Everyone seemed to have it out for the distillers. Modern spirits are 40% ABV, but in the 19th century it was typically closer to 15% ABV. Only 140 bottles w According to Roseann Reinemuth Hogan in her book, Kentucky Ancestry, a churchman of the time referred to heaven as a Kentucky sort of a place. Well, any old place with decent topsoil would have sufficed for the farmer-distillers of Virginia at the time. While the United States was searching for an identity, certain families were forming the basis for what were to become major whiskey empires. 84 Proof which pays homage to the year 1984 when the Montana State Men's . The Sassenach Blended Scotch Whisky. Laird settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1698 and set about applying his knowledge of distillation to apples rather than barley malt. But these were also the days when many people were stricken with a variety of weird and wonderful maladies that needed regular treatment with frequent tots of decent, aged, medicinal whiskey--the product of a loophole in the law that allowed certain distillers to sell whiskey for medicinal use. One embarrassment was Jay Gould and James Fisks 1869 attempt to corner the gold market. In 1900, Ms. Nation gathered a group of supporters, rolled into a drugstore in Kansas (which was dry at the time), rolled out a cask of brandy, and promptly smashed it to smithereens with a sledgehammer. Most whiskeys of this time was sold in barrels to retailers. 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. Liquor in the 19th Century. John H. Beam (Early Times Bourbon), Davids other son, was co-owner of the Early Times Distillery in 1860. It was split into many smaller companies, but some of these companies then joined together again as the Distilling Company of America, and in 1899, that company found itself under federal investigation. But this profession is beloved because it is essential, and it is respected because its pursuit is clothed with an element of danger and with a sporting risk. Jim Beam joined with Albert J. Hart to run the Old Tub Distillery in 1892. Further north, the Pilgrims also were making beer, and according to John Hull Brown in his book, Early American Beverages, they werent above adding flavorings in the form of molasses, tree barks (spruce, birch, and sassafras were popular), and fruit and vegetables, such as apples and pumpkins, to their brews. Another humiliation occurred after Grants re-election in 1872, when Vice President Schuyler Colfax was investigated for taking bribes. 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. There is no doubt that liquor was being abused, and one fellow, George Garvin Brown, creator of the Old Forester brand and a founder member of the Wine and Spirits Association (W S A), did take steps to counter the prohibition movement. By the turn of the century, total abstinence was the goal. The idea was that the distillers would show their willingness and ability to police themselves from within and prevent post-Prohibition bars from becoming the seedy, unregulated dives they had been prior to 1919. Since the late 1700s when whiskey was first shipped down south, a number of Kentuckys whiskey makers had come to rely heavily on Southern states demand and market for their products. When Reconstruction began, President Andrew Johnson faced huge problems. It is the federated church, and under all circumstances loyal to the church. Until then, glass bottles remained fragile, expensive, hand-blown vessels that were very dear in every way. The Shapira family, owners of this distillery, now produce Heaven Hill, Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, J. T. S. Brown, and Mattingly and Moore bourbons as well as Pikesville straight rye whiskey. The still-popular Lairds Applejack can trace its roots to Scotsman William Laird, most probably a whisky distiller, and most definitely from the Highlands of Scotland. Was it a specific person on a specific date? 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. By 1900, many of the smaller temperance societies had either given their support to or had become part of the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893. The U.S. population in 1909 was about 90.5 million; therefore, if the Leagues statistics were accurate, over 45 percent of the country already was dry in 1910. Another liquor was far easier and much less expensive to produce, and it was about to become one of the first industries in America. Bootleggers smuggled bottles of Scotch whiskey in hollowed-out loaves of bread. During the months leading up to Repeal, speculation was rife about how the liquor industry would handle the expected new business. (Many stories might never have met their deadlines if the hard-drinking journalists of yesteryear werent able to knock back a shot or two.) Certainly that was not enough time in the wood to soothe its soul completely, but undoubtedly, it was long enough for the whiskey to have gained some color and mellowed sufficiently for quaffers to notice the difference. Whatever his product actually was, however, was strong enough to get a whole bunch of native Americans so drunk that they scalped and killed him in 1622. Many of the other straight whiskeys on the market at this time were merely