During many of these trips, Al Capone himself would come down, and he frequented the legendary Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, where he and his buddies would play poker in a private room. There was (and still is) a large mirror that tilts slightly down so Al could get a read on not only his opponents’ poker faces but their cards. In case federal agents showed up to nab him, two panels slid out of place to secret passages. One led down a hidden corridor and out the kitchen’s back door, and the other back out to a side exit of the hotel where Al Capone always had cars waiting and running in case he had to make a speedy exit. The room is called the Al Capone Room for that piece of history. It’s the same place described in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as the place of Daisy Buchanan’s wedding. When you come to Louisville, go visit the Seelbach and ask them to show you that room off the Oak Room. Then enjoy the great jazz at the Old Seelbach bar off the lobby and have their signature cocktail.
MY MEDICINAL BOURBON
If you got a bottle of medicinal bourbon in 1922, it might read on the tax stamp “Old Grand Dad Whiskey, barreled Jan. 1917 and bottled spring 1932.” I was given a bottle just like that by my friend Gary Gish, who owns the bar Joe’s Older Than Dirt in Louisville, Kentucky. Joe’s is a fabulous bar that you should visit the next time you are in Louisville. Gary and his wife, Janet, are not only my customers, but great friends. You find this happens a lot in the whiskey business.
On my 50th birthday, I had the pleasure of celebrating with that bottle of Old Grand Dad. That’s 15 years in the barrel. Remember, they couldn’t distill new bourbon, so all that bourbon was what they had in their rack houses. Some of the bourbon near the end of Prohibition had lots of age on it, up to 15 years. It sounds marvelous, but some of the bourbon got too much wood from that extra aging. So drinking Prohibition bourbon whiskey can be a crap shoot. But I must tell you, I got lucky with that bottle of Old Grand Dad on my 50th. Just one little cube of ice opened that bourbon up, and it was a memorable experience. Just ask my friends Paul (Louise Halloran’s son), Mike, Eric and Eric. They will confirm that! Not everyone gets to drink 92 years of history on their birthday. I highly recommend it! Thanks, Gary!
IF THERE WAS NO BOURBON, THERE’D BE NO NASCAR
Even after Prohibition the effects lingered. In the religious South, Prohibition is still felt in the “dry counties” where Brothers Carl, Bob and Fonty Flock, better known as the Flock boys, ran moonshine on the legendary Thunder Road from Dawsonville to Atlanta, Georgia. There weas also a number of other “thunder roads” in North Carolina and all through the South. A good moonshine driver could make $100 a night runnin’ shine…damn good money, especially in the 1940s, and not too bad today!
In 1947 Bill France, Sr. seized an opportunity by organizing these moonshine drivers for competition, creating the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). This convinced the Flock boys, the Pettys, Junior Johnson and others to go legit, or to add to their moonshining income. At first the money Junior Johnson made running shine was a lot more than he made on the track. But later that changed, and Johnson became the best driver of his time and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he retired. In a 2002 History Channel interview Johnson said, “I do believe the fastest car I ever drove was a bootleggin’ car.”
Little brother Tim Flock joined the Flock boys and started racing, and he had a co-pilot…a spider monkey who was outfitted with a helmet and racing gear. The family became known as the fabulous Flocks. Moonshine drivers became some of the best drivers on the NASCAR circuit. No surprise. If you could race at night being chased by the cops on Thunder Road, then going around in a circle in daylight making continuous left-hand turns was a piece of cake.
Many people think that Prohibition is a thing of the past. But let’s not forget it is still alive and well. Thirteen million people live in Prohibition today in dry counties all over the South and other states. In Kentucky we have 120 counties, and 79 of them are dry! The joke in Kentucky is that Bourbon County is dry, but Christian county is wet. I believe Bourbon County is “moist” now. You can order beer, wine or a drink but only at a restaurant.
Prohibitionists like Russell, Wheeler and Nation thought the country would be a better, more moral, and safer place to live. But nothing could have been further from the truth. It not only kept hundreds of millions of dollars out of the federal coffers, contributing to the Great Depression, but it allowed a level of corruption, violence and mafia rule that almost destroyed the country. Franklin Roosevelt realized that this act needed to be overturned to get the country back on the right path, and more importantly to create jobs in distilleries, liquor stores and saloons, and thus start more tax money flowing back in to Washington.
When Prohibition was repealed, it was a joyous day indeed – but it would be awhile before there would be good product for the devoted bourbon drinkers. Before Prohibition there were 75 distilleries; afterward, only 51 applied for licenses. And, of course, for a bourbon to be a bourbon, it has to be aged for four years or more, so the distilleries didn’t have a marketable product until the late 1930s.
As soon as he could, Colonel Jim Beam applied for a license to open a distillery in 1934. He almost had to, because he was going broke. Like other distillers, he simply got into other lines of work when Prohibition started. Colonel Beam got into citrus farming in Florida and the rock quarry business as well. Back in the 1920s it was hard to travel to Florida to oversee the operation, so he continued to live in Kentucky and lost quite a bit of money in that venture. He did OK in the rock quarry business, but not well enough. It seemed that bad luck followed him around during Prohibition. It was said that if Colonel Beam started a funeral home, people would suddenly just stop dying.
