After hearing from “thousands” of bourbon drinkers in less than a week, Maker’s Mark is reversing course. It will no longer try to extend supplies of its flagship spirit by adding extra water.
The company waved the white flag at noon Sunday, announcing through email and social media that it was a mistake to reduce the bourbon’s alcohol content from 45 percent to 42.
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“We’ve been more than humbled by the overwhelming response,” Maker’s Mark chief operating officer Rob Samuels said in an interview.
Starting Monday, he said, every bottle coming out of the Loretto-based company will be back to its historic 90-proof strength.
In recent years, Maker’s Mark — which is owned by Beam Inc. of Deerfield, Ill. — has seen increasing demand for its product at “a rate, we as a brand, had never seen,” Samuels said.
The decision to use extra water was an attempt to “stretch the supply,” he said. The company estimated that taking the alcohol content from 45 percent to 42 percent would boost supplies by up to 6 percent.
