Fred Minnick appeared on NPR recently to address the state of the bourbon industry, with fears ignited by a decrease in consumption and the one-year pause at one of Jim Beam’s largest distillery’s. Minnick’s message is patience, with many in the bourbon industry eyeing 2030 as a bounce-back.

Here are some highlights from his interview:

Mary Louise Kelley, NPR: Tell me about this distillery that has been paused. How big is it?

Minnick: it’s not a total throw in the towel for the company. What it is more than anything is that they they are feeling the effect of consumer demand being down, exports being down, and they’re making a business decision to shut it down so they don’t get hurt, I would say, in another year or two and have to do layoffs.

Kelly: Even people who don’t drink bourbon understand that it’s not made overnight. It takes years. So are they essentially betting that not only is demand down, Americans are drinking less, but it’s demand is going to stay down, Americans are going to keep drinking less in the years to come?

Minnick: Well, the big thing is that a lot of people are circling 2030 as the year that it kind of bounces back in a big way. This generation, the new drinking generation — first of all, millennials drink so much. They kind of set, like, a bad standard for the industry. There was just an assumption that everybody would drink as much as millennials as they turned 21.

KELLY: I’m a Gen Xer, and I will say millennials set bad standards in all kinds of ways. But moving on.

Minnick: This new generation, they’re not actually reaching for the $25 bottle, like Jim Beam White Label or Jack Daniels Black Label. They’re wanting the 50, the $75 bottle. And so the thought is that this generation just doesn’t have enough money yet to actually fulfill the things that they want to drink. … So the thought is that in a few years, once this new generation gets a little bit more money in their pocket, you know, they’re going to spend it on higher end bourbons.

To read the full interview, visit NPR.com.

Read more: Pre-order Fred Minnick’s New Book, ‘Bottom Shelf’