Sip slowly on that bourbon

The shortages have occurred despite a 50 per cent growth in production since 2010 to 1.2 million barrels a year by 2013. Photo / Thinkstock

Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey drinkers are being advised to sip more slowly after a "bourbon boom" left the American drinks industry facing an unprecedented supply crunch.

The shortages are being blamed on the combination of a spike in demand for the spirit and a shortage in supply of the white oak barrels in which it is aged for a decade or more. Leading manufacturers, such as the 228-year-old Buffalo Trace distillery in Franklin County, Kentucky have taken to issuing statements pleading for patience from their customers during supply "blackouts".

"We're making more bourbon every day. In fact, we're distilling more than we have in the last 40 years," said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller at Buffalo Trace.

"It's hard to keep up. Although we have more bourbon than last year when we first announced the rolling blackouts, we're still short and there is no way to predict when supply will catch up with demand."

The distillery promised no shortage should last more than one month "before reinforcements arrive".

The shortages have occurred despite a 50 per cent growth in production since 2010 to 1.2 million barrels a year by 2013, Kentucky Distillers' Association figures show.

But that has been no match for the new thirst for bourbon, particularly overseas, with exports topping US$1 billion a year.

The rise in demand has been accompanied by a "lumber slump" caused by a harsh winter in 2014-15 and the collapse in the timber industry that followed the 2007 housing crisis. Although there are sufficient white oak trees, there is a shortage of companies able to cut and mill the only wood used to make Kentucky Bourbon barrels.