Does your label match your price?
The customer prices your bottle in a second, from the label alone. When packaging and price don't agree, it quietly costs you sales.
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Rooted in experience, commercially focused, and built for what's next. We develop, launch, scale, and commercialize spirits brands — from the liquid in the bottle to the shelf it earns.
American Spirits Co. is a brand-building house — built to develop, launch, scale, and commercialize spirits brands.
We've taken spirits brands from first idea to a fixture on the back bar, and made the liquid that goes in the bottle.
Take all of it, or take one piece: brand positioning, blending, distribution strategy. We help where you need it, and stay out of the way where you don't.
We don't advise from the sidelines. We build.
Nick Roady
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Jennifer Roady
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Most houses treat the shelf as the finish line. It's the opposite — the shelf is where you begin to compete. While it's no small feat to get there, that only earns you a place in the arena. Now the real work begins, and persistence isn't optional. Every reorder, every market, every case that moves is what separates a true operator from someone who only had a good idea. We don't build the brand and walk away — we're here for the long haul, if you need us.
It starts with what's in the glass. Led by a master blender, we develop, source, and produce the liquid itself — not a concept, the spirit you'll pour.
A brand is far more than a name on the bottle. We'll work with you to create its position in the market, the identity that connects with the target consumer — the cachet, the image, the story — and the package that carries all of it onto the shelf.
The commercial engine matters as much as the brand's position in the market — and the liquid in the bottle. The route to market, the distribution partners, and the internal engine that creates the sell-through to actually move cases.
Across American whiskey, vodka, moonshine, liqueurs, Scotch, rum, agave, Japanese whisky, gin, and wine — from brands we founded to brands we carried to market.
A selection of brands shaped over two careers in the spirits business. Engagements span founding, brand development, commercialization, and route to market.
Perspective on building, launching, and scaling spirits brands — the realities of the trade, written by the people who navigate it.
The customer prices your bottle in a second, from the label alone. When packaging and price don't agree, it quietly costs you sales.
Read the insight →Signing a distributor isn't the finish line — it's access to the game. Why brands stall after launch, and how to build the velocity that moves cases.
Read the insight →You don't need a still or millions in equipment — just the right liquid, brand and route to market. Here's how it actually works.
Read the insight →Distributors, control states, and the path your brand takes to the shelf — without the missteps that cost a launch.
Read the insight →The real ranges, where the money goes, and the distribution margins almost everyone forgets to plan for.
Read the insight →Your logo is the outfit — your brand is the reputation. What a brand actually is, and why most founders build it backwards.
Read the insight →Browse all insights → · New insights are published as the house grows. Subscribe to be notified →
The questions serious founders ask before they build — answered the way we'd answer them across the table.
No — and most successful brands don't. Sourcing, blending, and bottling can all be handled through partner facilities while you own the brand, the liquid specification, and the customer relationship. That's the model most modern spirits companies are built on, and it's the model we run under one roof.
More than most first-time founders expect. Liquid development, packaging, federal and state compliance, initial inventory, and market support each carry real cost — and distributor margins claim a share most business plans miss. We work with funded founders and operators who are capitalized for the full journey, not just the first bottling run. Our article “What it really costs to launch a spirits brand” gives an honest breakdown.
For most engagements, plan on nine to eighteen months from concept to sellable liquid — covering liquid development and sensory work, TTB label approval, package production, and state registrations. Timelines compress when decisions are funded and decisive, and stretch when they aren't.
We build spirits brands end to end — liquid, brand, and market. That means developing what's in the bottle, designing the brand and package it wears, and commercializing it through distribution across open and control states. Take all of it, or the piece your team is missing.
Both. Founders come to us at the napkin-sketch stage, and established brand owners come to us to fix a stalled market strategy, rework liquid or packaging, or scale into new states. The entry point differs; the standard doesn't.
Through the three-tier system: producers sell to distributors, distributors sell to retailers. Winning attention from the right distributor — and surviving on the shelf — comes down to margin math, brand story, and relationships. We bring seventeen years of them, across both open and control states.
Whether you're developing a new spirit, scaling an existing brand, or entering a new market — we'd like to hear what you're building. A launch done right is a serious, multi-year investment, and we partner with founders and brands ready to commit to building something that lasts — not chasing a shortcut.
In 2009, I co-founded a craft distillery — one of fewer than 200 in the entire country at the time. Craft beer was on the rise, new breweries opening everywhere, but craft spirits hadn’t caught up. Today there are more than 2,700 distilleries. I was one of the first — and the first licensed distillery in Madison County, Illinois since 1882.
A craft brand doesn’t come with departments or department heads. Nobody’s coming to save you — so you learn to do all of it. Anyone who’s spent time in the craft space knows exactly what that means.
I ran the still. I bottled the product, packed the cases and drove the truck to the distributor. I learned TTB compliance and filed the excise tax reports with the IRS. No accountant, no lawyer to lean on. Then I’d change hats, ride along with the sales reps and hand-sell the same liquid I’d made and bottled only a few months earlier — and then you’d do it all again. That’s where my journey began.
In the early days of the craft distilling movement, there were far fewer resources. Very few YouTube channels on how to distill, few books worth the shelf space. You figured it out as you went.
Seventeen years in, and the spirits business is still incredible to me. I’ve worked on brands for global houses and small family operations alike — people who handed me dollars they’d worked hard to earn and trusted me to spend them well. This is a business of heritage and tradition, full of deeply passionate people: builders, makers, artists — the ones with more guts than budget. Those are the people I want to be in the room with.
Whether you’re thinking about starting a brand, you’ve just launched one, or you’ve got a brand in market that needs focus — I’d like to hear about it. Drop me a line. Let’s chat.
Like a lot of people, I came into the spirits business by accident. I started in the marketing department of an emerging whiskey company. It didn’t take long to discover I had a real gift for blending.
Under the mentorship of Peggy Noe Stevens, I earned my way into the blending room the honest way — barrel by barrel. It started with our single barrel program, and enough people took notice. That’s when the door opened to blending small-batch releases. In 2022, I was named Master Blender, leading barrel selection, blend development and innovation projects.
Blending is half palate and half nerve. You’re putting something out there for thousands of people, and you have to stand behind every drop. Some of the most rewarding days I’ve had are spent nosing through fifty or sixty barrels — bourbon, American single malt, rum, añejo tequila — building a blend or pulling the single barrels good enough to stand on their own. Creating the liquid is the part I love most.
It’s not lost on me that I came into this by accident and found a craft I love — along with mentors and colleagues who made room for me. So when the Bourbon Women Association and Bourbon on the Banks named me one of their Top Influential Women in Whiskey, alongside Ashley Barnes, Jane Bowie, Peggy Noe Stevens and Marianne Eaves, it became one of the great honors of my life. To have looked up to and learned from these women, and now to be counted among them, is an achievement I’ll always be proud of.
For me, that’s where it started — and it’s the work I’ve done ever since. I’ve had the pleasure of helping a number of brands, whether that’s blending, sourcing or shaping mash bills. But at the end of the day, the job is always the same: making a bottle worth reaching for again.
Whether you’re sourcing your first barrels, dialing in a blend, or building a brand from nothing — I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a line. Let’s chat.