Constellation Brands, Inc, a sizable drinks company, announced today it acquired a minority stake in Rochester, New York’s Black Button Distilling. The investment was made through Constellation’s venture capital group that identifies and invests in premium, emerging brands in categories that provide strong scalability, consumer appeal, and a unique niche or point of differentiation in the market. Black Button will ...

Food and soft drinks giant PepsiCo has taken action to block the Gatlinburg-area legal moonshine distiller Ole Smoky from trademarking “Ole Smoky Mountain Dew Moonshine.” “Mountain dew” is a dictionary synonym for moonshine, and Pepsi’s own Mountain Dew soft drink has roots in moonshing. The brand originated in the 1930s as a lemon-lime soda marketed for mixing with liquor that, ...

By Richard Thomas The Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB for short, is the agency responsible for regulating what appears on the labels of alcoholic beverages in America. If an enthusiast is familiar with the agency, that knowledge likely comes from a time when blogs and bourbon forums were rife with discontent over inconsistently applied ...

The clouds parted and the sun shone just as crowds gathered in front of Dueling Barrels Brewery & Distillery for a look at Eastern Kentucky’s first combined beer, bourbon and moonshine operation. Gleaming copper pot stills towered in the background as Alltech officials and community leaders cut the ribbon on the highly anticipated project, which will open for public tours ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Moonshine has a reputation for being rocket fuel. In truth, illicit moonshine often is fairly high octane stuff and for sound economic reasons. Although stories of white lightning being distilled so high as to be able to run a car off it are usually just that, stories, the proof often is high because it’s easier ...