What We've Learned Making Whiskey as Washington Did

Becky Harris, distiller at Catoctin Creek Distillery, with Chuck Cowdery at George Washington's Distillery, October 24, 2017.

The rebuilt George Washington Distillery opened to the public in 2007, after a decade of study, excavation, and reconstruction. Making whiskey there, as Mount Vernon does for eight weeks each year, is a great show for visitors but it also helps historians better understand Washington, his business enterprises, and the technology of distilled spirits production in the late 18th century.

What has been learned in a decade of operation? We asked Steve Bashore, Mount Vernon's Director of Historic Trades. You will find his answer in the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader.

Early distillers faced many challenges. On the American frontier, one of the greatest was transportation, the need to get their whiskey to distant markets. Waterways came first, followed by the railroads. Most of Kentucky's historic distilleries that are still in operation today are located where they are because of where the railroads ran in the mid-to-late 19th century. That's the other tale in the new Reader.

Current Reader subscribers should receive their copies in the next few days. New subscribers can get on the bandwagon by clicking here.

Founded in 1994, The Bourbon Country Reader is the oldest publication devoted entirely to American whiskey. It is a charming mix of news, history, analysis, and product reviews. Do you worry that advertising spending influences coverage in other publications? No chance of that here since The Bourbon Country Reader is 100 percent reader-supported. It accepts no advertising.

To experience The Bourbon Country Reader for yourself, you need to subscribe. Honoring history, The Bourbon Country Reader still comes to you exclusively on paper, in an envelope, via the USPS.

A subscription to The Bourbon Country Reader is still just $20 per year for addresses in the USA, $25 for everyone else. The Bourbon Country Reader is published six times a year, more-or-less, but your subscription always includes six issues no matter how long it takes.

Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card, or for more information. Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format). Click here to open or download the free PDF document, "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)

If you want to catch up on what you've missed, bound back issue volumes are available for $20 each, or three for $50. That's here too.

If you prefer to pay by check, make it payable to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, and mail it to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 3712 N. Broadway, PMB 298, Chicago, IL 60613-4198. Checks drawn on U.S. banks only, please.

Go ahead and subscribe. It's historic!

Buyer Beware

There is, on the internet, a very active secondary market in rare bourbons and other alcoholic beverages. People offer bottles for sale or indicate bottles they would like to buy. Transactions are arranged by email or other private messaging. This happens on Facebook and Craigslist, and probably many other places. I’m not going to point you to any of them. They aren’t hard to find.

Unfortunately, in the United States the secondary market in alcoholic beverages is illegal.

I’ve written about this before, as recently as October.

It is illegal to sell alcohol if you don’t have a license to sell alcohol. It is against Federal law and it is against state law in every state.

There has been some question, at least in my mind, as to whether, in a given transaction, both buyer and seller are in legal jeopardy. Clearly the seller is in violation, but is the buyer? I couldn’t point to a law that said the buyer was in trouble too.

Now I can.

At the Federal level, laws regulating alcoholic beverages can be found in Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations. I’ve spent a lot of time in the early parts of Title 27, Chapter I, Subchapter A, especially Part 5, which gets into the labeling and advertising of distilled spirits, but I never made it down to Part 31, which regulates alcohol beverage dealers. There we find a section (27 CFR 31.141) titled “Unlawful purchases of distilled spirits.” It says that it is “unlawful for any dealer to purchase distilled spirits for resale from any person other than” a licensed dealer.

You may be thinking, “what does that have to do with me? I’m not a dealer.” Well, the statute defines a ‘dealer’ as “any person who sells, or offers for sale, any distilled spirits, wines, or beer.” For virtually all secondary market participants, both parties to a transaction are 'dealers' under the law.

The maximum penalty for violations is a $1,000 fine and one year in prison.

It should be noted that shipping alcohol is also and separately illegal if you are unlicensed.

If you are a typical online player, you probably don’t think of yourself as a ‘dealer,’ but you are. I suppose that if you only buy to consume and never trade or resell, you could argue you’re not a dealer. There are lots of ways to parse these things. No doubt the comments section will shortly be filled with all kinds of pushback. The mental gymnastics secondary market participants use to rationalize their illegal behavior can be stunning. The only sound argument is that prosecutions are rare, so you probably won't get caught. But don’t kid yourself. You are breaking the law and the risk of life-changing consequences will always be there.

The Best and Highest Use for Leftover Turkey

I post this each year at about this time as a public service. There are many fine ways to enjoy leftover turkey, but the best and highest use is the Hot Brown, a Kentucky favorite.

The Hot Brown is a turkey-based, open face sandwich specifically made for topping off a stomach full of bourbon. Chef Fred K. Schmidt created it at Louisville's Brown Hotel in 1926 as a breakfast dish to be served before the previous night's revelers finally went home, or upstairs, to bed.

Today it's usually served for lunch or brunch, sometimes for dinner. It's easily scalable and can be anything from a light snack to a hearty main course. It is on the menu at hundreds of Kentucky restaurants.

This is the original recipe, as reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal. There are many variations. Some people say the Hot Brown itself is based on Turkey Mornay, which is similar but uses gruyère cheese instead of the Hot Brown's cheddar and parmesan blend.

Hot Brown (4 servings)

4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 slices toast, with crusts cut off
Turkey breast slices
Crisp-fried bacon, crumbled
Mushroom slices, sauteed

Saute onion in butter until transparent; add flour and combine. Add milk, salt and pepper and whisk until smooth. Cook on medium heat until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Add cheese and continue heating until they blend. Remove from heat.

Put one slice of toast in each of four oven-proof individual serving dishes. Top each piece of toast with slices of turkey. Cut remaining toast slices diagonally and place on sides of sandwiches. Ladle cheese sauce over sandwiches. Place sandwiches under broiler until sauce begins to bubble. Garnish with crumbled bacon and sauteed mushroom slices and serve immediately.

There are many variations. Most places don’t crumble the bacon, and there are many substitutes for the mushrooms, including grilled tomato slices and asparagus spears. Some simply forgo vegetables altogether. Parsley may be added for color.

At buffet tables around Kentucky you may encounter the Hot Brown Casserole, whose creation the Brown Hotel also claims. That brings us close to Turkey Noodle Casserole, leftover turkey's last resort. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

You're welcome.

Independent Stave Opens Its Second Kentucky Stave Mill

Independent Stave Company has opened its second Kentucky Stave Mill, Benton Wood Products in Marshall County, another investment in Kentucky spurred by the growing American whiskey industry.

Independent Stave is the leading producer of oak barrels for whiskey maturation. The stave mill is an intermediate step in barrel production, taking oak logs from the forest and rough-cutting them into staves and head pieces. The rough staves and head pieces are then shipped to one of the company's two cooperages for seasoning, finishing, and assembly into 53-gallon whiskey barrels.

The new state-of-the-art mill is on 48 acres strategically located near high quality white oak forests in Western Kentucky, just west of Kentucky Lake.

Independent Stave's other Kentucky Stave Mill is Morehead Wood Products in Rowan County, in Eastern Kentucky, which opened in September of 2015. The company's Kentucky cooperage is in Lebanon, in Marion County. Its other cooperage is in Lebanon, Missouri, where the company is based.

Independent Stave has seven stave mills, one in France and six in the United States. They also make wine barrels.

“Benton Wood Products was strategically built in bourbon country with access to premium American oak,” said Brad Boswell, Chief Executive Officer of Independent Stave. “We firmly support the continued growth of Kentucky’s bourbon industry and the wine and spirits sector in general. We remain committed to providing our customers with a wide range of high quality, readily-available barrels and oak products.”

