When you think of craft spirit competitions, there’s one that really stands out: The American Craft Spirit Association (ACSA).
Here, the judges aren’t just well-versed connoisseurs, they are fellow craft spirit master distillers. So, that’s why it can be surprising when one distillery takes not one but a series of medals from the ACSA — particularly if it is in a single category.
“This is our Super Bowl, our Daytona 500, and our World Series, all rolled into one,” explained Jason Barrett, the founder of Black Button Distilling, in a media statement. “Each year the competition is steeper and we have to bring our best of the best to show what we can do.”
With an attitude like that, it’s perhaps no wonder that the Rochester, New York-based Black Button just pulled down its fourth straight ACSA medal, bronze this time around, for their Four Grain Bourbon. Specifically, the ACSA picked Black Button’s Batch 1 Blue Label Small Batch Straight Bourbon Whiskey as the 3rd best in the nation.
Better yet, they did it with a bottle plucked straight out of circulation, i.e. no special batches.
“While many distillers make special competition batches, Black Button Distilling has always felt that a bottle from general circulation best represents what we show to the public,” Barrett added. “Our whole production team should be very proud of the work they do and this accomplishment is a direct result of the long hours and dedication they put in to our craft. Every Black Button employee should be proud as it takes a whole team to create the strong force we have become.”