5 Ways Spirits are Becoming More Sustainable

From an environmental standpoint, the spirits industry is broken. Distilleries large and small depend on industrially produced monocrops and source their ingredients not from local family farmers but from producers across the country and the world. They consume copious amounts of water and energy, have a massive carbon footprint and often use artificial ingredients.

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The spirits industry has barely begun to grapple with the concept of sustainability, writes Shanna Farrell, a cocktail historian, in her new book that we recently reviewed A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits. But more and more, distilleries are embracing the principles of grain to glass spirit production. Included among them are sourcing grains locally, choosing heirloom ingredients and family farmers, implementing green tech in distilleries, rethinking packaging and transport and rejecting artificial ingredients.

The Alcohol Professor spoke to Farrell about the ways distilleries are leading the spirits towards a more sustainable future and where to find them.

Freys-Corn-Field, courtesy of Frey Ranch.jpg — Freys-Corn-Field, courtesy of Frey Ranch

Grain-to-glass Distilling

“The sourcing of ingredients absolutely matters, this is one thing that all distillers agree on,” says Farrell, so it’s ironic that not only do most distilleries use commodity crops like yellow dent field corn, they can’t even identify in which state their grain was grown. “It’s much easier and less labor-intensive to just buy a bunch of grain from a distributor and not really have to engage in conversations [about farming],” Farrell continues. An unsettling number of distilleries don’t even distill their own base spirit. Instead, they purchase it from a giant company like Midwest Grain Products then age it in their own facility. Virtually the only difference between them is the label on the bottle.

One of the hallmarks of a sustainable spirit, on the other hand, is the use of grain that has been grown at the distillery or on a local farm. Several small distilleries across North America, including Balcones Distilling in Texas, Mezcal Legendario Domingo in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Kings County Distillery in New York embrace the use of local corn, wheat, and barley as a means of infusing their spirit with terroir, the taste of place, but also as a way of minimizing the energy wasted in shipping grain across the country. While zoning laws sometimes prohibit the growth of grain on the same property as a distillery, says Farrell, a handful including Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers in Fallon, Nevada and Far North Spirits in Hallock, MN use estate-grown ingredients in their spirits.

head distiller dave_blending at St. George, courtesy of St. George Spirits

Heirloom and Family-Farmed Ingredients

Distilleries are risk-averse when it comes to the ingredients in their spirits, explains Farrell. They want reliable crops that will remain consistent year after year so that their product, too, will remain consistent. It’s a much bigger risk for a distillery to integrate heirloom varietals and those produced by small family-farms into their spirits. While there’s no question they taste better, “they are subject to weather and can be more temperamental,” she says.

Forming direct relationships with family farms also increases a spirit’s transparency. Farrell loves St. George Spirits Pear Brandy, for example, not just because you can taste the pears they use and the region they come from, but because as a consumer she can easily find out more about the farms that produce them. Heirloom grains also show up in some spirits. At Charleston, South Carolina’s High Wire Distilling, the use of locally grown Jimmy red corn, an endangered heirloom variety, results in a completely unique bourbon. Minnesota’s Far North Spirits grows three types of grains on their estate which they use in their spirits, including Minnesota 13 heirloom corn.

Montanya NewDistilling, courtesy of Montanya Distilling

Green Distillery Innovations

Just as important as carefully sourced ingredients are the measures a distillery takes to minimize their environmental impact. “People are starting to think more about their energy usage,” says Farrell and some, like Leopold Bros. Distillery in Colorado have integrated innovative technologies and practices like water recycling, solar power, on-site malting and using the tails of the distilled alcohol to clean fermentation tanks instead of chemicals.

Another Colorado operation, Montanya, is one of only five distilleries worldwide that is a certified B Corp. The company is 100% wind powered, offsets their carbon production, is certified plastic neutral and has a biodigester on site to process bio-waste. Other forms of waste reduction embraced by craft distilleries include turning spent grain into animal feed (Vikre Distillery, Minnesota and Marble Distilling, Colorado) and specialty recycling for all plastic and paper materials (Westland Distillery, Washington).

G&T Silent Pool, courtesy of Silent Pool

Rethinking Packaging and Transport

Packaging and transportation are two major considerations in the sustainability of a spirit. Whether a distillery uses recycled paper in their labels or eco-friendly cork to seal their bottles instead of plastic screw tops matters, says Farrell. So does the carbon footprint of shipping ingredients to the distillery and sending finished spirits back out. Farrell points to Maker’s Mark as an example of a major global distillery that’s putting its community and the environment at the top of its list of priorities. “Maker’s Mark seals their bottles with wax and implemented a recycling program because the town didn’t have one. A lot of their employees bring in their recycling from home,” she says.

Other spirit producers large and small are experimenting with other green solutions for packaging and transportation. In 2020, for example, Bacardi introduced 100% biodegradable bottles for their Limited series. In Colorado, Jack Rabbit Hill produces a zero waste vodka that reuses bottles that have been emptied by restaurants and bars and at England’s Silent Pool Distillery, anyone can bring in an empty Silent Pool bottle to refill on the spot instead of discarding it and purchasing a new one.

Durham Distillery Damn Fine Mocha, Chocolate and Coffee Liqueurs, courtesy of Durham Distillery

No Artificial Ingredients

Artificial ingredients show up in spirits far more than most consumers are aware, especially in flavored liqueurs. In fact, some of the most familiar bottles behind the bar—Campari, Creme de menthe, Fireball cinnamon whiskey—are riddled with synthetic, lab produced chemicals and flavoring agents, Farrell says. Unlike food products, spirits are regulated by the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) instead of the FDA. But because the TTB does not require alcohol producers to list the ingredients in their bottles, distilleries don’t have to disclose that their liquor is made with things like red dye no. 40, high-fructose corn syrup and petroleum. There’s a total lack of transparency.

Unlike many well-known liqueurs, aperitifs and bitters, those that use organic botanicals, fruits and herbs aren’t just more complex and flavorful, they’re better for you. They aren’t filled with food ingredients that aren’t actually food. Among the companies embracing natural ingredients over flavoring agents and additives are St. George Spirits’, Don Ciccio e Figli, Durham Distillery’s Damn Fine Liqueurs and Lockhouse Distillery.