Justin Nichols, a 20-year veteran of the company, will manage the new mill.

'Not Your Father's Bourbon' Is Not Bourbon

You can't argue with the name. My father drank bourbon and rye his whole life and I guarantee he would not go near this stuff.

Despite the name, this new product from Pabst Brewery isn't really bourbon at all. It contains bourbon, along with vanilla and other additives. The label says it is 'Bourbon Whiskey with Natural Flavors,' officially it is a 'whiskey specialty.'

The press materials credit Wisconsin's Minhas Distillery as the maker. Minhas is in Monroe, in what used to be the Joseph Huber Brewery. But it appears unlikely that the bourbon component of this product was actually distilled there. The clue? The label says 'Produced and Bottled by Small Town Craft Spirits, Monroe, WI.' Use of the word 'produced' instead of 'distilled' almost surely means it wasn't distilled there. There is no way to know for sure, but most likely it is very young bourbon made by MGP in Indiana.

But wait, wouldn't it have to say 'distilled in Indiana' on the label? And if it's young, less than four years old, isn't an age statement required? No and no, because the product isn't classified as 'bourbon whiskey,' in which case those things would be required. As a 'whiskey specialty,' anything goes. The 'bourbon whiskey' component has to meet the most basic requirements for bourbon whiskey, but that is about it.

So, to sum up, not bourbon, not craft. The only thing true is that your father would probably hate it.

Pabst Brewery owns this product. This Pabst, of course, has nothing to do with the brewery owned by Captain Frederick Pabst in the 19th century, except the name. That company effectively died in 1985. The present company is based in Los Angeles. This Pabst makes and distributes a portfolio of famous beer brands, including Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. It operates a tasting room, museum, and small brewery on the site of the old Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee.

Small Town Craft Spirits is the distilled spirits division of Small Town Brewery, located in Wauconda, Illinois. They had a hit with a flavored malt beverage called Not Your Father's Root Beer, which caught the attention of Pabst who, in 2015, signed a distribution agreement with Small Town, and bought a piece of the company.

Pabst has a lot of distribution muscle. No doubt this product will be widely distributed. Binny's, the big retailer here in Chicago, already has it ($27.99 for a 750 ml bottle). Not Your Father's Bourbon is getting a lot of publicity and, in most cases, you're just reading the press release. Now you know the rest of the story.

'Whiskey specialty,' the official TTB category into which this falls, is a big catch-all that includes finished whiskeys such as Angel's Envy and most of the Woodford Reserve Master's Collection, as well as flavored products such as this one and Red Stag by Jim Beam. Where this one crosses a line is putting 'bourbon' in the name. To the consumer that conveys the message, 'this is bourbon,' even though it isn't. Legally, the call is very close to the line. Which side of the line it is on is unclear.

My father and mother were very frugal. They bought the cheapest Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in the store, but 'Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey' had to appear on the label or they were not interested. It is a simple test that still works today.

Chuck's Handmade Newsletter Is All New

Perhaps some of the half-million people who viewed my Tito's post (no kidding!) would like to be exposed to my radiance more frequently. That's where The Bourbon Country Reader comes in, and what do you know, there is a new issue dropping right now.

It really is handmade, too. See the hand? That's my hand. I stuff every envelope then feed it, lovingly, into the postage meter. I also hand-carry them across the street to the mailbox at the corner of Irving Park Road and Pine Grove Avenue, which I open by hand and into which I deposit the envelopes by the handful.

In this issue, we talk to Nick Nagele of Whiskey Acres Distillery, just outside of Chicago in DeKalb, where they are growing corn and making whiskey, including bourbon from single varietal corn.

Is it socially acceptable in 2017 to drink Rebel Yell Bourbon? We dive deep into the brand's history. The story may surprise you.

Distill Ventures is a tiny. itty-bitty division of drinks giant Diageo and they want to help you realize your craft spirits dream. We talk to the managing director for North America, Gonzalo de la Pezuela.

Ready to build that distillery? There is just one name you need to know: Bardstown's Buzick Construction. They can build the whole thing but they specialize in whiskey maturation warehouses.

It's all there in the new issue of Chuck's Handmade Newsletter, also known as The Bourbon Country Reader.

Current subscribers should receive their copies in the next few days. New subscribers can get on the bandwagon by clicking here.

Founded in 1994, The Bourbon Country Reader is the oldest publication devoted entirely to American whiskey. It is a charming mix of news, history, analysis, and product reviews. Do you worry that advertising spending influences coverage in other publications? No chance of that here since The Bourbon Country Reader is 100 percent reader-supported. It accepts no advertising.

To experience The Bourbon Country Reader for yourself, you need to subscribe. Honoring tradition, The Bourbon Country Reader still comes to you exclusively on paper, in an envelope, via the USPS.

A subscription to The Bourbon Country Reader is still just $20 per year for addresses in the USA, $25 for everyone else. The Bourbon Country Reader is published six times a year, more-or-less, but your subscription always includes six issues no matter how long it takes.

Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card, or for more information. Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format). Click here to open or download the free PDF document, "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)

If you want to catch up on what you've missed, bound back issue volumes are available for $20 each, or three for $50. That's here too.

If you prefer to pay by check, make it payable to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, and mail it to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 3712 N. Broadway, PMB 298, Chicago, IL 60613-4198. Checks drawn on U.S. banks only, please.

Go ahead and subscribe. It's craft!

Also, You Can't Make Vodka in a Pot Still

I apparently struck a nerve with yesterday's Tito's post. In barely 24 hours it has received 135,000 pageviews. That is so much more than what my posts usually get, I am blown away. Now I know how Katy Perry feels.

The post has received many comments, both here and on Facebook, and I've received quite a few emails about it, including from industry folks. Several have pointed out the difficulty of distilling vodka in a pot still, especially a true alembic without the benefit of a rectification column. If you talk about 'old-fashioned pot stills,' as Tito's does, then you're talking about alembics like the ones pictured above.

The problem is that to strip 95 percent of the water from a fermented mash that is 8 to 10 percent alcohol, you need multiple passes through a pot still. That simply means you run it, then take the condensed distillate and run it through again. It takes eight to ten passes through a pot still to achieve the 95 percent alcohol concentration necessary for a spirit to be called vodka. That's just chemistry, there is no way around it.

If you would like a distiller to explain it in greater detail, click here.

Now on to economics. If you did run a spirit through a pot still ten times and achieved the 95 percent alcohol concentration, you couldn't charge $20 a bottle for it. There is too much time and labor involved. Don't say, "well maybe Tito has figured out a way." No, he hasn't, it can't be done and it is not being done, by Tito or anyone else.

Tito's isn't alone in this. Far from it. Many of the products marketed as 'legal moonshine' are the same deal. Some 'legal moonshine' is corn whiskey, some is 'sugar shine,' some is a mixture of the two. Many, including most of the flavored products, are our old friend grain neutral spirit (GNS), i.e., vodka. Since 'legal moonshine' isn't a recognized type of distilled spirit, the small print must tell you what it really is, although some use the catch-all 'distilled spirit specialty' classification, which doesn't really tell you anything. In many cases, though, the words 'grain neutral spirit' or 'neutral grain spirit' are right there on the label. You just have to look for it.

