TTB Permit Types: Winery, Distillery, Importer, Wholesaler

TTB Basic Permits by class: winery, distillery, importer, and wholesaler share of the registry.

Research period:

Compiled by PlainAlcohol on 2026-09-04

Class-mix methodology

Across the full TTB federal permit registry tracked by PlainAlcohol, how is permit volume distributed across the four permit classes, and what does that distribution suggest about the structural shape of the US alcohol supply chain?

National totals from permit_types (four FAA Basic Permit classes). Breweries are absent from the public registry (IRC §6103). One firm may hold multiple classes, so class totals are not unique businesses. ETL detail.

TTB Permit Types: Winery, Distillery, Importer, Wholesaler

Live data, current as of the most recent source-data refresh

1. Wholesaler38,9572. Importer21,5263. Winery18,1204. Distillery5,670

The ranked top 4

Every row below reflects the current the TTB dataset and updates automatically the next time we refresh it.

# Permit class Active permits
1 Wholesaler 38,957
2 Importer 21,526
3 Winery 18,120
4 Distillery 5,670
TTB permit-class aggregates, August 2026 List of Permittees extract.

National permit-class mix

Wholesaler permits are the largest published class at 38,957 (46.2% of 84,273 federal permits in the four TTB classes), ahead of Importer (21,526).

Breweries are absent from this distribution (Brewer's Notice under IRC §6103). A business may hold multiple class permits, so class totals are not a count of unique firms.

These four classes are the FAA Basic Permit categories the TTB publishes in its List of Permittees: winery, distillery (DSP), importer, and wholesaler. A single business can hold permits in more than one class, many distributors hold both an importer and a wholesaler permit, so the sum of the class counts is not a count of distinct businesses. Breweries are not in this distribution: they file a separate Brewer's Notice under the Internal Revenue Code that the TTB does not release publicly (IRC §6103), so no brewery figure appears here. State-licensed retailers (bars, restaurants, package stores) are regulated by the states and are not in the federal registry. The classes here describe the federally licensed producer, importer, and wholesaler tiers only.

Related data

Sources