Editorial Policy

What We Publish

PlainAlcohol reformats one public federal record into a browsable directory: the TTB List of Permittees, released under the Freedom of Information Act and published in April 2025. We add navigation, state and city groupings, and plain-language explanation — we do not change the underlying records.

How the Data Is Produced

Permit pages are generated by an automated extract-transform-load (ETL) pipeline that reads the public TTB file, classifies each permit into one of four industry types, normalizes state and city names, and computes totals and per-capita rates. The pipeline does not editorialize the records. We do not claim to manually fact-check individual permits against any other registry; each page reflects what the public file says.

What Is — and Isn't — Covered

We cover the four FAA Basic Permit / Distilled Spirits Plant / Bonded Winery types in the public list:

  • Wineries
  • Distilleries
  • Importers
  • Wholesalers

Breweries are not covered. Breweries operate under a Brewer's Notice, which the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 6103) keeps separate from the public List of Permittees. Because brewery data is not in the public file, we do not publish brewery counts or pages. State and local licenses, issued by state Alcoholic Beverage Control agencies, are also out of scope.

Sourcing & Attribution

We cite the source and its vintage (TTB List of Permittees, April 2025) and link to the official TTB Public Permit Search so readers can confirm the current, authoritative status of any permit. Full detail on processing and per-capita method is on our methodology page.

Independence

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from any permit holder, distributor, retailer, or trade association. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, which does not influence coverage or presentation.

Errors & Corrections

If a displayed value does not match the TTB source, we want to fix it. See our corrections policy for how to report an issue and how corrections are handled.