Why Can't Indiana Convenience Stores Sell Cold Beer?

One residue of Prohibition, which ended 80 years ago, is the hodgepodge of state laws regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages. To say they are idiosyncratic is an understatement. A great illustration is Indiana, where only liquor stores, taverns and restaurants can sell cold beer for carryout. Other kinds of stores may sell beer, they just can't sell it cold. This rule applies only to beer. Everyone can sell chilled wine. No other state has this particular regulation.

The rationale, as usual, is that it is in the state's interest to limit alcohol consumption and one way to do that is by limiting access to alcoholic beverages. Regulators argue that anyone entering a liquor store must be 21-years-old and employees must go through permitting and training. Liquor stores are regulated on when they can be open. That's all true, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the temperature of the beer. The rule assumes that a person, desperate for beer, won't drink a warm one.

State liquor laws are rarely updated and most haven't changed in 80+ years. They don't change because whoever benefits most from the status quo will resist change and there's rarely enough political will to overcome that resistance. Politicians don't like to go on record as having made alcohol easier to buy. When, however, there are strong financial incentives on the other side too, changes might be made, if not legislatively then in the courts.

This is happening right now in Indiana, where the Indiana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association is suing the state to force it to allow cold beer sales in convenience stores. The case is just underway in Federal court. Plaintiffs say current law violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Defendants say the 21st Amendment lets them do whatever they want.

Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" Is 100

One-hundred years ago this month, Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago" was published for the first time in a small, Chicago literary journal. When it was published, Sandburg was largely unknown. He went on to become one of the most renowned poets of the 20th century.

Much will be said and written about the poem in the coming weeks, and none of it will have the power of the poem itself. I encourage you to take a few minutes and read it. This may sound silly, but I further encourage you to read it out loud.

CHICAGO

HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse. and under his ribs the heart of the people, 

Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Next Up for FSOS, Wild Turkey, February 25

The Fountainhead School of Spirits had another successful Tuesday earlier this week. We cut the number of available tickets to make the room a little more comfortable and sold all of them. Fountainhead is doing a great job of putting this on. There are now curtains covering both entrances and the pass-through, which helps both with sound and visual distractions. We're going to keep looking for ways to improve the experience for everyone.

Next Tuesday, February 25th, we'll continue our distillery-specific series with Wild Turkey. In some ways, Wild Turkey is the most misunderstood distillery in Kentucky. Everyone knows Wild Turkey 101° proof bourbon. It's something you do every now and then as a shot maybe. Many don't know the rest of what Wild Turkey has to offer. We're going to taste the 101° proof bourbon, of course, but also Russell's Reserve Bourbon, Russell's Reserve Rye, and Wild Turkey Rye, and we'll learn all about the amazing 60-year career of master distiller Jimmy Russell.

Tickets are still available. Here is the direct link for this class at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information about this and future classes, go here. You can buy tickets now for any class up to March 25th. Buy now and you won't risk disappointment.

Fountainhead is located at 1970 W. Montrose Ave, at the corner of Montrose and Damen. Street parking usually is available, it's a short walk from the Brown Line L station, and both Damen and Montrose are served by CTA buses.

Although we're serious about serving up knowledge, we're serious about having fun too. The class is informal and you'll probably make a few, new, like-minded friends.

Hope to see you there.

What Are Store Barrel Selections Anyway?

I received this question today via email: "I purchased a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 yesterday and noticed that this particular batch was selected specifically for that store. It made me wonder if there are any significant differences between a standard bottle of Eagle Rare 10 and one especially bottled for the retailer?"

With some brands, and Eagle Rare is one of them, stores are given the opportunity to buy all of the contents of one barrel and they get to choose the barrel. The producer will also make and apply the labels that say as much. Many stores do this a lot and at any given moment will have several of their barrel selections available for different brands.

Bars can do it too.

The barrels they are offered, however, have all been pre-selected for that brand. Not all of the brands that offer this type of program are single barrel but Eagle Rare 10 is, so if that particular barrel had not been the barrel selection for that store, it would have been bottled anyway, single barrel, and gone into the general Eagle Rare 10 population. Since all Eagle Rare 10s are single barrel, the only thing special about a store selection is that it reflects the tastes of the person or person who did the selecting. If you like it better than an Eagle Rare 10 from the general population, you may like other barrel selections from that store.

In cases where this program is offered and the product is not normally single barrel, the store selection is single barrel, but the barrels made available are still pre-selected for that brand. In that case, the barrels that aren't selected go into the general dump batch for that brand. Since a product produced by mixing many barrels together tends to be more homogenized, a store selection is more likely to be noticeably different, though it will still be very close to the standard.

So while store barrel selections will always be a little different from the standard, they aren't necessarily better. That depends on your taste and the taste of the person(s) doing the picking.

Buffalo Trace Tests Barrel Entry Proof in Latest Experiments

The latest release in the Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection looks at barrel entry proof. Buffalo Trace doesn't always offer opinions about the results of their experiments, but this time they have. The tasting notes are theirs, not mine.

Buffalo Trace began this experiment more than 12 years ago, using four different entry proofs with its rye-recipe bourbon. All of the experiments came off the still at 140° proof. All of the barrels were aged together in Warehouse K for 11 years, 9 months and bottled at 90° proof.

The naming convention for the group is 'rye' followed by the entry proof, so it bears repeating that this is rye-recipe bourbon, not rye whiskey.

Rye 125 – At 125° proof, this was the highest entry proof used. It is also Buffalo Trace’s standard entry proof for its rye recipe bourbons, and the maximum entry proof allowed by law. The result was typical, a well-balanced bourbon with spicy cloves mingled with sweet vanilla, caramel and toffee to create a well-rounded and complex flavor.

