Meaning of Small Batch

[gillmang]

I, like many, have often wondered at the origin of this term.

The statement that 19 barrels or less is regarded in the industry as a small batch is contained at http://www.makersmark.com, in the discussion under "Handmade Whiskey."

Thus, I would think Bill Samuels, Jr. has stated this, or at least approved it.

My guess would be the standard was one used in some, but probably not all distilleries. It might have been a house practice or term in some parts of the business. E.g., say a new product was being developed, maybe the distiller said, "we'll do a small batch for a limited bottling". I would think originally the term did not necessarily mean something quality-driven, although it has that association today.

I always felt the term somehow was entwined or connected with the idea of bonded whiskey, which by definition is a kind of small or single batch product.

Gary

[bourbonv]

Gary,
The fact is there is no legal definition of small batch. Jim Beam created the term in the early 90's and I don't think I have heard them define it the same way twice in all of those years. The definition keeps changing as the market for the product grows. I would welcome any definition anybody comes up with but as of now I would say the distillers are making it up as they go (or maybe I should say "grow").

To me a small batch is bourbon that was selected just for a taste profile that does not really match the taste profile for the distiller's main line products. It may be 100 barrels or 1,000 barrels a year.

[EllenJ]

Elmer T. Lee is usually credited with the concept of "Single Barrel", as a way to bring Bourbon to the attention of people who were enamoured to Single Malt Scotch. There being no bourbon equivalent (or it might be interpreted as universal equivalent) to single malt, Elmer's idea was to market output from a single barrel as if that were something special. Customers overwhelmingly thought it was, and partially that's because the claim was accurate in the case of Blanton's.

I'd be inclined to believe the term "small batch" was dreamed up (uh... sorry; I meant to say "was the brilliant, creative marketing plan driving the decision") in order to catch up with what Ancient Age (or whatever they called that distillery) was doing.

That was in 1984. At around the same time, Booker Noe was gifting personal friends (and possibly big customers & corporate mucky-mucks) with hand labeled bottles of uncut, unfiltered, ~eight-year-old bourbon. Someone at Jim Beam Brands, probably the same who decided to present Booker to the public as a sort of Jim Beam's answer to Colonel Sanders (Kentucky Steamed Corn?), built a four (I believe originally five, but that's another story) brand "set". These were not "single barrel", and Beam had no intention of going that route (to their credit, in my opinion). So they came up with the "small batch" concept to give the impression that these were carefully crafted bourbons, made in very small quantities. Rather than the truth, which is that they are dumped from carefully SELECTED barrels of regularly-produced whiskey, BOTTLED in small quantities.

At least I THINK they came up with it. I've always thought it was fascinating that Kentucky Bourbon Distillers ALSO market a collection of four individually-branded special bourbons (Noah's Mill, Rowan's Creek, Kentucky Vintage, and Pure Kentucky XO),and THAT collection is called "Small Batch". I don't when that came out, although it probably was sold in Japan for awhile before it was released here, and nobody seems to talk about it, but it sure seems as though someone stepped on someone's toes there.

Anyway, today there is only one bourbon distillery that DOESN'T feature either "small batch" or "single barrel" offerings. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that ADI's source for it's "19 barrels or less" was Maker's Mark, the only distillery that doesn't market such a product.

To the best of my knowledge, the only truly SMALL BATCH bourbon offered to the public were the three experimentals from Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve's four-grain. The former three were BARRELED as one barrel apiece, about as small as one can get. The latter was MADE as a small batch, or at least as close as we get today; the pot stills at W.R. operate somewhat more like continuous distilling than true batch distilling. All of the other "small batches" are only accurate insofar as they try not to bottle more of it than they think will sell quickly (as opposed to "commodity" whiskey that can be warehoused as bottled product like ketchup or beans or any other packaged product).

[bunghole]

It has always been my understanding that Freddy Noe has been credited with inventing the small batch marketing concept for Beam's small batch collection of; Booker's, Baker's, Knob Creek, & Basil Hayden's. The batch refers to the number of barrels selected that meet the flavor profile for bottling and not to the number of barrels distilled from any given amount of fermentation going into the stills.

Of course there was the ill fated Jacob's Well that touted itself as micro-batch bourbon. It's sales were so microscopic that Beam discontinued the brand.

There is nothing small or micro about any of Beam's distilling operations.

In strict pot distilling terms a batch would be one still or fermenter full. At Woodford Reserve the 7,500 gallon fermenters are distilled in thirds in the large pot wash still in a semi-continous fashion, so to me that would equal one batch. This could also be seen as micro-batch distilling and would apply to any small pot still operation.

In bottled in bond terms a batch could equal all the whiskey that is distilled in a single season be it spring or fall of a single year. BIB bourbons could be seen in terms of single batch bourbon. I think distillers are missing the mark by abandoning bottled in bond status as I think there is a real marketing opportunity in touting it as single batch bourbon.

OK Gents - Fire Away!

Linn -

[bourbonv]

Linn,
I agree that Bottled-in-Bond is a small batch and it is also a true vintage bourbon. The distillers are missing out, but I assume that is because of the fact that they have to tell where their whiskey came from to have bonded whiskey.

[gillmang]

I agree with everything people have said and would only add, that "batch distillation" has another, narrower meaning of pot still vs. continuous (column) still operation.

You have to take the low wines out of the wash still and put them into the spirit still (2 at WR). So that is batch production especially since the stills need more frequent cleaning than a column still does.

But this sense of the term of course is different than what Freddy Noe or Beam would have meant when coming up with the term (if they did). Beam used then and still does large column stills, so it was using the term in another sense.

It may well be the term small batch was invented in the early 80's, but I still wonder (since so often there is nothing new under the sun) if it was distillery speak from well before that time, at least in some distilleries.

