In 2012, Time magazine ran a piece titled "A Booze of One's Own: The Micro Distillery Boom," which heralded the coming rise of locally sourced, handcrafted, small-batch distilleries that were popping up across America. At the time, there were 250 craft distilleries in the country—up from around 50 in 2005—and the article boldly asserted that in just 10 years' time, there could be over a thousand.
A decade later, there were well over 2,600 craft distilleries in America, and industry observers thought this was only the beginning. Outlets like Imbibe magazine ran headlines as recently as 2022 proclaiming: "Craft Distilling is Booming and Just Getting Started," with some analysts predicting a 29 percent compound annual growth in the coming decade.
