All was by no means lost, however--good whiskey men never have given up that easily. Another bone of contention on the Craig theory is the fact that since Craig never actually lived in Bourbon County (he was based slightly to the west of the county border), some people claim that this discredits him completely from ever having made a whiskey known as bourbon. And although the Governor of New Yorks office wasnt mentioned in the telegram, it is said that, even during the dry years, Franklin D. Roosevelt was wont to serve cocktails from his desk every afternoon at four. What a pleasant surprise on Rainey Street. *The Civil War toe the whiskey-making states apart. If temporary refuge from their plight lay in a slug of whiskey, they would find a way of getting it. In the mid-1700s, New England rum sold for around three shillings (0.15) per gallon and was actually used in lieu of currency in what was known as the triangle trade with Africa and the West Indies. By the 1880s, however, when some of those travelers had amassed small fortunes, decent, aged whiskey was at last being shipped to the Wild West. The act gave legitimate distillers the ability to prove the quality of their products, but the fight for honest labeling had only just begun. Even aspirin, which was discovered in 1849, wasnt used medicinally until the end of the century. Thus, even though flavor wasnt of primary importance, distillers always ran the risk of blowing themselves to kingdom come should a still decide to explode. The company went on to buy the Jack Daniel Distillery in the 1950s. But in a strange, labyrinthine manner, this new batch of concerned citizens not only did what they set out to do (for which they deserve much accolade), but they also paved the path for the return to the bold, rich flavors of straight American whiskey. Somewhere, close to the top of the log or in the lid itself, must have been a hole fitted with the copper pipe that carried live steam into the still from a nearby kettle. Was this a blended whiskey? In fact, the drys had some very serious legitimate issues that needed to be addressed. The distiller needed money, and the rest of the town needed whiskey to take the edge off the hazards of living in new territory surrounded by natives who seemed to think they had every right to live on their own land. Not all farmers had stills, mind you, since stills were very expensive pieces of equipment. The Reverend Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, is often recognized as being the inventor of bourbon, but that claim is completely unsubstantiated. George T. Stagg (The Ancient Age Distillery) opened his first distillery in 1840. Many others were hauled into court and fined for their lack of cooperation. McDonald was somewhat of an old pal of the Presidents, having been recommended for his position by more than a couple of Julia Grants familys friends. Instead, in the context of the speech, he was merely describing a common practice of the times, implying that if people were made aware of the evils of alcohol, such foolishness would stop. During the Whiskey Rebellion, some Pennsylvania farmers fled to Kentucky, adding to the number of distillers in the new state. George Garvin Brown (Old Forester) and his half-brother, J. T. S. Brown, went into the wholesale whiskey business in 1870. Once again, people were demanding straight rye whiskey--not the blended product that had been poured as rye at many a bar since as far back as the 1950s. Its a grand way to do business: Pop into the town center with a few quarts of whiskey, trade one to the local seamstress in return for a new dress for the missus, another to the fishmonger who will supply you with dinner for the next four Fridays, and when the landlord is passing by, maybe you can persuade him to take a gallon of your finest whiskey in lieu of a few months rent. In modern terms, those seven gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of a standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week nearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation. Old Taylor Bourbon first hit the shelves in 1887. (If you shake a bottle of whiskey, the bubbles that form on top, known as the bead, are an indication of the amount of alcohol in the whiskey.). Although many pre-Prohibition brands of whiskey made their way back to the shelves after Repeal, they werent always identical to their older namesakes. I. W. Harper, Old Charter, and Cascade (George A. Dickel) brand names were purchased by Schenley in the late 1930s, and Schenley itself was later acquired by United Distillers. Whatever the reality of who was drinking more, the Southern populace needed food more than they needed whiskey. The whisky is a blend of rare stocks, including some that have been maturing at the distillery for more than 140 years. Here again, the whiskey business contributed to the war effort by keeping cattle and pigs well fed when food for the general populace was at a premium. In this same speech Lincoln stated his belief that people would be more likely to stop drinking if, instead of being preached to about the evils of alcohol, they were shown examples of how sobriety would enhance their lives. Federal and local investigations into the Trust (which changed its name to the Distilling and Cattle Feeding Company in 1890), finally forced the company into receivership in 