The Truth About Tito's and All Vodka

As reported this week in Ad Age and many other places, Tito's vodka is now the top-selling distilled spirits brand in the United States, a position previously held by Smirnoff vodka for seemingly forever. Ad Age calls it "Tito's Handmade Vodka, a pioneer of the so-called craft spirits movement."

The 'so-called' is the only clue to what is really going on here. Tito's current advertising calls the brand 'America's Original Craft Vodka.' The product's success has made owner Tito Beveridge (pictured, above) a billionaire. It brings to mind another quotation, from H. L. Mencken, who wrote, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

Tito has cleverly exploited a few simple facts. First, Texans and many non-Texans love anything from Texas. Austin, the capital of Texas, is beloved as a haven of eccentricity and live music. Tito plays up the brand's Austin, Texas pedigree.

Second, words such as 'handmade' and 'craft' don't mean what you think they mean. In fact, according to most court rulings on the matter, they don't mean anything. They are considered permissible advertising 'puffery,' subjective not objective, not measurable or provable, "which no reasonable person would presume to be literally true."

The front page of the Tito's web site says this: "Texas and vodka. When you put the two together you get something oh so wonderful. We make it in batches, use old-fashioned pot stills, and taste-test every batch to make sure you get only the best."

Forbes wrote this about Tito's back in 2013. "Sometimes reality bites. That's proving to be a challenge for Fifth Generation, maker of Tito's Handmade Vodka. More precisely: how to maintain the fiction of being a small-batch brand that's actually expanding rapidly in the $5.5-billion-a-year U.S. market for the colorless liquor. Tito's has exploded from a 16-gallon pot still in 1997 to a 26-acre operation that produced 850,000 cases last year, up 46% from 2011, pulling in an estimated $85 million in revenue." In 2017, you may adjust all of those numbers substantially upward, $190 million in annual revenue according to market research firm IRI.

Vodka drinkers, of course, are accustomed to fantasy. Vodka is, by definition; colorless, odorless and tasteless. Virtually all of the vodka made in the U.S., including Tito's and Smirnoff, starts as grain neutral spirit (GNS) manufactured by one of the major producers: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Midwest Grain Products (MGP), or Grain Processing Corporation (GPC), whose headquarters and principal distilleries are in Illinois, Kansas and Iowa respectively. (i.e., where most grain is farmed.)

GNS (some people prefer 'NGS.' Same thing.) is a commodity. It is used for beverages, medicine, and many other purposes. It is simply ethanol. Mostly made from corn, it is distilled above 95% ABV. It is as nearly 'pure alcohol' as can be made commercially. As a commodity, vodka producers buy it on the basis of price and availability. Most buy from all the usual suspects.

Some vodka makers simply take the GNS they buy and put it directly into bottles. Others do a little bit of additional processing. Tito's runs it through some pot stills. The only discernible purpose for that step is so they can make the claims about batch production (the big GNS makers are continuous, not batch) and Texas distillation. It has little or no effect on the liquid. Charcoal filtering is another common processing step.

Not surprisingly, Tito's doesn't give tours. That's because they don't have grain silos, grain mills, mash cookers, fermenters, and the other trappings of a real from-scratch distillery.

I don't want to get into it with vodka drinkers. I rarely touch the stuff. Feel free to drink whatever you want and think whatever you want to about it. Everything above is factually correct. Do with it as you will.

UPDATE 1/29/22: In 2020, TTB eliminated from its rules the requirement that vodka be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color.

UPDATE 2/27/22: We all feel helpless watching the atrocity Russia is perpetrating in Ukraine and want to do something. If boycotting vodka is your protest of choice, you should know that almost none of the vodka sold in the United States is made in Russia. Even though most of them have Russian-sounding names, most vodka sold in the U.S. is made here and has nothing to do with Russia. Even Stoli. The Stoli sold in the United States is made in Latvia, not Russia, by a company based in Luxemburg. Just about the only major brand of vodka actually made in Russia by a Russian company is Russian Standard. Unless you stick to Russian-made brands, boycotting vodka makes about as much sense as boycotting Russian salad dressing (also not made in Russia).

UPDATE 2/28/22: A little bit more about Stoli. The company that makes it, SPI Group, is owned by Yuri Shefler, a Russian. Some of the grain used by the Latvian distillery that makes Stoli comes from farms in Russia. Whether or not they will continue to buy Russian grain is unknown. Today, Stoli officially condemned the invasion.

UPDATE 3/2/22: More facts about vodka, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are here.

Heaven Hill Is Now the World's Biggest Bourbon Distillery

Heaven Hill's humble beginning in Bardstown, Kentucky.

As reported today throughout the Louisville media, Heaven Hill's Bernheim is now the World's Biggest Bourbon Distillery. To quote Louisville Business First, "Today, at a press conference held on the premises of the Heaven Hill-owned Bernheim Distillery in West Louisville, representatives from the company, as well as local politicians and media, gathered to celebrate the latest news of the distillery’s $25 million expansion, which the company says will make it the largest single bourbon-producing site in the world."

The slight hedge is necessary because Jack Daniel's in Tennessee is larger, but Jack is not technically bourbon, and Jim Beam is larger if you count everything produced at DSP-KY-230, but that license covers two facilities, ten miles apart.

Hedges aside, this is a remarkable achievement for a family-owned company founded in Bardstown more than 70 years ago by Joe Beam and a group of investors that included Ed Shapira, father of current company president, Max Shapira.

The five Shapira brothers (Ed, David, Mose, George and Gary) were in the dry goods business, running a chain of small department stores called 'The Louisville Store,' although they had no locations in Louisville. The business was started by their father, an immigrant from Eastern Europe. The stores did well during the Depression, selling everyday necessities at bargain prices. That gave them money to invest when Prohibition ended in 1933.

Ed Shapira, who ran the Louisville Store in Bardstown, assumed it would be an arm's length investment, as the other founders were, like Joe Beam, all experienced whiskey men. After the distillery was built and in production, Beam and the others lost money in another venture. They gave Shapira a chance to buy them out. It was either that or close the doors. Ed conferred with his brothers and they agreed to take the plunge. Joe Beam stayed on as Master Distiller, along with his youngest son, Harry.

While Beams made the whiskey, the five brothers ran the business. Ed's son, Max, came on board as did David's son, Harry. They had a unique business model, in which distributors bought the whiskey when it went into the barrel, instead of when it came out. The distributors got a deal and so did Heaven Hill, because that meant less capital was tied up in aging inventory, which allowed them to grow. As with their retail business, value was the secret to their success. The objective was to make the best whiskey their customers could afford.

At first, it was a commodity business. Their first brand was a two-year-old straight called Bourbon Falls. It did okay. Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond, launched a few years later, did much better. Soon it was the best-selling bourbon in Kentucky.

Other bourbon brands followed, and Evan Williams Bourbon became the company's flagship. They built the brand by steadily promoting the claim that it was older and higher proof whiskey, for less money, than the leading brands. Today, Evan Williams is third in sales after Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam, and Heaven Hill is a major, international, diversified distilled spirits producer. Its actual size is unknown because the company is still private, owned by the descendants of the five Shapira brothers.

There is no 'Heaven Hill' in Bardstown. William Heavenhill was the name of the farmer who owned the land before the distillery was built. Although its distillery is now in Louisville, the company is still based in Bardstown. Its Bourbon Heritage Center there is one of the best distillery visitor centers in the world.

Heaven Hill is a remarkable and quintessentially American success story.

Counterfeits and Unlicensed Sales in the News

Mea Culpa.

