American bourbon and whiskey distillers are facing a barrel shortage, with many seeing either a lack of availability or a lengthy wait for orders to be filled.

With many of these barrels ultimately finding their way into the Scottish and Irish whisky industry, it could ultimately affected the industry here as well.

According to Vinepair, numerous North American whiskey distilleries have reported this problem with cooperages confirming it.  

The problem is being caused by a compound of issues ranging from larger distilleries ordering more barrels due to market demand for whiskey, to cooperages having a shortage of labour due to Covid, to shipping issues meaning cooperages aren’t getting supplies of raw materials.

What is adding to the problem is, just like the Covid toilet paper buying panic, distilleries are ordering two to three times their normal number of barrels to stock up in case the situation gets worse.

For example, Vinepair cites Cardinal Spirits, which seeing a fivefold increase in lead times for barrels, is ordering two to three times more to ensure it will not run out of supplies.