Trade war with Canada has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales
Jim Beam, one of the largest makers of American whiskey globally, is shutting down bourbon production at one of its Kentucky distilleries for a year.
The move comes amid Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, which has contributed to a significant decline in U.S. liquor sales after the country ushered in a boycott of American booze, and as more young adults are cutting back on drinking.
Jim Beam, owned by Suntory Global Spirits, is one of Kentucky’s biggest bourbon producers.
The Bluegrass state’s $9 billion whiskey bourbon industry has been struggling to manage its abundant supply of liquor against the drop in demand.
Canada and the U.S. have since agreed to launch formal discussions to review their trade agreement
I don’t think that’s gonna make a difference anymore. Reverting the 2025 decisions will not revert things. The sentiment has changed among the common people.
Yup. It’s something that won’t be fixed for decades. Trump has seriously damaged the ability for the US to do international trade.
Yup. It’s something that won’t be fixed for decades. Trump has seriously damaged
the ability forthe USto do international trade.He went way beyond just trade affairs.
… also the price of things.
Corporations especially grocers just got a big chance to raise prices … even if the tariffs go away, none of them will bring the prices down again. They’ll just pocket the difference and let everyone pay the new high prices which will stay in place.
Canadian here. I don’t think trade discussions will improve much about the booze sales when the leader/rapist/businessman ruling america with an iron fist waves his pecker in our face and tells us how much he wants to own us. Bathtub gin is my drink of choice now. Who needs quality when you have freedom?
The common people have the memories of goldfish and will go back to throwing billions across the border.
Cue the “I didn’t vote for this” gomers…
“But I’d vote for him again”
Well they’ll gladly vote for whoever has the “R” next to their name, no matter what. That is if there ever are elections again.
Just what they voted for!
We don’t miss Yankee pisswater.
I’m surprised there aren’t face indents in the tummy bulge
Only a year? Let’s make it permanent Canada. Elbows up.
Not just Canada. I haven’t bought bourbon since last year here in the U.S… which was my go-to drink of choice.
By far the best bourbon, winning awards worldwide, is from British Columbia. Okanagan sprits.
Technically, “Bourbon” only comes from the U.S., some say only Kentucky… like Scotch only comes from Scotland, Champagne only comes from France… but always good to hear of some alternatives.
It’s just a style of distilling. Anyone can do it.
They may have voted for this, but I don’t think anyone deserves this and I derive no joy from people being hurt because they allowed themselves to be misled.
Very happy that Canadians had a hand in helping this happen.
Edit removed to
Not really, total CDN sales were barely 4% of revenues. Besides, of all the bourbon style whiskeys on the market, Jim Beam was by far the worst. Like drinking industrial solvent.
Did not say a large hand, but you do you.
Sure, let’s “elbows out” on a rounding error and keep electing MAGA Premieres.
Keep telling yourself that Americans aren’t the weirdos of the world LOL.
I guess Kentucky is getting everything they voted for. I’m happy for them.
You voted for this!
Bon Appetit leopards 🐆
I love whiskey, but fuck Kentucky. It would take a lot for the morons there to figure out Trump and republicans in general are not helping them. They did elect a Democrat governor at least, so that’s a good sign.
Canadians, why were you drinking so much Jim Beam? Didn’t you have a minimum quality level you’d accept? There were better Canadian options available in the US, why would you settle for that swill?
As a Canadian, I’ve been disappointed in our alcohol choices since Budweisser broke into the market in the late 1970’s. Today, Coors Light, Bud Light, and Busch are the most common.
As for liquor, bourbon became big in the 2000’s, but it doesn’t dominate.I worked in the brewing industry at a large brewery in Toronto.
You know what the number one driver of sales is? Bottle shape. People drink anything with the right marketing.
There’s Canadian bourbon options?!
Like, the liquor with that flavour profile. I know nobody else is “allowed” to call it bourbon.
https://whiskycompass.ca/bourbon-lovers-in-canada-face-a-dilemma-but-theres-hope-in-canadian-whisky/
Doesn’t matter if it’s called bourbon specifically or not honestly, as long as its made similarly.
I’ve tried several of these and have to wonder how the author came up with these suggestions, because they’re very different than their American “counterparts” on this list. With that said, I’ve been doing my part and haven’t bought a single bottle of anything from the US since this started. i do miss bourbon - it’s my favourite liquor - but I’ve gotten to try a bunch of nice ryes and other whiskys, irish ones in particular.
Edit: that article actually looks like ChatGPT content, which explains why it’s so bad and inaccurate.
As a Buffalo Trace fan I now want to try Forty Creek Cooper Pot.
That’s rye.
Awesome, thank you! I thought I was just SOL.
There’s Canadian bourbon options?!
and they are better. Usually sold out.
So I know that Jim Beam is an entry level bourbon, and I know the story here is more about the tariffs and the relationship between the US and the rest of the world…
But genuine question: will 2027 Jim Beam be super good because it’s aged an extra year?
I’m going to guess not super good, but better than 2026
Jim Beam itself is a rather pedestrian bourbon, though useful as far as price to quality ratio. They make a lot more than just Jim Beam though. Booker’s, Basil Hayden, Knob Creek.
Anecdotal report from my area, but a retail worker I spoke with who works 2 jobs at a dollar gen and Walmart said this is the slowest holiday year they’ve seen since the pandemic.
A couple years ago I worked the holiday season at a JC Penney, and worked Black Friday.
It was damn near dead. Like maybe no more than 15 people shopping at the busiest time of the night. It was bullshit. And this was like 2018.
Brick and mortar retail might be struggling, but it’ll take a larger set of data to try to tease out trends about whether that means a shift to online retail, a shift away from goods towards services, or an actual reduction in spending.
"We will continue to distill at our [Freddie Booker Noe] craft distillery in Clermont and at our larger Booker Noe distillery in Boston, we plan to pause distillation at our main distillery on the James B. Beam campus for 2026 while we take the opportunity to invest in site enhancements.”
They’re going to keep making the craft bourbon, and I suspect they could coast for a decade on the barrels they have in rack houses. Bourbon doesn’t really go bad.
It takes 4-8 years to age it.
But it’s not that big of a deal, they’ve had fires and lost millions of gallons multiple times.
This is at least planned, and you’re probably right that they’ll prioritize the higher priced items.
They’ll also modernize the equipment so they need fewer workers. Who probably also voted red
No, but you can over-age it. Too long in oak changes the flavours and at some point it won’t taste like your product. You can bottle it as a special edition, but whether consumers like the product or not is a toss up.
I for one will never buy American again. I hope relations can improve to the point where my children can begin to normalize what was once one of the best international relationships in history.
Too long in oak changes the flavours and at some point it won’t taste like your product.
They can and do dump them into non-reactive tanks. Or bottles.
and if kept out of light, lasts forever.
At the cost of more tanks and storage space.
Sure, but if they’re reducing new whiskey production at exactly the same time, I would think that they’d basically gain a bunch of space right at the time they’d need it. A rickhouse designed for barrels might not be a perfect fit for the big polyethylene tanks, but I’m sure a major shift in operations could result in a relatively low cost switchover as necessary.
It doesn’t? Isn’t there something called bourbon sour?
That’s a mixed drink, the sour part of the name comes from lemon juice.