I committed one of the cardinal sins of journalism. I printed a story without corroboration. Thankfully, Chanda Veno of Frankfort's State Journal is a much better journalist than I am. She fleshed out the vague story Buffalo Trace released yesterday by finding the New York state public record identifying the Pappy counterfeiter as Charles A. Bahamonde, 32, of New York, who pleaded guilty in New York City Criminal Court to petit larceny, a Class A misdemeanor. He was ordered to pay restitution and remain arrest-free for one year, and is scheduled to be back in court on January 5th.

Veno also uncovered two other cases supporting last Friday's story about selling whiskey without a license. Both cases involved the illegal sale of Van Winkle whiskey. As Veno reported, "Wade Collingsworth, 45, was nabbed by state liquor agents after advertising a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-year on Craigslist. At the meet-up, undercover agents purchased the bourbon for an undisclosed amount. The suggested retail price is $169.99. Collingsworth was charged with a misdemeanor."

In the second case, "Bob Monk, also of the Keystone State, was slapped with an $1,800 fine and misdemeanor charges after purchasing a bottle of 12-year Van Winkle Special Reserve for $59.99 plus tax and selling it to an undercover officer for $500 in December 2015."

Congratulations to Chanda Veno and The State Journal for some excellent reporting.

Van Winkle Bourbon Takes Action Against Counterfeiters

(The following was provided by Buffalo Trace Distillery)

Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon, the bourbon that is so hard to find it has been compared to unicorns, has become so popular it's often being counterfeited with knock off bottles and illegally re-sold on the secondary market.

The Van Winkles, along with partners Buffalo Trace Distillery, have taken action and successfully provided evidence of counterfeiting which resulted in a resident of New York pleading guilty for his sale of two bottles of counterfeit Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, which sold for $1,500 last year. The defendant will be sentenced in January 2018.

Although this case is the first successful prosecution for counterfeit Van Winkle Bourbon to date, other cases are under investigation. Buffalo Trace Distillery has spent over a half million dollars over the past year alone, to curb online marketplaces potentially selling fake bottles.

With the annual release of the much anticipated Van Winkle bourbons coming up soon, Buffalo Trace would like to take this opportunity to remind consumers to buy Van Winkle bourbons only from licensed retailers.

"Sadly, the Van Winkle bourbons are the latest victim of counterfeiting where innocent consumers are duped," said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer, Buffalo Trace Distillery. "Avoid buying any bourbon or whiskey, especially the highly sought after ones, from anyone in the secondary market, which includes online private sellers, or in these social media groups that claim to offer genuine products. The only legal and reputable source you should be buying from is a licensed retailer." 

Scam artists have been operating in a variety of ways, some of which include taking empty Van Winkle bottles and refilling them with a variety of other liquids, sometimes cheaper bourbons, sometimes mixtures of products only known to the deceiver.

Nowadays, the con artists have gotten more sophisticated with the ability to print counterfeit labels on home printers and other technological advances. "It's disheartening to see this happening and to see innocent consumers being swindled," said Julian Van Winkle, president, Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. "We cannot stress enough to be careful, and do not buy your Van Winkle products on the secondary market. The old adage of if seems too good to be true, it probably is, definitely applies here."

Van Winkle cautions that if you see a bottle that does not have a matching face label with a capsule on top with the proper corresponding color, that's a sure sign of fraud. Any consumers that run across suspicious looking bottles or may have purchased a bottle from a source other than a liquor store are urged to call their local law enforcement, their state's Attorney General, or their state Alcohol Beverage Control Board.

Sell Whiskey On the Internet and Spend Six Months in County

Whisky Advocate Magazine devoted most of its Fall 2017 issue to whiskey collecting and whiskey collectors. It is hard to collect seriously if you can only obtain whiskey through retail channels. In virtually all forms of collecting, most acquisitions come from the secondary market, either directly from other collectors, or indirectly through dealers.

But there is a problem. While secondary sale of beverage alcohol is permitted in much of the world, in the United States, with a few small exceptions, it is not. Both state and federal law prohibit the sale of any alcoholic beverage to any person unless you have the appropriate license or licenses. Penalties vary by state. In California it is a misdemeanor, punishable by a $1,000 fine and/or up to six months in county jail.

The exceptions are few. One is auctions, which only a few states allow. The owner of a collection can consign it to the auction house for sale. The auction house has a license from the state that allows it to auction the bottles, paying the proceeds to the collector, less the auction house's fee. Are those sales taxed? I'm not sure, but it's hard to imagine they're not.

Another is states that allow retail license holders to buy 'vintage spirits' from collectors for resale either by the drink or by the bottle. 'Vintage' is usually defined as a product that has not been available on the retail market for some span of years. The District of Columbia allows this. Kentucky recently passed a law to allow it but it won't take effect until January 1.

That's about it. Peer to peer sales are all illegal.

The other side of the coin is that these laws are rarely enforced against collectors. They are really aimed at bootleggers and unlicensed bars. That doesn't mean it can't happen. The laws are on the books.

The legality of buying from an unlicensed seller is less clear, but most people who buy also sell. It doesn't matter if you only trade and no money changes hands. It is the same thing.

Some people will be mad at me for writing this. They always are. Do they think I wrote those laws? Or that the people who are supposed to enforce them wouldn't know about them if I would just stop mentioning it? At the very least, if you sell alcohol without a license, you might want to ask the Google machine what the penalty is in your state.

Is Stoli Building a New, $150M Distillery for Kentucky Owl Bourbon?

Janet Patton, the best bourbon reporter in Kentucky, has a story in today's Lexington Herald-Leader headlined, "Stoli plans $150m Bardstown distillery for Kentucky Owl Bourbon."

The gist is that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) has approved $2M in tax incentives for the project.

These KEDFA announcements usually are the first we hear of new distillery projects in Kentucky. The tax incentives are 'if come,' meaning that they only receive the benefits if they actually do the project. This is just a proposal at this point, by no means a done deal. Incentive recipients don't appear to be under any time pressure. Angel's Envy, for example, received its KEDFA approval several years before the distillery was actually built.

Although they are now doing some contract distilling at Bardstown Bourbon Company, everything Kentucky Owl has released to this point has been sourced from an undisclosed Kentucky distillery or distilleries. Earlier this year the brand's creator, Dixon Dedman, sold Kentucky Owl to the parent company of Stolichnaya Vodka. It is Stoli's only brand in the American whiskey space.

Although well-aged bulk bourbon has been in very short supply for the last decade or so, small caches can still be had for the right price. That is why most new non-distiller producer (NDP) brands are very limited availability and super premium. The main way Kentucky Owl differs from other NDP bourbons is it debuted at a price about twice what similar brands charge. That was their bold innovation and it succeeded. Each release has sold out quickly and Kentucky Owl commands a high price on the underground secondary market.

Why? The product is good, too woody for my taste, but many people like that sort of thing. Equally as good bourbons are available for much less, but Kentucky Owl has developed a cachet.

Although the new Bardstown distillery is just a proposal at this point, it is no doubt a serious one. For that kind of money, it will be a plant on the order of Bardstown Bourbon Company or Lux Row. It will join those two newcomers plus Barton 1792, Heaven Hill, and Willett as tourable bourbon facilities in the immediate Bardstown vicinity, with Jim Beam and Maker's Mark each about a half hour from town. All of these new distilleries are a huge deal for the economy of Bardstown and Nelson County.

One assumes Stoli will pay particular attention to the international market for bourbon and whether or not they pull the trigger will depend on continued strong export growth. Stay tuned.

