Meet The Most Important Man In American Whiskey

Every 24 hours, viewers watch more than 16,700 hours of video about whiskey on the Brewzle YouTube channel. That’s the equivalent of 696 days — almost two years — of rapt attention in a single day.

The whiskey industry is dominated by heritage and mash bills, with legacy brands traditionally wielding the most power. But in 2025, those who get command consumers’ attention have the power. And by that metric, the most important figure in American whiskey may be the man who garnered more than 800,000 subscribers for videos like the one where he tried to power his lawnmower with a bottle Weller Full Proof.

TJ Gamble, the star of Brewzle, has the kind of following that influencers in other markets would (figuratively) give their right arm for. His work steers clear of musty old tasting notes, bringing whiskey brands of all sizes to an enviable audience.

Yet, despite being one of the largest channels in an $89 billion industry, you won’t find the big whiskey brands advertising on or sponsoring Gamble’s YouTube channel.

It’s a curious dynamic, and one that had me intrigued. I reached out to Gamble to find out his side of the story and discover why the whiskey industry is leaving the YouTube opportunity on the table.

The Attention Giant

Brewzle viewers watch 6.1 million hours of Gamble’s videos a year. That means in a single day, his fans watch the equivalent of nearly two years of video. Gamble attracted this committed audience by turning traditional whiskey content on its head.

“If you were just doing a review of a bottle, that video is only going to do as well as the interest in that bottle,” Gamble told me in an interview. “The real whiskey enthusiasts don’t care. They’ve had it, they know.”

“We try to evolve content that’s going to engage casual enthusiasts or might even be interesting to folks that don’t care about whiskey,” he added. “You don’t have to know anything about whiskey to know that this is going to be interesting to see if a $400 bottle of whiskey would run a lawnmower.”

Gamble is referring to the viral video from 2022, when he poured a bottle of Weller Full Proof whiskey, which he waited in line for 43 hours to buy, into a lawnmower to see if it would work instead of gas. The lawnmower didn’t work, but the YouTube Shorts video has 3.8 million views.

The Golden Age Of Whiskey

Brewzle is the whiskey channel to watch, and has found clear success with its bourbon hunting videos and irreverent enjoyment of whiskey.

“We know if we talk about a small brand in Mississippi, they become the third-most sold whiskey in the state of Mississippi,” Gamble says. “We know if we talk about a small brand in Alabama that makes 50 barrels a year, they got like a two or three-year wait list just to get whiskey from them.”

Despite the proven recipe, the shelf-clearing videos and the impressive stats, bigger brands still don’t seem to respect the channel.

“The big mainstream brands are way behind. They value Instagram over YouTube,” Gamble says. He suspects it comes down to a desire for control, and he’s likely right.

YouTube video is a searchable, accessible record. Reviews on a popular channel like Brewzle can be served by big search engines, so if a marketing team can’t be sure the review will be shining, video marketing can be seen as a risk.

The Whiskey Video Void

Despite marketing teams’ reservations, the world wants videos. That’s not news to anyone who has used any form of social media over the last five years. TikTok might seem like the obvious void, however its strict alcohol policy means the platform offers little potential to the whiskey industry. According to Gamble, building a presence there is a risky gamble that rarely pays off.

“We lost over 700,000 followers on TikTok when they banned us”

Gamble explained how his following was gone overnight. Even discounting the potential to invest time and money into building an audience that could disappear, in Gamble’s opinion the community building on TikTok just isn’t the same as other platforms.

In his opinion, “the only real way to have impact is through long form YouTube videos.”

You would think that Brewzle’s success would have brands flocking to him. But I know from my own experience in the industry and with my own channel, whiskey brands are fully focused on more traditional marketing avenues; the market’s attention has shifted to video, but the industry still wants written articles.

Smaller brands that can’t afford traditional PR routes are the ones that are winning from the big player’s oversight.

“Most of these brands that we’ve been really successful at helping, the guy who owns the company is literally making the whiskey… He doesn’t have a marketing team… It’s not an acceleration for a lot of these small brands. It is a creation of awareness.”

It’s also a win for the heart of the industry—the drinkers—who get to experience brands that otherwise might never have reached them. But I wonder about the impact on the industry as a whole if whiskey continues to refuse to move to where the new drinking generation are consuming their marketing.

Shifting Attitudes

We keep hearing the story that cost of living is killing alcohol sales. That gen-z aren’t drinking. That it’s this, and it’s that. But the conversation with Gamble leaves me thinking that maybe sales are falling because brands are disconnected from where the consumer actually lives.

If the industry wants to survive, and thrive, maybe they need to stop trying to control numbers and start looking at who, and what, is actually holding the consumer’s attention.

The fact that brands can’t pay to have a guaranteed positive review on YouTube might make a channel like Brewzle’s a harder “sell” for a corporate marketing department.

Unfortunately fear of genuine feedback doesn’t change the fundamental truth that old school marketing isn’t producing sales right now. And if view time numbers can’t convince the industry, perhaps the closed distilleries and falling sales will.

Until then, at least the drinkers can still benefit from the awareness channels like Brewzle are able to bring to smaller players and hidden gems.