young--they were bottled at 12- to 18-months-old and sold under familiar labels. These bottles were too costly for many distillers, but some at least, took advantage of the invention. Cromwell had won the civil war and ruled the country from 1649 until 1660, but by the early 1700s, the monarchy had been restored in England and the government was paying a little more attention to their colonies. For the 18 year old rye whiskey, a special placard listing the specs was placed inside. Additionally, trademark and copyright rules were lax. They had fought the law. There was, however, another whiskey scandal looming, later in the 1800s--this time it came from within the industry itself, and had a direct effect on which brands of whiskey are available to us today. In Kentucky Bourbon--The Early Years of Whiskeymaking, Henry G. Crowgey describes an 1821 newspaper advertisement for bourbon whiskey, so its fairly safe to assume that the distiller of that time knew that the readers would understand what it was he had for sale. In 1864, David M. Beam, owner of the Old Tub distillery, was blessed with child--the one and only Jim Beam. Since there wasnt a great deal in the way of entertainment back then, almost everyone was interested in a dram of whiskey. He had erected stills at Mount Vernon in the 1770s in order to produce rum, and a little later on, James Anderson, his Scottish plantation manager, is said to have been the man who persuaded him to plant rye with a mind to producing whiskey. There are three recipes for making imitation Old Bourbon in Stephens book, one calls for 20 gallons of proof spirit (neutral spirits diluted to 100? 1. How strong was mid-1800s liquor, specifically Whiskey? Their pride for the craft is evident in this Rare Release of the 8-Year Single Barrel Rye Whiskey. 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. There were few regulations about how the stuff should be made. One great example of this was Schenleys Golden Wedding rye whiskey, a very popular brand before Prohibition. 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. J. 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. 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. Most of these were of the plainest design, though handsome in their simplicity. Actually, by that year, every state in the union had some form of prohibition. 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. 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 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. Another major development of this era was the 1825 invention of The Lincoln County Process by Tennessean Alfred Eaton. Crockett also mentions a tradition of this era that was never properly re-established after Prohibition ended--the free lunch table. Most of them didnt linger long to mingle with the settlers on the coast--they had left Ulster to go west and go west they did. 2020 Distilled Spirits Council of the United States | Equal Opportunity Employer | Distilled Spirits Council. The manufacture of rum continued to be big business in America right through until 1808 when the U.S. prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa. The English were going through a bit of turmoil on their home turf at this same time. J. Men such as William Calk, Jacob Meyers, Joseph and Samuel Davis (brothers), James Garrard, and Jacob Spear are mentioned in various documents, but either their families didnt follow in their footsteps, or if they did, their products werent good enough to become long-lasting brand names of whiskey. Here are the 12 best bourbon whiskey brands you should be drinking in 2023. . In the years between the settling of Kentucky and the Civil War, many minor and a few major events started to affect the whiskey business in America. 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 Willett Family Estate has worked diligently since the mid-1800s to start, perfect, and craft their award-winning spirits. Therefore, strong drink is a luxury that takes food from the mouths of all people. 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. During the Whiskey Rebellion, some Pennsylvania farmers fled to Kentucky, adding to the number of distillers in the new state. The fact was, at that time the public wouldnt buy whiskey that wasnt made in small, old-fashioned pot stills. The Ripy brothers opened a distillery in 1905 that would later be known as the Wild Turkey Distillery. One immediate solution to the American distillers problem was to sell blended, rather than straight whiskey, thereby stretching the good stuff with neutral spirits and flavorings. Other such organizations within the industry existed in various parts of the country around this same time, but the distilling industry in Peoria, having started with one distillery in 1844, had actually outgrown its counterpart in Kentucky by 1880. In the years between the Civil War and 1900, the very ways in which whiskey was packaged and marketed were also updated and modernized. 