'Tales of the Cocktail' Does It Again

Here is my take on the whole Tales of the Cocktail controversy, as an interested but very much outside observer.

If you are unaware of this controversy, you might want to keep it that way. If not, Tara Fougner gives a good account of it on the 'Thirsty' blog.

The news that has the hospitality industry roiling is the announcement that Ann and Paul Tuennerman are 'stepping down' from their role in Tales, but no one seems to know what 'stepping down' means.

Although Tales is ostensibly produced by the not-for-profit New Orleans Culinary & Cultural Preservation Society (NOCCPS), the Tuennermans are sole owners of a for-profit entity, Mojo 911 LLC, that owns valuable intellectual property such as the names 'Tales of the Cocktail' and 'Spirited Awards,' without which Tales cannot be produced. Mojo 911 also is paid a large fee to run the event. Although the announcement said Melissa Young will become president of Mojo 911, it was silent about the entity's ownership. If the Tuennermans continue to have a large financial stake in Tales, it is hard to see how their 'stepping down' changes anything.

Although the NOCCPS is required by law to file an annual tax return, called a Form 990, which reveals some financial information related to Tales, and which is public, Mojo 911 is under no such obligation. The way Tales is actually funded and run, who benefits, and how much, is a closely guarded secret.

Whoever controls Mojo 911 controls Tales, regardless of titles. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.

This controversy stems from the notorious blackface incident from earlier this year. The behavior of the Tuennermans then was so tone-deaf it appeared that Tales might collapse, but Paul Tuennerman 'stepped down' and Tales created a 'Diversity Council,' moves that induced many people of good will to give them another chance.

The events of this past weekend look to many like the Tuennermans have been simply and clumsily engaged in cynical damage control intended to protect their personal financial interest in Tales, and these 'resignations' are more of the same.

Will there be a Tales 2018?

Should there be?

Bourbon Distilleries, Ranked by Capacity

To understand this post, it is a good idea to read the two previous ones. Last Monday, we learned that the area of a beer still is the critical metric for determining capacity, that is the area of one of its plates. Although many factors contribute to a distillery's actual capacity, beer still area is something that can be compared across distilleries that use column stills for their first distillation, as virtually all large bourbon distilleries do.

Until last week, I was under the impression that still diameter was the key metric. It is when comparing still to still; larger diameter, more capacity. But since the largest distilleries use more than one beer still, you have to use area to compare them. You can't just add up the diameters. I know this is elementary to many of you, but math has never been my strong suit.

The other post, from September 6, was the announcement that one of Kentucky's newest bourbon distilleries, Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBC), is planning a major capacity increase. In their press release, they claimed it would make them "one of the largest bourbon distilleries in the world." I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations and decided they were about sixth. At an event during last week's Kentucky Bourbon Festival, they picked up on that number.

Based on what I subsequently learned about still area, I decided to revisit the numbers and do better calculations. BBC may be disappointed by what I found.

Since BBC made its claim based on planned future capacity, I have done the same, using stills I know about that should be in operation by the end of 2018.

So here is how America's whiskey distilleries rank, by the capacity of their beer still or stills. I did it by distillery, not company, although Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniel's as well as some Kentucky plants, ranks first either way. These are the kinds of choices, though arbitrary, that you have to make with this sort of thing. One could consider Beam's Booker Noe and Clermont plants as a single facility, since they operate under the same registration number (DSP-KY-230) and make the same products, but they are autonomous, and ten miles apart, so I count them separately.

Coming in at No. 1, then, is the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It has six beer stills, two at 72 inches (diameter) and four at 54 inches. That gives them more than twice the capacity of any other U.S. whiskey distillery.

No. 2 is Heaven Hill in Louisville, with three 60 inch stills.

No. 3 is Beam's Booker Noe plant in Boston, Kentucky, which has two 72 inch stills.

No. 4 is Buffalo Trace in Frankfort. They have just the one still, but it's a monster at 84 inches.

No. 5 is the Brown-Forman Distillery in Shively. 

No. 6 is a tie between the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont and the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown.

No. 7 is Four Roses in Lawrenceburg.

No. 8 is Maker's Mark in Loretto.

No. 9 is Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg.

No. 10 is O. Z. Tyler in Owensboro.

No. 11 is Bardstown Bourbon Company in Bardstown. They're 11th, not 6th, but they are the largest new bourbon distillery in the world.

No. 12 is MGP in Lawrenceburg Indiana. This is an estimate. I have seen their still, but they refuse to tell me its size, so I estimate that it is 48 inches. (They are the only whiskey distillery in America keeping that information secret.)

No. 13 is a tie between the two Diageo distilleries, George Dickel in Tullahoma, Tennessee and Bulleit in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

No. 14 is Wilderness Trail in Danville.

No. 15 is Lux Row in Bardstown.

No. 16 is Michter's in Shively.

No. 17 is Angel's Envy in Louisville

No. 18 is where we will end this list. It is a six-way tie among Old Forester (Louisville), Castle & Key (Frankfort), Willett (Bardstown), New Riff (Newport), Rabbit Hole (Louisville) and Fulton County (Hickman). Of these only two, Willett and New Riff, are actually producing now. 

So what? Mostly it is just interesting. I was surprised that, figured this way, Heaven Hill is second only to Jack Daniel's but I guess I shouldn't be. Heaven Hill's top bourbon, Evan Williams Black Label, ranks third behind Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 and Jim Beam White Label.

This list should be good for the next year or so, since all of the construction underway or on the books is factored in. After that, who knows? These are crazy but exhilarating times to be a bourbon enthusiast. 

Beer Still Diameters and Distillery Capacity; It Is Not That Simple

The beer still at the new Bulleit Distillery is 42" diameter.

With all of the new distillery construction and existing distillery expansion going on, it is hard to get a handle on how much new capacity is coming into the industry. Distilleries can produce below their capacity, of course, but these days bourbon distilleries are making as much as they can, so questions of capacity matter.

Although not quite the same as the beer we drink, the fermented grain mash that goes into a still like the one pictured above is called beer, and the still itself is called the beer still. This still strips all of the alcohol from the beer. That vapor, which is still 20 to 30 percent water, goes to a second pot-type still called a doubler for a second distillation, to remove more water and 'polish' the spirit.

Many factors affect how much a distillery can produce. One of them is the size of its beer still. A beer still doesn't have to be a column (i.e., continuous) still, but that is what most bourbon makers use. Because they are so tall, still height is the dimension that seems to impress people, but the dimension that matters is girth, the diameter of the still.

In trying to assess the capacity of different distilleries, I have tried to base it entirely on still diameter but, of course, it is not that simple.

"The diameter of the column is a very important part of the maximum throughput, but it’s not the only thing," says Mike Sherman, Vice President of Vendome Copper & Brass Works, the primary manufacturer of stills and other equipment for America's whiskey makers. "Tray design (amount of open area in the perforation) and downcomer size (the pipe that takes the beer down the column from one tray to the next) play a huge part." Other factors include beer thickness, condenser size, and fermentation yield.

It is also not correct, as I had assumed, that two 36" columns would have the same capacity as one 72" unit, for example. "It is not the diameter of the column, it is the area of the column" that matters, says Sherman. (A=𝜋r²) A 36" diameter column has an area of 7.06 ft², so 14.12 ft² for two columns. A 54" diameter column has an area of 15.9 ft². So, technically, the 54” column can run more than two 36” columns as long as everything else is sized correctly.