But it really does seem that BIB was the original small batch (small here being used relatively). Bonded whiskey has a specific character from being made in one season by one distiller at one still. In this sense, I think the BIB laws from the beginning were a quality assurance because people were being told, this whiskey has a special quality from the way it was made: in particular, it has a unity or purity of taste. Not that it tastes great necessarily, but by being 100 proof, made by one distiller in one season at one plant, it has the purity and character that batches blended from different seasons or years or companies could never have. In effect, BIB was a certificate of origin, one of the early "appellations" as they are called today in Europe.

It's a pity that the companies gave up largely on BIB and while small batch is a modern substitute the concept is fuzzier and in practice hard to pin down.

Gary

[cowdery]

Blanton's was the first "single barrel" American whiskey, at least the first to be identified as such. Van Winkle was doing bottlings that just happened to consist of the contents of one barrel, but he wasn't promoting the fact. It was just a convenient way to do a small bottling.

There were "single cask" bottlings of single malts before Blanton's and that's where they got the idea. They usually credit it to Elmer, because it doesn't look good to say it was actually their Japanese partner, Takara, that developed the product for the Japanese market.

As for "Small Batch," no one had used the term before Beam introduced the "Small Batch Bourbons Collection" in 1988 or 89. I was doing work for them at the time, including on the SBBC itself, and asked what it meant. They said it referred to the selection of a small number of barrels for a bottling batch. There was never a specific number.

Maker's Mark, being the clever rascals that they are, doesn't use the term "small batch" on its labels, but has always used small dump tanks -- 1,000 gallons as compared to the 10,000 gallons-plus tanks most others use. Do the math. A 1,000 gallon tank will hold the contents of 19-20 barrels.

Does the fact that Maker's Mark self-servingly defines "small batch" to exactly match its practices make that the "official" definition? Please!

The reality is that "small batch" means whatever the producer who puts those words on a label wants it to mean, or nothing at all. It means somebody thought the product would sell better if it had the words "small batch" on it.

This is not my trademark cynicism. These are all verifiable facts.

Regardless what is sometimes published, it has never meant small distillation batches although, as Woodford Reserve points out, they, by virtue of using pot stills, have an inherently small distillation batch process, with each "batch" being the contents of one fermenter.

Since a BIB must be all the production of one season, one could reasonably define the production of one season as a "batch." Since continuous stills are shut down every few days for cleaning and maintenance, one continuous run through a continuous still, from start up to shut down, could be considered a "batch."

I'm not saying "is," I'm saying "could be."

To the extent "small batch" has any universal meaning, it is that a relatively small number of barrels (50 barrels might be closer to the actual practice) is dumped and adjusted according to a brand profile for a bottling run, as opposed to the several hundred barrels dumped at one time for the bottling of a standard product.

[gillmang]

I'm not giving up on the possibility the term small batch was used in distilleries before the 1980's, but it is true at least that in some distilleries, a run through a column still can be considered a "batch".

Read John Hansell's article on Seagram's at Gimli, Mantitoba in the new issue of Malt Advovate.

Gary

[cowdery]

I'm not giving up on the possibility the term small batch was used in distilleries before the 1980's, but it is true at least that in some distilleries, a run through a column still can be considered a "batch".

Read John Hansell's article on Seagram's at Gimli, Mantitoba in the new issue of Malt Advovate.

Gary

The words "small batch" certainly aren't filled with esoteric meaning. I might make a batch of biscuits tomorrow, but will I make a large batch or a small batch? In distillery operations, though, the term "run" is more common than "batch." In distilling, the most common use of the word "batch" would be in referring to pot distilling as a "batch" process as compared to the "continuous" process of a column still.

All of which proves what exactly? The point is what "small batch" means when a producer identifies a product as "small batch," or am I missing something?

[gillmang]

But we don't know for sure, I am simply speculating that the term small batch, to mean a smaller group of barrels than is normal to make up a batch for bottling, pre-dates the 1980's.

Gary

[cowdery]

I guess I'm missing your point.

I have no doubt that, at some point in distilling history, maybe when Charlie Farnsworth created Rebel Yell, the production manager said "how much should we make?" And Charlie said, "I don't know, not much, just a small batch."

So?

[gillmang]

I'm speculating (which is all it is) that the term had more than a casual use, that, as suggested in the Maker's Mark site, there was an in-house distillery practice of viewing 20 or so barrels as a small batch. Distilleries might have wanted to put those together for a number of reasons.

Gary

[cowdery]

Not that I've ever heard, and I've been in and out of distilleries for a while. If you ask any distillery hand about "small batch," the first words they'll say are, "well, that's a Jim Beam term and ..."

As I said, I think Maker's is being very clever. They've clearly sucked at least one person in.

[gillmang]

Let's leave it at that Chuck, but my view is not just based on the Maker's website, it is based on thinking a common-sounding expression may have an antecedent in distillery practice, that's all.

Gary

[bourbonv]

Hey Chuck,
It was Charlie Farnsley, not Farnsworth! His son Doug is on the board of the Farnsley-Kaufman house with me and is a bourbon fan. He will be at the Bourbon Academy on the 24th of March and does look in here every now and then.

Gary,
Chuck is right in that there is still no legal definition of the term and there does not seem to be one before Beam made it up in the early 90's. I was at U D when they went public with the "Small Batch Collection". Chris and I went to one of their first tastings at the Sealbach.

The fact of the matter is that "single barrel" and "small batch" whiskey is simply a modern marketing spin on old fashioned, 19th century practices. Back then most whiskey was single barrel because you bought the whiskey by the barrel or from a barrel at your local saloon or pharmecy. If the whiskey was bottled it was all done in small batches.