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. By the early 1940s, however, the distillers had managed to age sufficient quantities of straight whiskey to have an appreciable amount of good, aged bourbon and rye back on the shelves. W. L. Weller (W. L. Weller Bourbon), whose grandfather, Daniel, had owned a distillery in 1800, formed a wholesale whiskey business in 1849, using the slogan "Honest whiskey at an honest price.". The advantage of this new type of packaging was that the potable became more portable. When straight tax collectors who were not part of the ring were due to call, the distillers were forewarned to play safe and pay up. In fact, its very unlikely that anyone with the equipment and knowledge required to make whiskey would produce only enough for himself and his family. They didnt seem to care that these very impurities were responsible for the very flavor of the whiskey. The Reawakening of the American Whiskey Business. Other accounts say that Wattie Boone, a relative of Daniels, and a certain Stephen Ritchie both made whiskey in Nelson County, Kentucky in 1776, and this is probably accurate. The book also gives recipes for the various tinctures and instructions on how to make a Bead for Liquors, calling for a two-to-one mixture of vitriol and sweet oil, one drop of which is sufficient to put a bead on a quart of liquor. Whiskey-making was one of the first cottage industries in the land; it was responsible for George Washington mustering federal troops for the first time, and whiskey went with the early pioneers as they traveled westward to explore new territories. The distillery operated for a few years, but Hope was shattered and forced to close when all of the capital was spent. In fact, according to Mike Veach, archivist at United Distillers, it is more probable that Elijah Craigs name was used to fight the prohibition movement in the late nineteenth century simply because he was a Baptist minister. This product represents a huge milestone for our distillery and embodies our core mission of blending the best of classic-style spirits with innov But back when the governments excise tax was raised to $2 in 1865, the moonshiners of Kentucky and Tennessee were making white lightning in abundance and cashing in on the woes of the legitimate distillers. According to most reports, Sylph was a woman said to have had an extra-marital affair with Grant, and she was a woman who had pestered him ever since. Since most people were used to the bold body and heady flavors of good whiskey, gin was far preferable to vodka, a spirit that was virtually unknown in America at the time. Around when did water become a viable option? It just didnt taste the same. But these people still had the same amount of money to spend. A lid of sorts must then have been fitted onto the top of the log. Fortunately, however, the government rethought their actions when they realized that much of the whiskey being consumed at the time wasnt being taxed at all. Heres what was happening to the brand names at this time: Of Hymns To Be Sung and Axes To Be Wielded. AP Photo Consumption begins to drop. After news of the occurrence reached the ears of similar-minded women around the country, over 50,000 promoters of temperance followed suit. Russian businessman Peter A. Demens wrote about their nasty business in Sketches of the North American United States, 1895, Several weeks ago the Illinois whiskey trust by hired agents dynamited a distillery in Chicago that refused to enter the combine.. The whiskey men of America were somewhat nervous that much of their audience was gone. The whiskey they drank was simply fuel for the saloons' many other pastimes, whatever those happened to be. For the 18 year old rye whiskey, a special placard . Around the turn of the century, most saloons were unruly places that served liquor, wine, and beer to almost anyone--young or old, sober or drunk, morning, noon, or night. When groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) sprung up, the whole country started talking, once more, about the evils of drink. 9: Alcohol and the City 1800-1900. Bushmills is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world. And dont think they didnt complain. Some sat alone at the bar taking notes on the particular malt they were sampling; others assembled in groups, experienced a few different drams, and discussed and compared each ones particular intricacies. Whiskeys made at this distillery include Very Old Barton, Ten High, Kentucky Gentleman, Colonel Lee, Tom Moore, and Barclays. And telegraph wires were all the rage in this period, too; by 1850 over 50,000 miles of wire was strung up all over the place. Fittingly, some exact dates were forgotten (whiskey was involved, after all), but this timeline will help you grasp the basics and understand its origin; who played key roles in the history of distilling, how whiskey came to be, how it evolved to be the whiskey / bourbon / rye . In 1804, Franois Andr Michaux wrote, Kentuckians have preserved the manners of the Virginians. 