1895. Advertisements in magazines and newspapers of the time gave consumers the chance not only to buy whiskey at reduced rates, but also to receive special offers, such as an elegant gold-filled watch sent free to all who influence ten new customers to each order one gallon or more of our goods. If you had only four friends, you could receive the most beautiful set of Limoges China Dishes you ever saw for persuading each of them to order a gallon of spirits from the Security Distilling Company of Chicago. Owsley Brown (Brown-Forman), Frank Thompson (Glenmore), and a group of other concerned distillers met with attorneys from the Wholesale Liquor Dealers Association in Washington, D.C. Their aim was to unite the entire distilled spirits industry, write a code of conduct (it was actually drafted by Harris William of the Department of Agriculture) that would be acceptable to all, and convince everyone to sign it. These people had a long history of moving (or being moved) to new lands, coping with hardships, battling adversity, and establishing thriving communities. A bottle exists today, produced in 1848, that bears the word bourbon and the distillers name, M. Bininger and Company of New York. (Many stories might never have met their deadlines if the hard-drinking journalists of yesteryear werent able to knock back a shot or two.) ): During the period leading up to the Civil War, some brand-name whiskeys were becoming popular. . (And we are willing to bet that if you had to choose between a one-year-old straight whiskey and a well-made blended whiskey, you, too, would pick the latter.). By far, bourbon is the most popular style of American whiskey and it's among the best-loved styles of whiskey worldwide. of Louisville, points out that, although quinine and laudanum were used medicinally in the mid-1800s, few other medicines, apart from whiskey, were available. Heres an example of how it worked according to Martin Gilbert, author of American History Atlas, 1968: In 1752, by which time there were at least 30 legitimate distilleries in Rhode Island alone, a ship called The Sanderson left Newport, with 8,220 gallons of rum on board. So, though the public was protected and fed, in part, by the whiskey men of America, they just didnt have enough decent whiskey to drink. was the most consumed alcoholic liquor. By 1934, his company owned the George T. Stagg Distillery (Ancient Age) and the James E. Pepper Distillery (James E. Pepper whiskey) among others. Whiskeygate--the Tale of the Infamous Whiskey Ring. The cause for concern was completely understandable--the liquor industry was growing very quickly, and it wasnt well regulated. Also in December, 1933, President Roosevelt formed the Federal Alcohol Control Administration, an agency charged with establishing codes--separate ones for liquor, beer, and wine--to which any company in the beverage alcohol business was legally compelled to adhere. So, if a saloon owner in the west needed whiskey in a hurry, he could now order by telegram and get a few barrels on its way to him the very next day. Precursor to modern happy hours, the feast included caviar, Virginia ham, canaps, and thirst-provoking anchovies in various-tinted guises. The idea, of course, was to lure men there for a free lunch and sell them as much beer and liquor as possible in the interim. Even by 1939 when Charles H. Baker Jr.s excellent book, The Gentlemans Companion, was published, the author noted that vodka was unnecessary to medium or small bars.. At the turn of the century, in Britain, blended Scotches were the cause of much controversy when single malt Scotch producers sued certain retailers of blended Scotch for selling an article not of the nature and substance demanded. Blended Scotch, they said, was a silent spirit, whereas a pure malt went down singing hymns. The Distillers Company (a group of blended Scotch producers) fought back, claiming that because single malts contained many more impurities (flavor-giving congeners) than blends, theirs was the purer spirit. However, those nineteenth-century temperance movements had been gaining momentum, and the whiskey industry was about to confront its most formidable enemy. A good number of bars were no more than dens of iniquity where one could buy drugs, consort with prostitutes, hire strong-armed boys to do a little dirty work, or bribe voters with a few shots of whiskey. In the early years of the twentieth century, large food companies had already started shipping foodstuffs all over the country, and there was growing concern about the preservatives and dyes being used, as well as the sanitary conditions in the packaging plants. Needless to say, however, soldiers on both sides were, for the most part, hungry, cold, frightened, and sorely in need of solace wherever they could find it. Babcock became an Inspector of Lighthouses and drowned in 1884; McDonald was found guilty of his crimes in 1875, fined $5,000, and sentenced to three years imprisonment--but was pardoned, less than two years later, by President Hayes. Some depicted Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Grover Cleveland, and Carry Nation, while others pictured tableaux, such as a jockey on horseback or a Continental soldier. Very simply, these men created the Distillers and Cattle Feeders Trust (unofficially known as the Whiskey Trust) with an eye to buying up small-scale distilleries (whether or not they wanted to be bought), and thus controlling the price and quantity of whiskey on the market. 