Rye 115 – This rye recipe bourbon was put into the barrel at 115° proof and has light oaky flavors mingled with leather and palm sugar.

Rye 105 – At an entry proof of 105°, the angels were particularly greedy with their share taking the highest amount of all four experiments with an evaporation rate of 26 percent. The 105° entry proof produced a bourbon which has a good overall flavor with some earthy tones, followed by a buttery, light finish.

Rye 90 – At an entry point of 90°, this bourbon had a 25 percent evaporation rate. The result was a bourbon with a light fruity flavor followed by some hints of dried nuts and spice, with a drier finish.

Buffalo Trace previously performed a similar experiment with wheated bourbon. Both the wheat and rye experimental barrels were distilled around the same time, aged in the same warehouse, on the same floor, rick, and row and bottled around the same time. A key learning from both experiments was that entry proof does affect bourbon flavor, and it does affect evaporation rates. Also, different barrel entry proofs will produce varying flavor elements.

"Although it should not be a surprise to us, we found in blind tastings the rye-recipe with the 125° entry proof, which is our standard barrel entry proof for our rye-recipe bourbons, tasted the best to us," said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller. "The flavor profile was the most balanced, while still offering the most pleasant mixture of tastes. It’s gratifying to know that even in blind taste tests, we still favored our ‘standard’ method as the best of the four in the experiment."

Buffalo Trace has more than 2,000 experimental barrels of whiskey aging in its warehouses.

The Experimental Collection is packaged in 375ml bottles, 12 to a case, with three bottles of each entry proof in each case. The suggested retail price is $46.35 each. This set should be in stores later this month.

Buffalo Trace Tourism Growth Surpasses Statewide Totals

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, Bourbon Trail® and Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour® are all registered trademarks of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA). The official tours include only those attractions that are owned by dues-paying KDA members.

The elephant in the room that is Kentucky bourbon tourism is, of course, Sazerac and its two Kentucky distilleries, Buffalo Trace (Frankfort) and Barton 1792 (Bardstown). Sazerac quit the KDA several years ago, saying it felt it could better use its KDA dues by investing in its own tourism enterprise. Lawsuits and a settlement followed, and an atmosphere of mutual hostility remains.

Yet both are doing well. In 2013, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® recorded more than 630,000 visits, a new milestone for the tour. A record 571,701 people visited the 'heritage' (i.e., big) distilleries, a 12% increase over 2012. An additional 61,698 traveled to the participating craft distilleries.

Numbers were up even more at Sazerac's distilleries, 34% at Buffalo Trace and 31% at Barton 1792. At Buffalo Trace, 84,629 guests took a tour in 2013, compared to 63,181 in 2012. Counting people who came to events at the distillery, including private events held at the Clubhouse (which can be rented), Buffalo Trace received 97,930 total visitors in 2013, a 21% increase over 2012.

The folks at Sazerac point to those numbers as evidence that they are better off outside the KDA, using the money they would be spending on KDA dues to enhance and publicize their own tourism offering. Both Sazerac distilleries provide free tours and tastings, and at Buffalo Trace five different tours are available.

The KDA argues that Sazerac benefits from the Association's general tourism promotion expenditures even though Sazerac doesn't help pay for them, but as KDA has gotten more aggressive about trying to undermine any non-KDA events and attractions, with the Sazerac distilleries at the top of that list (and all under the table, of course), that argument loses most of its credibility.

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be a distiller to be a KDA member. You just have to have a bourbon production facility in the state and pay the dues. Neither Diageo nor Michters distills in Kentucky and yet both belong to the KDA. Diageo qualifies because it ages bourbon at Stitzel-Weller, and Michters bottles its products at a facility nearby. Neither is open for tourism although, for $150, you can get inside Stitzel-Weller as part of the Kentucky Bourbon Affair.

In addition to members, KDA now has sponsors. Dozens of bourbon-inspired restaurants, bars, hotels, transportation companies, markets, specialty food stores, and convention and visitors bureaus signed on in 2013.

Most non-parties to the KDA-Sazerac conflict, including the state and relevant county and city tourism bureaus, try to remain independent and, thus, neutral. KDA, despite its pose to the contrary, is a private entity whose members are its sole concern and in that way, it is exactly the same as Sazerac. There should be more than enough room for both to thrive, as the statistics indicate is the case, and for the entry of any other persons or groups who want to provide bourbon-related experiences for Kentucky visitors.

No 'gatekeeper' is needed nor wanted.

What's So Great About Louisville? A Whole Bunch of Stuff

I lived in Louisville for nine years and may live there again. Compared to Chicago, where I live now, Louisville has an excellent quality-of-life to cost-of-living ratio. No, it doesn't have everything Chicago has, but it's a lot cheaper. Plus, the bourbon is plentiful and winter is shorter by about four weeks.

I love Louisville.

I'm not alone. Louisville.com, a boostering web site, has compiled a list of the city's recent accomplishments. They range from being named one of CNNMoney’s 2014 breakout cities, in part for the music and food truck scenes, to being placed among the top 20 American cities with 'economic momentum,' based on GDP growth, job growth, median household income growth, and unemployment, according to NewGeography.

AARP says Louisville is one of the top 10 best low-cost U.S. cities in which to retire.

The article doesn't mention how, in July and August, a thermal inversion produces high temperatures, high humidity, and pollution like Los Angeles. My doctor in Louisville called seasonal allergies "the price we pay for living in the Ohio Valley."

But now I'm just being picky.

Louisville has a lot going for it, especially among the city's younger citizens. Among the ruling elite there is still an irritating tendency to talk big but think small, as I mused about (too obliquely for some) a few days ago.