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. The popularity of alcohol in Europe as a medicine was very high. At one point he advocated reducing taxes on such products saying that nations where cheap wine was available for the common man did not suffer the same insobrieties as those where whiskey was the least-expensive ardent drink. It was economical. However, they had to contend with a certain Dr. Wiley, head of the Bureau of Chemistry, a part of the Department of Agriculture, and a true believer in straight whiskey. There was plenty of farmland, a demand for liquor, and the strong backs, tenacious characters, and intimate knowledge of the still, made the Scots-Irish perfect people to help carve out a new nation--and lay the foundations for the whiskey industry. By the early 1620s, colonists in Virginia were brewing beer that they claimed would tide them over until they got used to the water. The woman had a mission, but her ways were too radical even for the WTCU--they eventually rejected her, leaving her without financial support. And once their orchards gave fruit, cider and perry (pear cider) were added to the menu. was the most consumed alcoholic liquor. However, since it takes 10 full days for the whiskey to travel through all of the charcoal, we think he was referring to his new, though slow, method of filtration. During the years of Reconstruction more and more people, most of them experienced whiskey drinkers, went West. Were charred barrels being used before that date? The jugs most often were of the little brown jug how I love thee variety--glazed stoneware in sizes ranging from one to five gallons* 1 pint according to veach. Liquor, beer, and wine have long been popular targets of taxation for governments in need of a few extra dollars for two very simple reasons: Beverage alcohol is produced from food, be it fruit, sugar, or grain, but it is not necessary to sustain life. Although many pre-Prohibition brands of whiskey made their way back to the shelves after Repeal, they werent always identical to their older namesakes. Wartime dance bands didnt just sing Rum and Coca Cola, they drank it, too. Even aspirin, which was discovered in 1849, wasnt used medicinally until the end of the century. 21 By the 1870s, the temperance movement exerted great influence in American life and culture, as this example illustrates. The death knell was tolling for the slower, more work-intensive, old-fashioned pot stills. But still, no hard cash was changing hands. The distillery that made Old Grand-Dad whiskey was taken over by the Wathen family in 1899. Meanwhile, Seagram introduced its Five Crown and Seven Crown blended whiskeys to the American public, and they were an unmitigated success. Heres a list of prominent whiskey men whose products hit the shelves between 1800 and 1860 (The current-day whiskeys with which these families became connected are noted. Frenchman Jean Pierre Brissot wrote of his 1788 trip to Boston (Nouveau Voyage dans les tats-Unis de lAmrique septentrionale, 1791), The rum distilleries are on the decline since the suppression of the slave trade, in which this liquor was employed. Then, in 1807, the Embargo Act restricted the importation of molasses from British ports, and the following year, the importation of slaves was made illegal altogether, completely destroying the triangle trade among the U.S., Africa, and the West Indies. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 added Missouri, Arkansas, and parts of Louisiana to the U.S., as well as a huge expanse of land that would eventually become Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, most of Kansas, and parts of Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, and Colorado. J. W. Dant (Yellowstone and J. W. Dant Bourbons) set up his still (the famous log) in 1836. And the American whiskey distillers took note. Fact was, that by passing on the taxes to the general public, whiskey had become too expensive for the common man. Most settlers from Maryland and Pennsylvania started their trip to Kentucky in Pittsburgh and floated down the Ohio River on flatboats into Kentucky. The George T. Stagg Distillery went on to become the Ancient Age Distillery and was sold before Schenley was taken over. However, the treasury was not to be deterred. Follow the American Whiskey Trail and the Distilled Spirits Council on Facebook! The Tom Moore Distillery was reopened as the Barton Distillery after Prohibition; it was later taken over by Oscar Getz and is now owned by Barton Brands. Whatever brought settlers to Kentucky and however they arrived, the hardy souls who arrived after the corn patch and cabin rights deal was over bought or bartered small parcels of the large tracts of land held by speculators. But not until 1870 would the company headed by George Garvin Brown (Old Forester) sell its whisky (without the e) only in sealed bottles. Any search for the first bourbon whiskey should begin with a look at what made Kentucky so darned perfect for such a whiskey to have been created there: Kentucky was an area with plentiful trees (17 varieties of oak are native to the state), pristine, limestone-filtered water, and arable land. It reads that there were only 1800 bottles produced in this one-time release. Though many types of grapes were native to America, the wines they produced were unlike the ones the Europeans were used to, and the colonists tried to cultivate European strains. Not that Jefferson was a whiskey man, he was much more enamored of imported wines. Suddenly though, from out of the woodwork, Betty Ford, Ringo Starr, and Liz Taylor came clean, publicly said goodbye to John Barleycorn, and a new interest in sobriety was born. You would think that you could trust something called the Whiskey Trust. If temporary refuge from their plight lay in a slug of whiskey, they would find a way of getting it. But imported European barley took a long time before it became acclimatized to its new home. The association felt compelled to keep the government informed of the drawbacks of Prohibition; stressing mainly, that without taxes from alcohol, the economy was suffering; that farmers had lost a market for their grains and the surplus subsequently had brought grain prices down, and that unemployment in related industries was rising steadily. Abraham Overholt (Old Overholt Rye Whiskey) established his distillery in western Pennsylvania in 1810. 