Other distillers filed for “medicinal licenses” and sold the bourbon they had in stock through druggists by prescription only. Brown-Forman did that and sold Old Forester. As a matter of fact, Old Forester is the only bourbon that was sold before, during, and after Prohibition by the same company. Old Grand Dad was also sold by the Wathen Distillery, and Stizel and Weller with Pappy Van Winkle sold medicinal whiskey. But this was a very limited market, and the bourbon could only be sold medicinally, and only with stocks on hand before Prohibition.
A few years later, WWII broke out and distilleries were mandated in 1942 by F.D.R to make ethanol for gun powder, vehicle fuel and rubber for tires. By the end of the war in 1945, bourbon inventories were all but gone—yet another devastating blow to the bourbon industry. Distilleries did more than their part for the war effort by putting aside the future of their own businesses for the good of their country.
So it really wasn’t until after WWII that bourbon producers were able to get back to work and actually start aging their products again. It was almost 1950 before bourbon returned to shelves in abundance. By that time, Canadian and Scotch whiskey had a strong hold on the whiskey market, and tequila, rum and vodka were gaining on gin, which was the most popular spirit in the United States at the time. Bourbon was in trouble. Only “old timers” were drinking bourbon, and it was out of fashion with veterans and the new generation of drinkers.
It was also at this time that bourbon was being bastardized and made cheaper to save money. Labels and distilleries were being bought by bigger companies, and they cut corners where they could. Because bourbon is regulated so strictly, there’s not too much a distillery can do to save money except add more water to the bourbon and lower the proof. Many distilleries did just that and lowered their bourbons’ proofs from the bonded 100 proof to 86 proof, thereby creating a weak watery drink that did nothing to improve its popularity. You’ve heard the expression “86 it” when someone wants something to die or go away? Well, now you know where that came from.
By the late ’60s, gin was replaced with the more neutral vodka as the most popular spirit. This was probably helped along by a certain movie character who enjoyed his martinis “shaken, not stirred.” Bourbon starting gaining in popularity at this time, too, thanks to
the military serving in Korea and Vietnam. Troops still received rations of whiskey as part of their pay package and could get Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and a couple other brands at the Post Exchange duty-free and pretty darn cheap. Some savvy traders would trade vouchers with their buddies who didn’t drink, then buy up Jim Beam and resell it to nearby off-base taverns all over the world. This is how several labels got worldwide distribution. Not because of the distilleries’ crack sales teams, but because of the Radar O’Rileys and Max Klingers of the world. Jim Beam and other distilleries owe a debt of gratitude not only for the soldiers’ service to their country but for their service to bourbon!
Today bourbon is enjoying a great resurgence. Make no mistake about it, we are in the Golden Age of Bourbon. I’d say the first golden age was back in the 1850s when Ben Parley Moore was visiting Kentucky, and we are now squarely in the second. Since the early 1990s there have been about 50 single-barrel and small-batch labels added to the bourbon and rye categories alone. But make no mistake, it’s still just a handful of labels that sells in the millions, and the whiskey category outsells the bourbon category. However, bourbon is coming on strong, with Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Evan Williams and Maker’s Mark as the category leaders. The bourbon business is up, even in these difficult economic times, so that should tell you something about the popularity of bourbon. There are eight distilleries offering tours in Kentucky and the number of people visiting is increasing exponentially each year. On average, around 90,000 people visit a single distillery each year, with a total of 250,000 people visiting distilleries overall. By
My Bourbon Time Line
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough.”—Mark Twain
BOURBON
TIME LINE
1619Virginia General Assembly passed laws against public drunkenness, with the first offense dealt with privately by the minister, and second offense dealt with “publiquely” (that being most probably stocks in the town square).
1600s-1700sAlong with establishing grains of rye, barley and corn, fruit trees were planted in abundance. Farmers realized the trees matured in only six or seven years so they could bring in an orchard of abundance. They put up stores of cider and distilled brandy (also referred to as “mobby”).
1716According to Robert Beverley in The History of Virginia, in Four Parts (1722). “Their strong drink is Madera wine, Cyder, Mobby Punch (hard cider or brandy), made either of Rum from the Caribbee Islands, or brand distll’d from their apples and peaches; besides Brandy, Wine and strong Beer, which they have constantly from England.”
1776U.S. declares independence on July 4th, 1776.
Virginia Assembly established the Corn Patch and Cabin Rights, where people could claim 400 acres of land in Western Virginia and grow the native crop, corn, as long as they built a cabin on the property. This could be done until January 1, 1778.
1786-1788On May 1, 1786, tavern rates were set in Kentucky Territory of Virginia. These were not taxes but were the most a tavern or a tippling house could charge for brandy, whiskey and other spirits.
1783On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War.