2020 Distilled Spirits Council of the United States | Equal Opportunity Employer | Distilled Spirits Council. (Mail-order liquor, of course, was not restricted to dry states, the whole country took advantage of some of the sizeable discounts the system offered.). Its easy to see that national prohibition was inevitable sooner or later. . But in those pre-pasteurization days, beer didnt keep too long, so they brewed only as much beer as would be consumed in the very near future. rye and malted barley Aged in oak barrels for an average of 5 . The story is documented in A Memorial History of Louisville, 1896, and includes the comment that the New Englanders went back to their rum leaving the Kentuckians to their whiskey. By the early 1620s, colonists in Virginia were brewing beer that they claimed would tide them over until they got used to the water. But while all this technology was helping people reach out and touch someone, other events were starting to bode badly for the whiskey men of America. Now and then one is caught, that must happen pro forma and then he must do time or, if he is wealthy enough, get someone to do time for him. Rates were based on the alcoholic strength of the product, spirits made from home-grown products were taxed less than those made from imported goods (rum, made from imported molasses, therefore, was more-heavily taxed than whiskey), and an annual tax was levied on each still, dependent on its capacity. On what did they spend it? So it is with American whiskey--the original concept may have been imported from far away lands, but some 300 years later, American whiskeyis a product unto itself. It just didnt taste the same. We should take time here to understand exactly what these new taxes meant to the farmer-distillers of the time--these guys didnt have any cash. One of the first acts to upset the American drinker, designed to raise money for the crown, was the taxation of the sugar, molasses, and rum being imported *from the any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession of or under the dominion of his Majesty. Although not mentioned by name, the tax was directed specifically at the main competition for British traders in the Caribbean--the merchants of French West Indies. Over 2,000 barrels of whiskey were shipped out of Kentucky in 1820, and it was widely known as bourbon. Some canny souls of the period between, say, 1800 and 1840, probably savvy distillers who managed to put two and two and two together and eventually arrive at six, must have noticed that, not only was this aged whiskey smoother than the raw product straight from the still, but also that the stuff that came from expensive brand new casks didnt have quite the finesse of that from the used casks that had been charred to clean them up. All sorts of ploys were used to make this rotgut at least look good. Fact was, that by passing on the taxes to the general public, whiskey had become too expensive for the common man. Some of them filtered the whiskey they purchased in bulk in order to rectify it, taking out some impurities and rendering the whiskey somewhat smoother. Their company would later merge with the Weller company and become known as Stitzel-Weller. There were few regulations about how the stuff should be made. After news of the occurrence reached the ears of similar-minded women around the country, over 50,000 promoters of temperance followed suit. Some bootleggers took a shortcut and produced highly toxic methyl or wood alcohol instead of ethyl (beverage) alcohol. To have lived during this period must have been similar to people who were born in the 1930s; one minute you get your first telephone installed, and before you know it, you are accessing information from libraries in Budapest. One of his first acts was to convince Congress to grant money to investigate the alleged corruption within the Internal Revenue Service. Laws that would properly define foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals, and help protect consumers, were, therefore, presented to Congress, and luckily for us, whiskey was one of the items under discussion. Virginians and pioneers from North Carolina, on the other hand, usually made their way to what became the Bluegrass State through the Cumberland Gap--a route that took them through the Appalachian Mountains on the Wilderness Trail.. The following year Jack Daniel injured his toe while kicking a safe and, strange as it may sound, the wound led to his death in 1911. Here are the 12 best bourbon whiskey brands you should be drinking in 2023. . In modern terms, those seven gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of a standard 80-proof liquor per person, per weeknearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation, even with. Hence, people such as John Thompson Street Brown, father of George Garvin Brown (Old Forester), and the Weller brothers (W. L. Wellers sons), along with many other Kentuckians, served in the Confederate Army. Exploring unchartered lands, they learned to survive by hook and crook. