A number of American whiskey producers are already making single malt whisky—Westland, Stranahan, Hollerhorn, St. George, and Virginia Distilling, to name only a handful—but the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) doesn’t yet include a definition of “American single malt whisky” in its Standards of Identity. That is going to change, probably within the next few months (but it’s a regulatory process, so don’t hold me to that prediction), and this may cause more excitement than we’ve seen since Navin R. Johnson made the phone book.

Last Friday, July 29, following a rule-making process that began in 2021, the TTB published a proposed legal standard for American single malt whisky, inviting comment from the public and the industry. Comments are due to the TTB by September 27. 

To date, the TTB Standards of Identity for all spirits are concise, if not downright parsimonious, and the proposed standard for American single malt is no different in that respect. It fairly well reflects existing standards for bourbon, rye, and other American whiskeys in most respects. According the the TTB announcement: 

“Under our proposal, to be labeled American single malt whisky, the product must be distilled entirely at one U.S. distillery, and must be mashed, distilled, aged in the United States.  The product also must be sourced from a fermented mash of 100% malted barley, at a distillation proof of 160° or less, and stored in oak barrels not exceeding 700 liters. In addition, allowable coloring, flavoring, and blending materials would be permitted.”    

Of note, the existing TTB Standards of Identity do include a definition of “malt whisky” that fails to differentiate “single malt” from whiskeys incorporating other grains along with malted barley: “whisky distilled from malt mash, which is whisky produced in the United States at not exceeding 160° proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent malted barley [emphasis added-MN] and stored in used oak barrels.”

In its Federal Register notice, which is worth reading for additional background, the TTB includes eight particular questions in addition to inviting any and all comments. It asks for comment regarding the definition’s barrel specification; no other TTB whiskey definition limits barrel size, and the proposed single malt definition would allow aging in used, uncharred new, or charred new oak barrels. It further asks: whether TTB regulations should allow use of the designation “straight” for American single malt; whether coloring, flavoring, or blending materials should be allowed; and whether mixtures of American single malt whiskies should be allowed labeling as “blended American single malt whisky.” 

Why does having a legal standard matter?

Labeling and production standards for American single malt matter to consumers for the same reason it mattered to define bourbon, rye, gin, or any other widely consumed distilled spirit: We’ll have more confidence in what we’re buying. 

Read back to how the U.S. spirits industry worked before the existing TTB Standards of Identity, before establishment of the Federal Alcohol Administration in 1935, and even farther back to before the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, and prepare to be horrified. Absent a legally defined standard for production and labeling, spirits production and marketing was the wild, wild west. Some of the booze sold as whiskey during America’s first century was poorly made, watered down, and/or adulterated with non-potable substances to the point of being deadly.

It is significant that the U.S. spirits industry requested (“demanded” is more like it) addition of single malt whisky to the TTB Standards of Identify. Before 2021, the TTB mostly ignored single malt whisky as a category, conceding the definition of single malt to what Scotland, Ireland, and Canada dictated, as if no American distiller would ever produce such a whisky.

Why does the ‘e’ in whisk(e)y matter?

It just doesn’t. Ain’t a law on the books anywhere dictating whether whisk(e)y should include the letter e. Conventionally, the nations most closely aligned with the British Commonwealth (Scotland and Canada, although Scotland seems to be edging toward the door) and those which learned their whisk(e)y making from Scotland (Japan and India) omit the e, as Scotland does. Ireland typically includes the e, probably just to spite the British monarchy, and America officially doesn’t give a da(e)mn. The TTB’s Standards of Identity omit the e, but most distillers include it, and I’ve yet to hear of anyone being fined for doing so. Have it your way.

Where to look for American single malt whiskies at retail

As of today, you’re most likely to find American single malts scattered throughout other American whiskey shelves—bourbon and/or rye, for example. That doesn’t entirely make sense. My personal inclination would be to put all single malts together, including the ones from Scotland, Ireland, India, Japan, and wherever—but it’s the same way retailers locate other American whiskeys such as wheat whiskey, corn whiskey, or moonshine.

With American single malt about to become its own category, retailers may soon start reorganizing their whiskey shelves. Or not.