American whiskey History Flashcards
During prohibition, who were the six distilleries allowed to continue selling (but not making) whiskey for medicinal purposes?
1) Brown - Forman (Old Forester)
2) Frankfort (which became Four Roses)
3) A. Ph. Stitzel (later merged with W.I. Weller)
4) Glenmore
5) schenley
6) American Medicinal Spirits Company (later renamed National Distillers Co. and much later became a part of Jim Beam)
Which part of the Volstead Act allowed for the sale of medicinal whiskey?
Title II, section 2
Drs were allowed to prescribe one pint of 100 proof spirits per patient every 10 days as long as seller had a government issued permit, and the whiskey came out of a bonded warehouse.
What was the name of the distillery in Juarez, Mexico that Joe Beam and his son ran during prohibition?
Waterfill & Frazier
What was the name of the revenue inspector whose house was burned kicking off the whiskey rebellion.
John Neville in 1794
Who is often credited with being the first to distill Bourbon?
Evan Williams is often sited, but Michael Veach has dispelled this since Williams didn’t arrive in America until after the first corn whiskey was produced.
Who was REALLY the most likeley to have produced the first corn whiskey in Kentucky?
Either Jacob Meyers and/or the Davis brother (Jacob and Samuel) were both producing in 1779 (although gov’t records weren’t kept then)
When was the Bottled in Bond Act passed and what did it say?
Passed and signed by President Grover Cleveland on March 3,1897, the bottled in bond act said any whiskey:
-Aged in a gov’t bonded warehouse
-product of a single distillery and distiller during one season
-Exactly 100 proof
-aged at least 4 years
-nothing added except water
What was the Whiskey Ring Scandal of 1875
Conspiracy between gov’t excise officers and distillers. Government officers would only count half the whiskey and tax it. Distillers would then sell the other half at lower prices, but higher profit.
Taft Decision of 1909
-Whiskey had to be made from grain
-product of all aged whiskey was to be labelled “straight whiskey”
-High proof unaged grain distillate had to be labelled as blended
How long did prohibition last in the US?
13 years, 10 months, and 11 days from
1920 to 1933
18th Amendment and Volstead Act to
21st Amendment
How much whiskey was sitting in bonded warehouses when prohibition began?
29 million gallons in 292 bonded warehouses.
Consolidated down to 10 locations
In 1928 the six licensed companies were allowed to distill 3 million more gallons
Who owned Shenley?
Louis Rosensteil had one of “Big 6” licenses and who bought up shuttered distilleries during prohibition
After prohibition who were the “big four” that dominated US whiskey production?
1) National
2) Shenley
3) Seagram (Canadian)
4) Hiram Walker (Canadian)
*George T Stagg joined Shenley
*Brown-Forman & A Stitzel Distillery moved slightly to the background
Who were the Chicago investors who partnered with Jim Beam to start James B. Beam Distilling Company?
Phillip Blum
Oliver Jacobson
Harry Homel
Invested $15,000 and owned the company and Jim Beam and his son Jerimiah ran it
*in 1941, Homel and Jacobsen would sell their shares to Blum for $1 million
What was the Beam family’s most popular brand before prohibition?
Old Tub
Who founded Heaven Hill?
The 5 Shapira Brothers -
Ed, David, Gary, George and Moses with some outside investors. And they hired Joseph Beam and some other Beams for their whiskey making expertise.
Those chose an historic Kentucky farmer-distiller William Heavenhill who had worked the land where they built their new distillery for the name.
What strategy has Heaven Hill used effectively when building brands?
Start (or purchase) a brand with the name of a historical Kentucky figure (build a brand legend around that figure)
Examples include
Elijah Craig
Evan Williams
Henry McKenna
JTS Brown
Mattingly & Moore
Creation of Stitzel-Weller
After prohibition A. Ph. Stizel, which had barely survived under the medicinal whiskey clause during prohibition merger with W.L. Weller.
They hired salesman Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle to lead the new company and focused on whiskey that would be ready to drink young using a mash-bill flavored with wheat rather than rye.
Top brand was Old Fitzgerald (bottled at 100 proof)
Other brands included:
Cabin Still
WL Weller Special Reserve & Antique
Rebel Yell
Stitzel-Weller production techniques that set its bourbons apart from other?
1) Wheated mash bill (initially because it aged faster)
2) corn wasn’t ground quite as fine = richer flavor
3) thicker oak staves = heavier oak flavor
4) relatively low barrel entry proofs = preserves flavor & dissolves compounds out of wood more gently
5) use of pot stills
How aged were US whiskey stocks in 1934?
In 1934 85% of whiskey stocks in US were less than one year old
Post prohibition changes in whiskey laws to protect quality
1933 - banned sale directly from barrel, whiskey had to be bottled in standard size bottles
1936 - standards of identity set defining guidelines for spirits manufacture
1938 - straight whiskey needed to be aged for at least 2 years in new charred oak barrels
Three-tier system
Producers
Distributors
Retailers
*no single entity could own all three
*and created tri-fold taxation system
Who were the original members of the Distilled Spirits Institute (DCI) the lobbying group which was tasked with “self-policing” the whiskey industry?
Owsley Brown (Brown-Forman)
Sam Brofman (Seagram’s)
Seton Porter (National Distilling)
Lou Rosenstein (Shenley)
*all these men had issues that made them a bad “face” for the organization so they chose W. Forbes Morgan as Executive Director
What were the main American Whiskey expressions in the 18th century?
-Pennsylvania’s Monogahela Rye
-Maryland’s Rye/Corn Mash Bill
-Kentucky’s early Bourbon
What would have happened if there was no prohibition in the US from 1919 - 1933?
-US Whiskey would have continued to evolve the same way it had around the world - larger plants, consolidation, branding
-There would have been no need to smuggle Scotch and Candadian Whisky into the US - so neither would have gained as much of a foothold
