbon.

Third, the bourbon boom in particular was so fast (and on the heels of a broken industry) that there wasn’t much quality aged supply. Partially because it’s cheaper and partially because size you can’t spend four years aging bourbon with no positive cash flow, most “craft” distilleries source from MGP (white label producer in Indiana), and I think you end up in this consumer trap where consumers know they want something nicer than bottom-shelf Jim Beam, but don’t know how to differentiate a distillery that does in-house product vs a distillery that sources. (Also, some distilleries that do in house are quite bad.) The net of it is consumers who want “nice” bourbon eventually conclude that “all bourbon tastes the same” which if you only buy from MGP sourced distilleries is sort of true. (Ironically some of the large brands like Wild Turkey are actually the really great brands in the space.)

This is good news to me at least. While I don’t expect the $30 bottles of Elmer T Lee, imo won’t lament any decrease in prices for these artificially inflated bottles. They were never that good.

Even before the annoying orange grifted his way back into office Bourbon became outright ridiculously priced outside the US. I used to buy a bottle of Blanton's bourbon from somewhere between 60€ and 80€ depending on the specific variant. The same bottle is 180€ or more. 300% price increase. I just won't pay that.

Makes sense. Alcohol is losing to weed now that it's becoming increasingly legal.

I think more and more kinds of alcoholic beverages will go bust as people wake up to them being poison and that they could just drink water instead.

But water doesn't make me as happy.

Edibles taking market share

We are absolutely seeing a downward trend as Millenials and younger are drinking less (though other substances are definitely replacing the booze). The fewer beverage companies, the better. However I am seeing places like bars add a selection of non-alcoholic drinks to their menus to help counter this. The market will be fine, the people will be better.

Honestly, thank goodness.

I drink much less than I used to. I never suffered from bad hangovers, but I didn't like feeling slow the next day or experiencing the poor sleep that comes with lots of drinking.

Having quality NA options means that I can space out my alcohol even more by having an Athletic in between full beers, or having a mocktail after a cocktail.

Speaking of mocktails: Lots of bars are realizing that mocktails are literally just juices with insane margins (they're often charged the same as a cocktail, which has the alcohol priced in). It is much easier to find actually good mocktails these days, which is great.

Or switch to things like non-alcoholic gin or other tinctures. I cut down my alcohol consumption last year to lose weight, but especially at the end of the day or with friends, I am so sick of just drinking water, i want something sparkly, ideally with an umbrella.

However, the alcohol free mocktails have been getting better and better, so while you won't get the buzz, you at least have something fancy.

To be honest, my biggest surprise was the non-alcoholic captain morgan, tasted like real nice aged rum and is fantastic with some ginger beer.

I really like NAs, but I think anything other than NA beer (and Phony Negroni) isn't there yet.

Though you have me intrigued about NA captain. I'll definitely look out for this!

If you are in Germany or the neighboring countries, NA Augustiner is probably the best lager without booze.

I bet you're fun at parties.

I drink a lot less, and am much more weary of the dangers of alcohol now that I'm 40. However, I don't spend less on alcohol, I just drink less.

Now days I end up at really really expensive bars (usually with a good view of the Pacific Ocean or on a rooftop or something) that have weak pours.

I have no idea of my anecdote follows any particular trends, but if it does, we might expect less alcohol consumption by volume but still growth in the sector.

No-one who has ever had a hangover is unaware that alcohol is a poison.

But it can also be an amazing social lubricant, it pairs so well with food and it can make a night sparkle. There’s a reason that mankind’s history is deeply entwined with alcohol’s.

The American wine industry is also taking a huge hit thanks to Trump's tariffs and his anti-Canadian rhetoric.

https://robbreport.com/food-drink/wine/canadians-stopped-buy...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com