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, both John Ritchie and Elijah Craig were shipping whiskey on flatboats to New Orleans, and they probably werent the only ones. J. However, to some extent, Grant was directly involved with this scam: One of its main culprits, who was never convicted of any wrongdoing, was protected by Grant, and rumor at the time had it that Grants son Fred and brother Orvil had directly profited from the fraud. The major players in what became known as the Whiskey Ring, were General Orville E. Babcock, Grants secretary; John A. McDonald, the regional superintendent of the Internal Revenue, headquartered in St. Louis; and Benjamin Helm Bristow, the man who initiated the investigation into the affair when he became Secretary of the Treasury in 1874. The Lever Food and Fuel Act was enacted later that year; designed to preserve food supplies during World War I, it made all distillation of beverage alcohol illegal. However, much whiskey was being sold in bulk to rectifiers and bottlers of the time, and the problem of unscrupulous wholesalers (and retailers) adulterating good whiskey just had to be tackled. In 1798 almost 200 Kentucky whiskey men were found guilty of making whiskey without a license (Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, no less, among them). Until then, glass bottles remained fragile, expensive, hand-blown vessels that were very dear in every way. Wine is aged in toasted barrels, and indeed bourbon casks are toasted before they are charred. The spirits they made were probably not the smoothest of potions, mind you--but they were liquor all the same. But with the proliferation of whiskey, it's not hard to find bottles that push those . Though commonly believed to be a beer, the main carbohydrate is a complex form of fructose rather than starch. In 1874 more than 200,000 retailers sold liquor in the U.S., a whopping 120,000 more than just 10 years before. Whiskey shipped west in the 1800s might have started out as bourbon but along the way it was watered down and mixed with other ingredients to expand the supply and increase profits. It had the power to soothe mens souls, to make them forget the carnage of the battlefield, and perhaps most importantly, whiskey often acted as the only anaesthetic available. These simple labels say only "Overholt Rye Whiskey" with a year printed in red. This all began back in 2018 when Jack Daniel's started building six of new barrel houses in the area, with plans to build . Just as their counterparts in Scotland had done, the American producers of blended whiskeys argued that their products were purer than straight whiskeys since they contained fewer impurities. American whiskey, itself, has reached maturity in relatively recent years, after spending a 300-year adolescence being molded by every major event that has affected its native country. WhistlePig The Bhlden is aged for 21 years in American Oak ex-bourbon barrels and to give it that WhistlePig flair finished . In 1776, Kentucky County was carved from the massive western part of Virginia previously known as Fincastle County, and a law known colloquially as corn patch and cabin rights, was issued by the Virginia General Assembly. Why gin? Tight barrels were valuable, and recyclable, and used barrels were less expensive than new ones. The first cotton mill in America had opened in 1789, and when America signed a treaty with Spain in 1795, the Mississippi River became the old man whose back would carry goods for sale or trade with no hindrance from the Iberians. However, there was yet a third group of so-called rectifiers who had an eye on a fast buck. But not until 1870 would the company headed by George Garvin Brown (Old Forester) sell its whisky (without the e) only in sealed bottles. In 1777, the newly formed United States of America adopted the Stars and Stripes as the Continental Congress flag, and George Washington was concerned that his troops didnt have enough liquor. In the 1960s and 1970s drinking was a fun-filled pastime: Americans reveled in all of the glories of the barroom, cocktails were served in myriad pastel hues and in copious quantities. The popularity of alcohol in Europe as a medicine was very high. In 1867, she married a physician and alcoholic, Dr. Charles Gloyd, and was widowed when her husband, despite her remonstrations to the contrary, reaped the rewards of drinking too much. And although the town was originally known as Salem, the settlers soon adopted the name of their benefactor, and Bards Town (Bardstown) was born. The plant is now owned by the Sazerac Company and produces Ancient Age, Eagle Rare, Benchmark, and a range of single-barrel bourbons--Blantons, Rock Hill Farms, Elmer T. Lee, and Hancocks Reserve. Its somewhat astounding that there was never a Boston Rum Party, but on the other hand, the rum-loving colonists of the time would have never thrown good liquor into Boston Harbor. Luckily for us, a few of the business types had deep pockets and a long-term view, and these were the distillers who continued to make good whiskey. Further amendments to the law made it possible to actually distill whiskey (during distilling holidays) that would be used for medicinal purposes. J. (It then declined by about 25 percent after Repeal.). But whether or not they were shipping their product in charred casks is highly debatable; we know only that that particular practice became popular in the fifty-some years that followed. With its 80-proof variety ranking as one of the top ten best-selling straight whiskeys on the market, this Jim Beam