The trend in our society in making bread, cheese, wine, beer – and now it’s our turn in the spirit business – is to be organic, to be as local as you can. Your hands are touching the soil and you are doing something that is real. I love it when people say, ‘Come and look at my dirt. This is where I grow my rye, my wheat.’ There are four tiny malt houses now. Give them 10 years, and they will be malting tons.

Bill Owens, founder and president of the American Distilling Institute, on the growth of craft distilling