The subtitle says it all: “the regulatory dilemma of the American microdistiller.” The red tape afflicting small, start-up distillers is considerable. Consider:
Transporting the liquor—which in Scarano’s case involves moving the whiskey from this stall to a retail counter about 50 feet away—triggers a minor avalanche of additional notifications and paperwork, exacerbated by the fact that Ohio, as a “control state,” holds a monopoly on the sale of liquor. This means Scarano has to “buy” the liquor he’s made himself from the state before he can resell it to customers.
Read more at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/whiskey-business/309192/