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). And even east--to exotic ports such as New York City where, according to Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Lures and Snares of Old New York, for under a nickel, you could drink all the whiskey you could manage by sucking it through a rubber tube until you had to stop to take a breath. By the turn of the century, over 350,000 people had settled in Kentucky. Prohibition finally ended at 5:32 P.M., Eastern Standard Time, on December 5, 1933. Since they didnt yet use any kind of crop rotation, the land they were farming was tired and worn out after seven or eight years. And according to various industry documents of the time, it was used in a variety of fairly astounding ways: A by-product of making any form of beverage alcohol from grain is the leftover mash, which is dried and used as feed for farm animals. Though they were producing whiskey, its quality had to have been questionable. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. Even so, Grant, at this point, made it clear that he wanted to clear up the whole mess and prosecute whoever was responsible for stealing the money. This agency eventually became part of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. They settled in western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, western Virginia, and the western parts of North and South Carolina. One man whose name has certainly not been forgotten was the notorious preacher, Elijah Craig, who arrived in Kentucky in 1786 and was making whiskey three years later. The tradesmen started watering down their whiskey in order to pay less and get more. 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. None, however, were as successful as Aenaes Coffey, who, in 1831, patented his perfected continuous still in Britain. The Molasses Act of 1733 levied five shillings per hundredweight of sugar, six pence per gallon of molasses, and nine pence per gallon of rum. One bottle, from the late nineteenth century, was shaped like a babys bottle, and bore the words, Here is the Milk of Human Kindness.. The sandwich was never eaten--but many drinks were sold. Since, as Luckner, noted, the sleazy gin mills had disappeared, and much drinking, therefore, occurred in swank nightclubs and the homes of the wealthy, Prohibitions other weird but wonderful effect was that drinking became more socially acceptable than it had been prior to 1920. Raise a glass to the pioneers and heroes of the American whiskey industry: Jacob Beam, I. W. Bernheim, Colonel Blanton, Wattie Boone, A. Smith Bowman, George Garvin Brown, the Chapeze brothers, James Crow, Jack Daniel, J. W. Dant, George Dickel, Basil Hayden, Paul Jones, Henry McKenna, Tom Moore, Elijah Pepper, T. B. Ripy, Robert Samuels, the Shapira brothers, E. H. Taylor, Pappy Van Winkle, W. L. Weller, and Evan Williams. Multiply the amount Americans drink today by three and you'll have an idea of what much of the nineteenth century was like." What exactly was going on in the 1800s? It is the process that is still used today and distinguishes Tennessee whiskey from bourbon and all other straight American whiskeys. Among its offering is a whiskey, sold in ceramic jars and bottles, that Canale names Old Dominick. Pulque, or octli is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the maguey, and is a traditional native beverage of Mesoamerica. Even the whiskey bottles had to be made to new government standards that called for thinner glass and no unnecessary designs. In 1826, a league, The American Temperance Society, was founded in Boston, and it was a society that distillers would come to dread. Not all farmers had stills, mind you, since stills were very expensive pieces of equipment. Whiskey has always been stored in wooden casks, but not always for very long, and not always in charred barrels. The sporting attraction of the forbidden and the dangerous leads to violations. The following year, 1792, the government reduced the taxes a little (down to around 7 per gallon from 11, dependent on proof), and Kentucky finally became a state. Thomas B. Ripy, whose sons would build a distillery that is known today as the Wild Turkey Distillery, opened his first whiskey distillery in 1869. Therefore, to find the creator of bourbon, we must for the character most likely to have put them all together. . Nobody stopped making bourbon, rye, or Tennessee whiskey simply because sales werent as good as expected; they dealt with the situation as best they could. These were to be trying times for the President. 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