[4] Marketing its brand as Tito's Handmade Vodka, the company originally craft-distilled its products in copper pot stills at Texas' first legal distillery.

[5][4][2] By 2001, the brand was no longer a micro-distillery, having surpassed the industry standard of 40,000 cases for a craft distillery as defined by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).

[8] Beveridge first produced his spirits as a hobby after making infusions of inexpensive vodka as gifts[9] and using a pot still.

[2] Commercial production began in 1997 when Beveridge formed Fifth Generation, Inc. and established the Mockingbird Distillery, producing 1,000 cases that year.

Since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates labeling of liquor in the US, does not actually define "handmade," both lawsuits rely on the dictionary definition of the word.