It also matters how each distillery uses its equipment, in terms of hours per day, days per week, and weeks per year. Some run one shift per day for five days and have a six-week shutdown versus another that runs round the clock for six days per week and only shuts down for two weeks per year.

So still area is a better metric than still diameter for comparison purposes and it is only roughly comparable, since it doesn't factor in those other considerations.

There are no easy answers, dammit.

Bardstown Bourbon Company to Add Capacity, Become Major Producer

Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBC) announced today that it will expand its capacity to allow production of up to six million proof gallons per year. To accomplish this, the distillery will add a second 36-inch beer still, a 12.5k gallon mash cooker, and up to 16 additional fermenters. They expect the expansion to be complete by July of next year. This means more maturation warehouses also will be needed.

The press release claims this expansion will make BBC "one of the largest bourbon distilleries in the world." That's a stretch, but it certainly puts BBC into the major league, probably at number six, which is amazing for a distillery that has only been in operation for a year.

BBC is in direct competition with MGP of Indiana as a contract producer and will be bigger than MGP in terms of whiskey capacity when this expansion is completed. (MGP also produces neutral spirits.)

“The Bardstown Bourbon Company’s rapid growth is extremely exciting,” said David Mandell, President & CEO. “We’re truly helping to reshape the American whiskey market, and the success of our Collaborative Distilling Program demonstrates the massive demand for custom-made, authentic, Kentucky whiskey, bourbon and rye.”

In related news, the Distilled Spirits Council announced today that the value of U.S. distilled spirits exports rose a robust 10.6 percent—up more than $67 million—to a total of $698.5 million in the first half of 2017 as compared with the same period in 2016. In dollar terms, the growth was led by the largest category: American whiskeys including Bourbon, Tennessee Whiskey and American Rye, which rose nearly $27 million to $464.6 million up 6.1 percent. The U.S. also exports small amounts of brandy, vodka, and rum.

These two announcements are related because much of the expansion taking place in the American whiskey business, especially among the majors, is predicated on robust, long-term export growth.

This May be Your Last Chance to Get "Made and Bottled in Kentucky" on DVD

"Made and Bottled in Kentucky," my one-hour documentary about the Kentucky bourbon whiskey industry, will no longer be available on Amazon once their current inventory of DVDs is exhausted. It will continue to be available here (i.e., directly from me) until my current inventory is exhausted. The price from me is $28, which includes U.S. shipping.

When my inventory runs out, I may make more DVDs, but more likely I will find some way to make it available via digital download.

So if you want to make sure you have a physical copy in your bourbon library, the time to act is now.

The documentary was made in 1991-92, with grants from Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA). KET still runs it from time to time on their network. Because it is 25 years old, it is interesting now primarily from a historical perspective, at it was made when we were seeing the first hints of the bourbon revival.

The production was made possible through a serendipitous convergence of events. Kentucky became a state in 1792, so for the bicentennial the legislature gave KET some extra money to fund independent productions about Kentucky subjects. I applied for and got a grant. The KDA had money to give because it had just received a Federal grant for export promotion. I was working in the industry, in marketing, so I was known to several of the distilleries.

At that point, I had been writing and producing TV commercials and other audio-visual material for about 20 years, but always for clients. I had never done a project where I had complete control. That was exciting for me and the main reason I wanted to do it.

There was no issue about independence with KET, but I was concerned about KDA. I finished my grant pitch by telling them that their funding would not give them the authority to approve the script or final product. Bill Samuels Jr., who was there representing Maker's Mark, leaped to his feet (as Bill will do) and proclaimed, "He's absolutely right, because I would be the worst, and if I can't tell him what to do, nobody can." It passed without objection.

This project is also what gave me the bourbon bug. I have been studying and writing about it ever since.

The video above is a short collection of clips from the documentary. There are others on my You Tube channel.

Come Drink with Me in Findlay, Ohio, on Tuesday, September 26

We will drink, eat, and talk bourbon. It should be a lot of fun. Join me beginning at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, September 26, at The Bourbon Affair, 121 E Crawford St, in downtown Findlay, Ohio. The ticket price ($65) includes a four-course meal and a tasting of four whiskeys. They are Old Taylor Small Batch Bourbon, Calumet Farms 10-year-old Single Rack Black, Woodford Reserve Straight Rye, and a Maker's Mark Private Select created especially for The Bourbon Affair.

This tasting is a bit of a homecoming for me. I grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, which is about an hour due east. In the 70s, I briefly worked at a radio station in Findlay. That is also where I get off I-75 to head east for visits home, so I've been through Findlay more times than I can count. The Pioneer Sugar silos are like an old friend.

Findlay is a nice town, even nicer now that it has a bourbon bar. It is home of the University of Findlay and Cooper Tire. It was, for 85 years, home of the Marathon Oil Company. The American standard, "Down by the Old Mill Stream," was composed by Findlay native Tell Taylor and inspired by Findlay's Blanchard River.

I promise not to give a long speech with a quick tasting at the end. We'll start to drink right away, and taste a different whiskey between dinner courses. I'll talk about the whiskeys we're tasting, about bourbon in general, and bourbon history. I like it when people interrupt me with good questions. These things are always best when it's a conversation.

If you would like to bring me to your town for a tasting, click here for information about how to do it.

Whiskey, Water, and You

There has been a lot of coverage today of a new study that explains why dilution with water improves the taste of whiskey and other aged spirits.

In at least one instance, the article includes the dilution formula published in Bourbon, Straight (2004).

It is as follows:

(amount of whiskey) x ((bottle proof/desired proof) -1) = amount of water to add

There is, of course, always water in whiskey. Even a barrel proof bourbon such as Booker's is only about 63 percent alcohol, the rest is water. Most bourbon and practically all scotch is bottled at 40 percent alcohol and 60 percent water.

Some of that water, about 20 percent of it, remains in the distillate that leaves the still. More water is added to get the spirit down to barreling proof, which is 62.5 percent alcohol or less. After aging, more water is added to get the whiskey from barrel proof down to bottle proof.

The study authors write, "When whisky is diluted, the alcohol is driven to the surface, and many of the taste molecules follow it because they like to be in a slightly less aqueous environment." It is unclear if this is something immediate, that happens right after water is added and then dissipates, or if the alcohol stays in that state. And, if it does, does the same thing happen when you pour diluted whiskey into a glass? Or do you have to add more water to create the effect?

It sounds like it happens each time you add water, up to a point of diminishing return. The authors also make an argument against cask strength whiskey that doesn't seem to comport with the experience of most drinkers, who find high proof whiskey very flavorful.

Ice, of course, makes the liquid cooler and also dilutes it, continuously as the ice melts.

Some people believe you should drink whiskey at bottle proof because that is what the maker intended, but this isn't necessarily true for barrel proof (i.e., cask strength) whiskey. The idea of a whiskey straight from the barrel is so you don't have to pay for added water and can dilute the spirit to your taste preference.

That is the best rule anyway. Find out what alcohol concentration you like best and stick to that. Your personal preference is all that really matters and you have all the diagnostic equipment you'll ever need right there in your head.

What Fresh Hell Is This?

On Monday, it was "The Death of the Brand Ambassador." Today, it is "Revenge of the Global Partner," reminding us that fanciful titles for paid celebrity spokesfolk are also a hot new thing. Just ask Wild Turkey Creative Director Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey got his gig about a year ago. Kunis has been global partnering with Jim Beam since 2014. Today she recommends that we drink Jim Beam Vanilla, for when "you love the taste of bourbon but are sometimes looking for something a little different." A mixture of vanilla liqueur with Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, it adds to the Jim Beam flavored portfolio that includes Jim Beam Apple, Jim Beam Kentucky Fire, Jim Beam Honey, and Red Stag by Jim Beam Black Cherry.

