WhistlePig’s Great Beer Rescue of 2020 (Episode 817: May 3, 2020)

Whisky is what beer dreams of being when it grows up, but the Covid-19 pandemic has left craft brewers with tens of thousands of gallons of beer and no place to sell it with bars across the U.S. closed. Vermont’s WhistlePig Farm has been working with brewers from as far away as Texas to give some of that beer a chance to fulfill a higher purpose: being distilled into whiskey! While we’re approaching this from a humorous perspective, it’s actually cheaper for the brewers and better for the environment to fill tanker trucks with their surplus beer and send it to Vermont than it would be to dump it into local sewer systems. WhistlePig distillery manager Emily Harrison and CEO Jeff Kozak join us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth.

In the news, a new survey shows nearly two out of three craft distillers are at risk of going out of business because of the economic impact from the pandemic. We’ll have that story along with details on the week’s new whiskies and much more, including our latest Whisky Club of the Month!

Links: WhistlePig Rye | Distilled Spirits Council of the United States | American Distilling Institute | Distell | Ogden’s Own Distillery | Glen Moray | Inver House | The GlenAllachie | Brown-Forman | Walsh Whiskey | Becle | Proper No. Twelve | Jose Cuervo | The Balvenie | Jura | Glengoyne | Chapel Gate Whiskey Co. | Heaven Hill | Michter’s | OKI Whiskey | Wigle Whiskey | Charbay | Amrut | Bruichladdich | Adelphi | Heriot-Watt University Whisky Society | Loch Lomond