Maker’s Mark just got a little less stiff. The bourbon brand, known for its bottles sealed with red wax, told customers today that it’s reducing the amount of alcohol in the beverage in order to meet rising global demand. 
 
 Bourbon, which is a form of American whiskey distilled from corn and other grains, has surged in popularity over the past few years. In its largest market, the United States, bourbon now accounts for 35% of all spirit sales as more Americans have developed a taste for high-end whiskey, which is typically aged in charred white oak barrels for six years or longer. In the 1960s and 1970s, Maker’s Mark was famously sold with the slogan, “It tastes expensive…and is.” 
 
 But international growth is what’s driving demand for bourbon makers like Beam Inc., which produces Maker’s Mark as well as Jim Beam, a cheaper and more popular bourbon. Beam executives earlier this month said Australia, Germany, and Japan were strong markets. Last year, the company warned it didn’t have enough supply to keep up with bourbon demand. It also raised prices. 
 
 In an email today to loyal customers, Beam executives said the company had decided that the only way to keep up with demand was to make its bourbon less strong, stretching the current supply. “We’ve worked carefully to reduce the alcohol by volume (ABV) by just 3%,” the email said. 
 
 I’ve reached out to Beam to clarify whether the alcohol is being reduced by 3%, as the email says, or three percentage points, which would be more dramatic. The footer of today’s email suggests it’s the latter, describing Maker’s Mark as a 42% ABV beverage, which is also known as 84 proof; it was previously distilled to 45% ABV, or 90 proof. That would be a 6.7% reduction in the amount of alcohol. 
 
 “We have both tasted it extensively, and it’s completely consistent with the taste profile our founder/dad/grandfather, Bill Samuels, Sr., created nearly 60 years ago,” two of the company’s bourbon heirs wrote in the email. “We’ve also done extensive testing with Maker’s Mark drinkers, and they couldn’t tell a difference.” 
 
 Watering down the drink is a risky move for a brand with customers as particular as Maker’s Mark’s, which explains why it reached out to its “ambassadors” to disclose the change and potentially head off a backlash. Bourbon connoisseurs often speak in reverent terms about the “taste profile” of their favorite spirits, and producers like Beam heavily market the time-honored and precise recipes that make their products superior. Adding a little water to the drink is an easy way to increase Beam’s margins and do more with less, but at what cost? Some customers, of course, prefer their whiskey over ice or with a splash of soda, but they would surely say that watering down the drink is their prerogative alone. 
 
 Here’s the email that Maker’s Mark sent today, which was passed along to me by David Weiner, editorial director at Digg: ||||| Enlarge image Credit Creative Commons 
 
 It's now going to take a little more Maker's Mark to get you tipsy, not that Maker's is the sort of bourbon one drinks just to get tipsy. 
 
 Nonetheless. 
 
 Maker's Mark is reducing its alcohol by volume by three percent in an effort to meet increased demand, says an e-mail from executives to Maker's Mark Ambassadors. 
 
 Update 12:45 p.m. Sunday: Here's a Q&A with Maker's Mark chief operating officer Rob Samuels, where he explains the decision. 
 
 In the message obtained by WFPL, chairman emeritus Bill Samuels Jr. and chief operating officer Rob Samuels say demand is far exceeding the production capacity of the Loretto, Ky., distillery. It notes that Maker's Mark has become difficult to find for some of the letter's recipients. 
 
 Maker's Mark is low on supply and is expanding the distillery, the message says. 
 
 The message adds: 
 
 We wanted you to be the first to know that, after looking at all possible solutions, we’ve worked carefully to reduce the alcohol by volume (ABV) by just 3%. This will enable us to maintain the same taste profile and increase our limited supply so there is enough Maker’s Mark to go around, while we continue to expand the distillery and increase our production capacity. 
 
 
 
 We have both tasted it extensively, and it’s completely consistent with the taste profile our founder/dad/grandfather, Bill Samuels, Sr., created nearly 60 years ago. We’ve also done extensive testing with Maker’s Mark drinkers, and they couldn’t tell a difference. 
 
 
 
 Nothing about how we handcraft Maker’s Mark has changed, from the use of locally sourced soft red winter wheat as the flavor grain, to aging the whisky to taste in air-dried American white oak barrels, to rotating our barrels during maturation, to hand-dipping every bottle in our signature red wax. 
 
 In the past, Maker's Mark had an alcohol by volume content of 45 percent, according to this bottle in front of me. The Samuels' e-mail lists it at 42 percent. 
 
 A favorite in Kentucky seemingly for eons, bourbon has grown over the years in popularity in the rest of the world. And Maker's Mark, which is owned by Beam Inc., isn't the only bourbon in short supply. Because it must by law be aged to be called bourbon, distillers have to estimate market demand at least two years (but usually longer) before it reaches the shelves. 
 
 We've left messages from a Maker's Mark spokesman seeking comment. We'll update when we hear something.
– Bourbon's worldwide popularity is on the rise, and with countries like Australia, Japan, and Germany clamoring for the stuff, Maker's Mark is changing its formula. In order to respond to increased demand, the firm says it's cutting the alcohol by volume by 3%—though it apparently means 3 percentage points, or a 6.7% cut in ABV, Quartz notes. That means the figure, once 45% (or 90 proof), will now be 42% (84 proof), per an email from company executives. "We have both tasted it extensively, and it's completely consistent with the taste profile our founder/dad/grandfather, Bill Samuels Sr., created nearly 60 years ago," company heirs say. "Nothing about how we handcraft Maker’s Mark has changed," they add, per WFPL. Perhaps it's time to drink Armagnac?