Jack Daniel's Honey is the leader in the flavored whiskey segment. It is a mixture of Jack whiskey and honey liqueur. By mixing whiskey with a liqueur you can introduce grain neutral spirit (i.e., vodka) as part of the drink's alcohol content, as neutral spirit is the alcohol component of most liqueurs. A blended whiskey that contains neutral spirit must disclose that fact on the label. Liqueurs are assumed to contain neutral spirit, so a whiskey blended with a liqueur doesn't face that requirement. Jack Honey and Jim Vanilla are classified as 'distilled spirit specialties,' not whiskey.

Neutral spirit costs a lot less to manufacture than whiskey. That makes flavored products more profitable and helps stretch currently tight whiskey stocks. Products classified as 'specialties' can also be sold at a lower proof, 70° (35% ABV) rather than the minimum of 80° (40% ABV) required for whiskey.

But to the typical consumer, it says Jack Daniel's or Jim Beam on the label so it's whiskey, right?

If you hate these products, blame Sazerac's phenomenally successful Fireball, another whiskey/liqueur mixture.

When Jim Beam first got into the flavored whiskey game, they said it would never get as crazy as flavored vodka.

We'll see about that.

The Death of the Brand Ambassador

The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) is promoting a seminar next week entitled "Build a Better Brand Ambassador," conducted by Robin Robinson.

The seminar is described as follows: "BUILD A BETTER BRAND AMBASSADOR is focused on creating the next generation Brand Ambassador: a sales-oriented, account-driving individual. Full of brand and category knowledge, loquacious and articulate, this individual delivers the brand pitch with aplomb and insider confidence. But also sharply focused on where the brand is at all times and dedicated to driving adoption and volume." (Emphasis added.)

The term 'brand ambassador' is used in many industries, not just distilled spirits. Originally, it was used to describe celebrity endorsers, so the term has always been flexible. But when the distilled spirits business began to use it, maybe 15-20 years ago, the idea was to have someone in the field who was focused entirely on product knowledge and brand education, without the pressure of moving cases and reaching sales goals.

The idea was that salespeople typically have responsibility for multiple brands in multiple categories. It is hard to have in-depth product knowledge about all of them. This reflects on credibility, as does the fact that salespeople have a reputation for saying whatever it takes to get a sale. No criticism intended. If your job is sales, then selling has to be your number one priority. That is why part of the definition of brand ambassador has always been, 'not a salesperson.'

With that background, this seminar doesn't tell producers how to 'build a better brand ambassador.' Instead, it tells the rest of us that the brand ambassador era is over. There can be no such thing as a brand ambassador who sells. That person is called a salesperson. To call them brand ambassadors is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst.

The ACSA is a terrific organization and Robin Robinson is a superb presenter who understands the marketing and promotion of distilled spirits products better than anyone I know. Again, this is not intended as a criticism of anyone involved, just of their rhetoric. This also is nothing against salespeople. As salespeople are fond of saying, nothing happens until somebody sells something.

The argument has been made that craft producers, as small operations, can't afford to field both types of representatives. Fine, makes sense, then build a better salesperson. Don't pretend they are brand ambassadors.

The 'redefinition' (i.e., death) of the brand ambassador role is not limited to craft producers. Last year, 'world's-biggest-drinks-company' Diageo ended its 'Masters of Whisky' program and 40 people lost their jobs. Some were rehired as 'redefined' brand ambassadors, i.e., salespeople.

Another role in the mix here is 'field promotions manager.' Now some of them are being called 'brand ambassadors.' Could it be that 'brand ambassador' is too desirable as a title to be wasted on actual brand ambassadors?

If 'the next generation of brand ambassadors' is really the next generation of brand-aware salespeople, there is nothing wrong with that. Just don't pretend it is something else.

Coming Soon: a Limited-Edition Bourbon for $22.99

My latest for The Whisky Wash is a brief history of Early Times (ET), a 157-year-old whiskey brand made and sold by Brown-Forman. In it, I write that ET is a price brand, not well-regarded by bourbon enthusiasts, so that "there are no limited releases" of Early Times.

I was wrong.

Brown-Forman today informed me that, in fact, a limited edition of Early Times will be hitting the shelves very shortly, as in yet this summer, and it will be bourbon, not 'Kentucky Whisky.' Early Times Bottled-In-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky will be in select markets including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Oregon at the suggested retail price of $22.99 for a 1-liter bottle.

The fact sheet for ET Bottled-in-Bond (BIB) says, "(BIB) standards introduced a new era of guaranteed quality within the spirits industry." That is not quite true. When the law was enacted, the federal government went to great pains to emphasize that Bottled-in-Bond did not guarantee quality. What it guaranteed was authenticity. It was America's first 'truth in labeling' law.

Although the Bottled-in-Bond Act became law in 1897, the heyday of BIB was the decades after WWII. Whiskey-making was curtailed because of wartime priorities, so fully-aged whiskey was in short supply when the war ended. BIB became known as 'the good stuff' because it was always at least four-years-old and 100° proof (50% ABV). The limited-edition Early Times BIB bourbon attempts to duplicate the brand's style from the 1940s.

The press materials note that DSP No. 354, home of ET, is the longest continuously-operating distillery under the same ownership in Kentucky. That is a mouthful, but Brown-Forman prides itself on the precise accuracy of its historical claims.

ET is also re-introducing its most famous proprietary cocktail, 'The Pussycat,' a twist on the whiskey sour that gets its sweetness from amaretto and orange juice instead of simple syrup. Back in the day, Brown-Forman even sold a powdered Pussycat mix.

Also notable is that the release will be in a one-liter bottle, rather than the more common 750 ml. This is a play for the bar trade, which prefers the liter size. Even though it is in a larger size, the suggested retail is a mere $22.99.

ET was a bourbon until 1983, when Brown-Forman converted it into a 'Kentucky Whisky.' To save money, they decided to do some of the aging (about 20 percent) in used barrels, disqualifying it as bourbon, which must be entirely aged in new, charred oak barrels. Because of the current bourbon boom, that may be a decision they now regret.

A few years ago they introduced a line extension, Early Times 354, that was bourbon, but it never caught fire and was discontinued. Although this is a limited edition, it may be another effort to get value-conscious bourbon drinkers interested in ET again. We'll see.

Baker Beam's Birthday Is Tomorrow

Baker Beam (in 1992), sampling new make at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, KY. (from the documentary, "Made and Bottled in Kentucky")

Baker Beam turns 81 tomorrow. Beam Suntory is promoting the anniversary with the 'Baker's 81 Bar Salute,' and conducting a state-wide toast to Baker Beam on his 81st Birthday, at 7:36 PM. (Baker was born in 1936, so they used the year as a time, 19:36, i.e., 7:36 PM.)

Simultaneous parties, known as Baker’s Birthday Bashes, will be thrown at bars across Kentucky from 6 PM- 9PM. They are using the following hashtags to follow the Salute: #bakersbourbon,  #bakers81barsalute, #bakersbirthdaybash

Baker and his younger brother, David, shared distiller duties at Clermont for many years. Their father, Earl 'Shucks' Beam, was distiller there before them, as was his father, Park Beam, Jim Beam's younger brother.

