Indiana Fumbling Economic Development - Again

That is how I read Ten years in, Indiana’s craft distillers see fast-growing industry with more potential from the IBJ. Our General Assembly just had to be the first in the country to pass an abortion law, but cannot properly help small businesses grow the economy here. 

“We’ve got the water, the limestone, the climate, the grain that we need—everything is here. Over the last 10 years, we’ve been able to build an ecosystem here, where we’ve got Indiana farmers who grow our corn and our wheat and our rye, and who are partners in this,” McCabe said. “Now that we’ve got an industry that is getting the kind of attention we’re getting, we can use help promoting what we have going on.”

He pointed to Kentucky and other states that invest “quite heavily” into marketing support for spirits industries.

But for an individual distillery to launch a national campaign is “a huge investment.” McCabe said he wants to see Indiana’s artisan distillers work together with the state “to promote the industry and more tourism.”

“We have the potential to bring a lot of tourists to the state,” he continued. “To promote the industry as a whole helps everybody. And it doesn’t just help the distilleries, it helps that ecosystem — the farmers and all the logistics and everything that it takes to get this done and to support the businesses. It helps everybody.”

Nearby Bear Wallow Distillery—Indiana’s first retail distillery, opened in August 2014—has already doubled the size of its building in Nashville. Owner Susan Spagnuolo said the small distillery’s biggest ask, currently, is the ability to ship spirits.

“Brown County wineries, right across the street from me, can ship, but the state doesn’t let distilleries ship, even after 10 years,” she said. “I’m in a higher tourism area. We have people coming from all over the place, and they get back to where they live and say, ‘Hey, I loved your Gnaw Bone bourbon. Where can I find it?’ And I have to tell them to come back to Indiana.”

Spagnuolo said direct-to-consumer shipping—an option for Hoosier beer and wine producers—would allow small-scale distillers to sell more products and help attract more visitors to the distillery’s taproom. Existing law requiring distillers to ship through a distributor drives down profit margins and precludes many small producers, she noted.

“Alcohol tourism has really changed, and there’s more coming,” Spagnuolo said. “You used to go to Kentucky to find bourbon. And now, we get people coming to Indiana, coming in every day, who just enjoy going to different craft distillers throughout the country and appreciating what’s unique about each one of the places.”

Barnes agreed, emphasizing that for Indiana to stand out as “a hub” for bourbon and spirits production, “it’s going to take a little bit more support from our government.”.

 This leaves me wondering what might happen if these distilleries might have accomplished if they had enough profits to make contributions to our legislators in Indianapolis.

sch 8/14