THIS WEEK — 3–7 AUGUST 2026
Is American whiskey shrinking or growing right now?
The Wantage is the weekly trade argument from the publisher of the American Whiskey Industry Brief. The daily brief reports what happened. This takes the one question the trade is actually arguing about that week and answers it — with evidence assembled across months, a consequence for each kind of reader, and three dated predictions that can fail.
Wantage is the gauger's word for the difference between what a barrel claims and what is actually in it — the empty space, measured with a rod through the bung and written down. This publication measures the same gap in what the industry says about itself. No hedging, and a position you can hold me to.
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August 20261 issue
- ◆ Week of 3–7 August 2026 (this week)
July 20265 issues
June 20264 issues
May 20265 issues
April 20262 issues
A new issue publishes Monday morning, free. Issues are permanent: the calls stay up whether they land or not.
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The box above finds an issue by date or subject. This one reads inside every issue — a distillery, a bottle, a figure.
How this is built
The Wantage takes one question the trade is actually arguing about and answers it with evidence assembled across months, not a recap of the week. Every figure comes from the American Whiskey Industry Brief’s own daily record, and the monthly measurements behind it are published in The Gauge. Where the archive disagrees with itself, the figure is withheld rather than asserted.