Baker and David grew up in the big house on the hill above the distillery. As distillers, Baker worked days and David worked nights. At the same time their cousin, Booker Noe, was distiller at the Boston (Kentucky) plant that now bears his name.

Baker Beam and David Beam, on the lake at the Boston, KY Beam distillery, for a Jim Beam ad in the '60s.

Unlike Booker, Baker is soft-spoken and taciturn, as are most Beam family members I have known. Like many in the clan, he loves motorcycles and trucks. For many years after he retired, he would show up at the distillery just to ride along on the trucks going up to the corn silos in Indiana, where he had many friends. As kids he and David, with their cousin, Parker (the late master distiller at Heaven Hill), used to ride bicycles together in Bernheim Forest, which is right across the road from the distillery.

Baker has always been very kind to me.

I have always liked his Baker's Bourbon too. Whenever I have drinks with a certain friend, that is all we drink. It is a tradition with us almost as old as the brand itself.

So this will be my salute. Happy birthday, Baker. And many more.

Beam Suntory Opens a New Book

Last week, we looked at one side of American blends. The other side, what used to be called 'Class A' blends, has largely been forgotten in the American whiskey world. The young scion of whiskey royalty is out to change that.

Frederick Booker Noe IV, better known as Freddie, was nicknamed 'Little Book' by his grandfather, Jim Beam Master Distiller Booker Noe. In the last few years, Freddie has joined his father, Fred Noe, in the family business. The next step in his ascension is a new whiskey brand called Little Book. It will be an annual, limited-release series, and it is not a bourbon. It is a blend.

But this is not a typical American blend. It is all straight whiskey, with no neutral spirit. Each year, Freddie will select a different blend. It will be packaged in the same bottle as Booker's Bourbon and, like Booker's, it will be uncut and unfiltered.

The first release, called 'The Easy,' will debut in October. It contains 13-year-old corn whiskey, rye whiskey and malt whiskey aged 5.5 years each, and 4-year-old bourbon. Suggested retail is $79.99 for a 750ml bottle. Although American blended whiskey may contain “harmless coloring, flavoring, or blending materials" as set forth in 27 CFR 5.23(a), Little Book does not.

Freddie says the goal is to "create something different, a one-of-a-kind taste profile that people haven't experienced before."

Mission accomplished!

The key to experiencing Little Book 'The Easy' is to not expect it to taste like bourbon. It doesn't. The long-aged corn whiskey dominates the profile, grainy and grassy like corn is supposed to be, but tempered by its long time in reused wood. (The other three whiskeys were all aged in new, charred oak.) Malt provides creamy nuttiness, rye a little background spice, and the bourbon provides body and richness. It is thick and viscous, almost syrupy, and surprisingly easy to drink even at its full 120.48° proof (60.24% ABV).

Some bourbon signifiers are there, caramel in particular. A little water brings it out.

This is a bit of a gamble for Beam. Little book is not the first 'Class A' blend of the modern era, but it arrives with a lot of fanfare and is a lot of weight to put on a young man's shoulders. But Freddie is a big man, like his father and grandfather. He can handle it.

Whiskey Tourism and the Driver's Dilemma

Several friends have asked me this recently. "We want to go to Kentucky and visit distilleries. Is there a bus or something we can take so we don't drink and drive?" Okay, nobody exactly asked that, but most of my friends are responsible and several have asked about transportation alternatives.

This matters because the distilleries are rather far apart. The distance between Buffalo Trace and Maker's Mark, two very popular tours, is about 65 miles and a lot of that is winding country roads.

Kentucky's whiskey tourism infrastructure is still developing. So is Tennessee's, which has some catching up to do. In Kentucky, the premier tour company for whiskey fans is Mint Julep Tours, which operates out of Louisville. They offer everything from private, customized tours to regularly scheduled trips anyone can join for the price of a ticket.

Mint Julep recently expanded its options for full-day public bourbon tours on Fridays and Saturdays. A three-day adventure to nine different distilleries is also available. Each daytrip includes stops at three distilleries, lunch at a locally-owned restaurant, all admissions and planning, and comfortable transportation with an enthusiastic tour leader.

Mint Julep has an official relationship with the Kentucky Distillers' Association (KDA) and its official Kentucky Bourbon Trail, but that doesn't mean they won't take you to Buffalo Trace and other non-KDA distilleries. The KDA also has official relationships with R&R Limousine, as well as Uber and Lyft.

I'm not a big ride sharing guy, but if sitting in the backseat of a stranger's Prius for a couple of hours sounds cool to you, go for it. Me, I prefer the comfy buses.

Because the places you want to go are so spread out, and because there is alcohol involved, a successful tour of America's whiskey heartland requires planning. Although it is much more developed now than it was ten or twenty years ago, it is still a bit of the Wild West compared to a distillery tour of Scotland or a winery tour of the Napa Valley. But if you use all of the available tools, that can be part of the fun.

There Are Blends and There Are Blends

The word 'blend' is primarily a verb. It means to mix two or more things together so they combine into one thing. It is a common word, meaning more or less the same as 'mix' and 'combine.' It can also be a noun, referring to the combination itself.

A 'term of art' is a word or phrase that means one thing in common usage, but something else in a particular trade or 'art.' The specialized definition usually is related to the common one, it is just more narrowly drawn. Terms of art exist in many fields, from law to, well, whiskey-making. They can be confusing, especially when you are unfamiliar with the specialized terminology.

Which brings us back to 'blend.' Here it gets even more confusing because while 'blend' is a whiskey-making term of art, it doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. In Scotland, for example, a 'blended whisky' is a mixture of one or more single malt whiskies with some quantity of grain whisky. That is what it means in Ireland and Japan too. Canada is a little different, but the same in principle.

Which brings us to the USA.

The American definition of 'blended whiskey' is unique. It grew out of a dispute between distillers and rectifiers that came to a head in 1909. The compromise, issued by President William Howard Taft, allowed distillers to call their product 'straight whiskey,' while rectifiers were required to use the term 'blended whiskey.'

The new rules were written so as to define 'blended whiskey' as essentially what the rectifiers at the time were making.

Under U.S. rules, 'blended whiskey' is a mixture of at least 20 percent straight whiskey, the remainder being whiskey or neutral spirits. That sounds simple, but it covers a lot of ground. The typical American blend today is at that minimum of 20 percent straight whiskey, the balance being neutral spirit, i.e., vodka. Most knowledgeable drinkers, when they think about American blends, think 20 percent whiskey, 80 percent vodka.

Such a creature is whiskey only in the United States. In the rest of the world, you can't put neutral spirit in something and still call it 'whiskey.' Admittedly, most blending whiskey is nearly neutral, but it is whiskey.

Seagrams 7 is the best-selling American blend. The last time I looked it was 25/75.

Because of the large quantity of neutral spirit in American blends, they are very inexpensive and that seems to be their primary appeal. They are sometimes disparagingly called 'brown vodka.' 'Whiskey-flavored vodka' may be closer to the point. They are usually served as a highball with a soft drink, most famously 7UP (the 'seven and seven' cocktail).

But American blends have not always been that way. In the years after Prohibition, when well-aged whiskey was in short supply, many companies had 'Class A' blends that were all whiskey, albeit of different types, and some of it young, but containing no neutral spirit. These went away as well-aged whiskey became more available and blend buyers became more and more price sensitive.

Today, well-aged whiskey is in short supply again, for a different reason, and 'Class A' blends may be making a comeback.

More on that to come.