subsidiary has been at it since the 1800s with budget bottles that look like something your old man or his father would imbibe upon. Jefferson once asked the question, Who would drink whiskey if wine were cheap enough? Well, those who lived in the Bluegrass State might have argued the point. There is solid evidence, however, that by the mid-1800s, some whiskeys were being aged long enough to give them a decent amount of color. Stitzel, Glenmore, Schenley, Brown-Forman, National Distillers, and Frankfort Distilleries--and these companies were allowed to store whiskey and sell it to licensed druggists, who in turn, could mete it out to customers who had a doctors prescription. proof), but by 1865 they had risen to a whopping $2 per gallon, the exact same amount that would be levied after Repeal, almost 70 years later. (A wonderful twentieth-century example of this process can be seen in the case of A. Smith Bowman, a farmer in Virginia who, in 1935, produced Virginia Gentleman Straight Bourbon Whiskey using grains grown on his farm, made barrels from the trees on his land, and used the residues of his distillate to feed his farm animals.). One of the women who had joined the Womens Crusade and was president of the WTCU. . Schenley, under the guidance of its owner, Lewis Rosenstiel, had acquired a number of distilleries, brand names, and quite a stock of whiskey during Prohibition. These guys meant business. While Presidents Johnson and Grant were going through their personal and political strifes, the excise tax that Lincoln had been forced to impose in 1862 had taken its toll on the whiskey industry. Not only are they, in many cases, less expensive than straight whiskeys, but the act of blending whiskey has now become an art form and results in a softer dram that is ideally suited for use with mixers, with some of the more expensive blends being complex enough to be savored for their own intricacies. Grants actions in this sordid affair can be interpreted in several ways: Grant was trying to help out some old friends; he was afraid that his alleged affair with Sylph would be revealed; or members of Grants family--or maybe even Grant himself--was implicated in the Whiskey Ring. The origin of pulque is unknown, but because it has a major . from 1879 until her death in 1898, was Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, born in Churchville, New York, in 1839. Abraham Overholt (Old Overholt Rye Whiskey) established his distillery in western Pennsylvania in 1810. The idea was that by attracting newcomers to the town, the surrounding land, owned by the same company, would grow in value. Over the whole of the eighteenth century, about 250,000 Scots-Irish Ulstermen and Ulsterwomen came to America. Not one to be sidetracked for long, Ms. Nation took to lecturing on the vaudeville circuit to raise money, and traveled to every state in the country, breaking up bars as she went. Fact was, the farther away from the coast people traveled, the more expensive it was for them to make rum from imported molasses; in reaction, more people turned to whiskey for solace. Whiskey and the Colonization of the United States. Many proofs were bottled, including 113 proof, 121 proof, 122 proof, 123 proof, and 127 proof. According to Gerald Carson in his book, The Social History of Bourbon, since the Northern soldiers had more money than their adversaries, they could buy more whiskey. July 23, 1803: Robert Emmet (1778-1803) foments a rebellion in Ireland, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure its independence from Great Britain. However, European Vitis vinifera grapevines didnt fare well on the East Coast. The below information has been republished with permission of the authors, Gary Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan. Most of these were of the plainest design, though handsome in their simplicity. More than a few accounts suggest as much, but as far as can be ascertained, it just isnt true. One of the strangest, most unpredictable effects of Prohibition, however, was this: Hard liquor actually became more popular than it had been prior to the Noble Experiment. . By the end of the century, however, because of the consolidation of so many distilleries during the days of the whiskey trusts, many different whiskeys emanated from relatively few distilleries, a practice still common today. The book is full of questions and answers on many different subjects, one of them being: Q: Why are water and wine casks charred on the inside? And beer was made in relatively copious quantities in the 1600s. Add to that the fact that, in some circles, drinking is also a sin, and it becomes relatively easy to convince a nation that drink should be taxed. Indeed, Lincoln said just that; but he was not applauding the use and enjoyment of liquor. Hamilton had estimated the national debt at about $54 million, and on July 1, 1791, the government started to enforce an excise tax on all spirits--imported and domestic. The whiskeys--and the people who make them--have won a place in our hearts. Another major development of this era was the 1825 invention of The Lincoln County Process by Tennessean Alfred Eaton. The country could have used a few more men who werent afraid to voice their anti-prohibitionistic voices at the time. A paper, written in 1993 by Mervel V. 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