1789In April 1789, George Washington was elected the first president being inaugurated in January 1790.
1792June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state and becomes a commonwealth like Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The U.S. made a flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes….later it changed back to 13 stripes and started adding stars for states so the flag wouldn’t look like Joseph’s amazing coat of many colors. Tavern rates were also set for tippling houses at this time.
1794The Whiskey Rebellion took place in Washington County Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. Alexander Hamilton created the U.S. Marshal Service and sent agents to Pennsylvania and Kentucky and all states to collect taxes. In Washington County, agents were tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail (a practice that I still encourage to this day… just kidding, Homeland Security).
1798-1799After his presidency (and perhaps after seeing first hand that it could be lucrative), George Washington distilled 11,000 gallons of whiskey at Mt. Vernon to become the nation’s largest distiller. A Scotsman named James Anderson made the whiskey and used the grains that were grown on Mount Vernon. Rye was still the more prevalent grain at this time and in this region, but corn was becoming more common. According to plantation records, James Anderson’s recipe was comprised of 60% rye, 35% corn and 5% barley malt (American Spirit Magazine May/June 2008). Anderson also distilled fruit-flavored brandies and cider vinegar.
1802President Thomas Jefferson repealed the excise tax of George Washington that caused the Whiskey Rebellion just a few years before.
1798-1810+As at Mount Vernon, the most expensive whiskey was the highest proof. This was attained by distilling the whiskey up to four times or more. This not only was a way to drive up the proof, but also to distill out fusel oils and other congeners. Whiskey distilled twice was called “common whiskey” and fetched 50-60 cents per gallon; whiskey distilled up to four times could fetch $1.00 a gallon. At this time, barrels were merely used to transport the whiskey. Mount Vernon and other distilleries used brand new barrels, but they had no need to char them.
1808May 18, 1808–Elijah Craig passes away in Georgetown, KY. The Kentucky Gazette eulogized: “His preaching was of the most solemn style; his appearance as of a man who had just come from the dead; of a delicate habit, a thin visage, large eyes and mouth; the sweet melody of his voice, both in preaching and singing, bore all down before it.” Some Baptist sources say he sold out to the world, but “He possessed a mind extremely active and, as his whole property was expended in attempts to carry his plans to execution, he consequently died poor. If virtue consists in being useful to our fellow citizens, perhaps there were few more virtuous men than Mr. Craig.”
1810Distilled spirits by state (in gallons)
Pennsylvania 6,552,284
Virginia 2,367,589
Kentucky 2,200,773
North Carolina 1,386,691
Ohio 1,212,266
Tennessee 801,245
(Kentucky Bourbon – Henry Crowgey)
A Lexington, Kentucky published account stated, “Whiskey is made either with rye, barley or Indian Corn. One or all of these grains is used as they are more or less abundant in the country. I do not know how far they are mixed in Kentucky, but Indian Corn is here in general basis of whiskey, and more often employed alone.” (Kentucky Bourbon – Henry Crowgey)
1810
AND ON
The U.S. government, specifically the Cavalry, became one of the biggest consumers of bourbon whiskey by giving a weekly ration of whiskey to its soldiers as part of their pay. They received food, clothing, shelter and a weekly ration of whiskey. If the soldier helped build outbuildings or cut roads, they received an additional ration of whiskey.
1816Hope Distilling Company opens in Louisville, Kentucky, with huge financial backing from the Northeast. They installed two giant stills and went big. Too big, too soon, as it turns out, and they closed a few years later when their capital ran out.
1820sAround this time, give or take 10 years, barrels were being used to ship the whiskey to the cavalry and other customers. These smaller operations of whiskey distillers weren’t like Mount Vernon, and they rarely had cooperages attached, so they would find, or more likely buy, barrels that had been used to ship meats and fish. These barrels had pickling agents used in them. The distillers didn’t want to put their fine whiskey in these pickled barrels, so they would scrape the insides of them until there was no evidence of the pickling agents, and then to further sterilize them, they would light the insides on fire and char them before pouring in their whiskey. Their intent was only to sterilize the barrels, but charring happened to be very beneficial by causing the natural sugars in the wood to rush to the charred area to heal itself. As the sun shone down on the barrels, it forced the whiskey into the wood through this caramelized la
yer of sugar, and the cool evenings on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers forced the whiskey back out through the wood. The movement in and out through the “red line” of sugars imparted an amber color, smoothed out that rough spirit, and gave some vanilla, caramel, maple, ginger, and other flavors to the whiskey, giving bourbon a distinctive look, taste and flavor.
1826The American Temperance Society was founded in Boston, Massachusetts.
1830Alcohol consumption rose to the level that every male 15 and over drank an average of 90 bottles of 80-proof liquor per year.
1831Irishman Aenaes Coffey got his continuous still patented in Britain.
1836J.W. Dant opened his distillery in Kentucky.
1838Oscar Pepper opened the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery.
1840George T. Stagg opened his distillery.
1844T.W. Samuels opened his distillery.
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