“The amazing thing about the craft distillers is the important political equity that they have,” said Swonger. “DISCUS is a unique organization with a great deal of assets and resources, from an international trade department, federal government relations component, state government relations component. We’ve got a full-time economist on the team, we’ve got a great general counsel’s office, so there’s a lot of assets that DISCUS has, and we want to make sure that our craft distiller community fully understands that and can access the resources that DISCUS can bring to bear in support of our craft distiller community.” In keeping with this sense of change and evolution, the Craft Advisory Council is also undergoing a bit of an overhaul. This includes Huber’s appointment to chair. “As the chair, I field many questions from individual distilleries. I also go to our quarterly board meetings and present the various viewpoints from my peer distillers
and answer questions from our board on craft spirits.” Huber will be imperative in bridging the gap between the small distilleries and the rest of the industry, but this improved communication will go both ways. Small distillers will have the opportunity to make their needs heard and DISCUS will have a better understanding of what is important for the suppliers of the industry on all levels. This is especially true when it comes to state issues, which have been difficult to navigate for small producers in the past. “And it’s no different than on the federal level issues, the issue of how something affects the large distillery, mid distillery, or small distillery, our focus should be on the long term effects for everyone,” he said. For both Huber and Swonger, responsible consumption is an area of interest. On top of his duties at DISCUS, Swonger is also leading a second organization called Responsibility.Org, which aims
to eliminate underage drinking, drunk driving, and to promote responsible consumption. Huber is joining him in the fight. “If you look at our website and our company,” said Huber, “we’ve done a lot of responsible drinking classes for prom groups, which include drunk driving exercises, etc. at the Starlight Distillery, and we’ve had the Distilled Spirits Council and Responsibility.Org assist us in the past with communications and information that can be distributed.” It seems that the industry is now primed to come together in an unprecedented way to ensure that the needs of all distillers can be met. “Twenty years ago, craft distillers weren’t even sitting at a table like DISCUS,” said Huber. “We are at the table now with a voice.”
Those who would like to get involved or present an issue can get in touch with Ted Huber or visit the Craft Advisory Council website at www.distilledspirits.org/craft-members.
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