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Showing results for tags 'Aging Cocktails in oak barrel'.
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The "barrel aged cocktail" is growing in popularity. Many craft distillers are putting their used oak barrels to use as promotional tools in on-premise accounts where the mixologist creates a cocktail, ages it in a recently emptied whiskey barrel on the back bar where it can be seen by customers, then serves it to consumers when it has taken on the rich qualities of the whiskey impregnated oak. Regulators in some States have noticed and are taking action to enforce Prohibition era laws, and are applying questionable precedents where no specific regulation clearly addresses the issue. Some alcohol control laws prohibit serving spirits "from a tap". This is State regulator territory, States control distribution. The State regulators’ oft cited basis for enforcement of such regulations is protection of the consumer. The server may be short changing the consumer on alcohol content if the spirit is not being poured directly from the bottle it came in is the logic. Some States are, in the case of barrel aged cocktails, claiming that aging spirits in oak is “manipulation” of the spirits and therefore falls under the definition of “rectifying” which requires a rectifier’s permit. It this is the case, every bartender and mixologist is breaking the law every time they manipulate the a spirit when they prepare a cocktail, or for that matter even put an ice cube or water into a spirit. And serving a pre mixed drink from a barrel is not serving “spirits” from a tap, it is serving a “cocktail”, they are not the same thing. Can we hear from the spirits producers and on-premise operators, barmen, mixologists, consumers? Some of the important questions which are being asked: How widespread is the practice of pre-batching cocktails in oak barrels, are you doing it, is it popular with consumers? Is there some State regulation which applies to this practice? Or is it not directly addressed in your State law and open to interpretation by regulators? Are regulators applying questionable legal precedent to regulating barrel aging cocktails in your State? Has your barrel aged program been challenged by State regulators? Was it resolved? How? State Regulating authorities are at a loss determining the scope of the practice and are eager to understand it. Some are reaching out to the trade to get basic data on barrel aging programs. Your responses and State alcohol law information will be very helpful. Ralph
