9: Alcohol and the City 1800-1900. I. W. Harper Bourbon won a gold medal at the Exposition Universal, in Paris, France, in 1900 and another at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. (If you shake a bottle of whiskey, the bubbles that form on top, known as the bead, are an indication of the amount of alcohol in the whiskey.). Most of these were of the plainest design, though handsome in their simplicity. Since there wasnt a great deal in the way of entertainment back then, almost everyone was interested in a dram of whiskey. There was, however, another whiskey scandal looming, later in the 1800s--this time it came from within the industry itself, and had a direct effect on which brands of whiskey are available to us today. Even though some documents pertaining to the case were stolen (allegedly by a man in the employ of Grant himself), Babcock was indicted. Public confusion. Modern spirits are 40% ABV, but in the 19th century it was typically closer to 15% ABV. According to this booklet, over 12,000 saloons had been closed by various means in the year 1909, and over 41 million Americans were living in dry territory. He had erected stills at Mount Vernon in the 1770s in order to produce rum, and a little later on, James Anderson, his Scottish plantation manager, is said to have been the man who persuaded him to plant rye with a mind to producing whiskey. Overall, the Civil Wars effect on the whiskey business, by no means negligible, was to whittle down the number of whiskey distilleries and distillers--a fact that probably didnt upset temperance advocate--and onetime tavern keeper--Abraham Lincoln. Was this a blended whiskey? By the turn of the century, over 350,000 people had settled in Kentucky. And he was right, the Anti-Saloon League was doing just that. So here we have a perfect place to make whiskey--the cultivation of corn was encouraged and therefore became the predominant grain, the water was perfect for distillation, and the settlers had plenty of wood from which to make barrels. Whatever brought settlers to Kentucky and however they arrived, the hardy souls who arrived after the corn patch and cabin rights deal was over bought or bartered small parcels of the large tracts of land held by speculators. But these enterprising farmer-distillers, much like the earlier distillers of plums and berries, were distilling whiskey more or less for themselves and neighbors. Tennessee enforced statewide Prohibition in 1910. The company went on to buy the Jack Daniel Distillery in the 1950s. But with the proliferation of whiskey, it's not hard to find bottles that push those . A good number of bars were no more than dens of iniquity where one could buy drugs, consort with prostitutes, hire strong-armed boys to do a little dirty work, or bribe voters with a few shots of whiskey. And by this time, aged whiskey was preferred by far over the raw spirit that had been acceptable some 60 years previous. These scalawags blended small amounts of straight whiskey with huge quantities of flavorless neutral grain spirits (distilled out at a very high proof in Coffeys continuous still) and a few flavorings; and yet they sold their product as straight whiskey.. However, McDonald had a few cards up his sleeve, and although he offered to replace the money in return for immunity (claiming he would get it from the distilleries), he also dropped mention of Grants name to add weight to his plea for clemency. ), The farmers simply chopped down a few trees from their land, got the local cooper to make some sturdy barrels (every self-respecting settlement had a cooper or two since barrels were used to store and transport most products, from foodstuffs to hardware, at that time), and after bartering as much as possible with his immediate neighbors, he could easily send off a wagon load of whiskey to thirsty buyers further afield. Isaac Wolfe Bernheim and his brother, Bernard, started a wholesale whiskey business in Paducah in 1872. In 1935, a group of investors opened the Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown. Back in the mid-1800s, the Crown began taxing barley a strategic way to indirectly tax the single-malt whiskey (whiskey that . The triangle trade was broken, but by that time, whiskey was well on its way to becoming the native spirit of the United States. But them as didnt would bring their grain to them as did and have it made into whiskey. Raise a glass to the pioneers and heroes of the American whiskey industry: Jacob Beam, I. W. Bernheim, Colonel Blanton, Wattie Boone, A. Smith Bowman, George Garvin Brown, the Chapeze brothers, James Crow, Jack Daniel, J. W. Dant, George Dickel, Basil Hayden, Paul Jones, Henry McKenna, Tom Moore, Elijah Pepper, T. B. Ripy, Robert Samuels, the Shapira brothers, E. H. Taylor, Pappy Van Winkle, W. L. Weller, and Evan Williams. His whiskeys, Old Crow and Old Pepper, were very popular during the Civil War, and he has always been hailed as the man who not only made good bourbon, but also knew exactly why his bourbon was good. Over 65 million gallons of the hard stuff was consumed by Americans. In a personal recollection of a meeting between Lincoln and Douglas in 1854, James S. Ewing referred to a decanter of red liquor, red liquor being a term for bourbon that would become widely used by the end of that century. It has no interest apart from the church. In Kentucky Bourbon--The Early Years of Whiskeymaking, Henry G. Crowgey describes an 1821 newspaper advertisement for bourbon whiskey, so its fairly safe to assume that the distiller of that time knew that the readers would understand what it was he had for sale. It was split into many smaller companies, but some of these companies then joined together again as the Distilling Company of America, and in 1899, that company found itself under federal investigation. So, if the whiskey was produced in, say, September or October, and it couldnt begin its trip to the Big Easy until, say, April, by the time it made its way to Bourbon Street, it could have been eight to nine months old. Further amendments to the law made it possible to actually distill whiskey (during distilling holidays) that would be used for medicinal purposes. Since the late 1700s when whiskey was first shipped down south, a number of Kentuckys whiskey makers had come to rely heavily on Southern states demand and market for their products. Of course, many respectable bars existed in the pre-Prohibition era, and one such establishment was the Old Waldorf Bar in Manhattan. When it's good, it's good. The term moonshine was probably coined by the Scots when new laws introduced in 1781 drove them to establish stills way up in the hills that could be operated surreptitiously, literally by the light of the moon. The idea was that the distillers would show their willingness and ability to police themselves from within and prevent post-Prohibition bars from becoming the seedy, unregulated dives they had been prior to 1919. But while all this technology was helping people reach out and touch someone, other events were starting to bode badly for the whiskey men of America. So it is with American whiskey--the original concept may have been imported from far away lands, but some 300 years later, American whiskeyis a product unto itself. Referred to as a "Tribute to Warehouse H" by LMDW. Furthermore, we can track the creation of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey back to their very roots--a rare opportunity when the subject is food or drink. However, many of the residents of these states sided with the Confederate cause--states rights. Before 1800, Kentucky whiskey was known as bourbon, but the chances that we would recognize it as bourbon today are very slim indeed. By tracing the thirst the settlers wanted to slake we can plot the development of American whiskey from the early days of the settlers in Virginia and New England all the way through time to today. It was statewide in some instances, and under various forms of local option (towns, counties, municipalities, or city districts having the right to legislate and enforce prohibition) in others. Along with the rest of the country, the whiskey industry braced itself for more setbacks. The whiskey business in the U.S. was greatly affected by the advent of the railroad--wherever people roamed, they needed red liquor to help them along, and when the railroads began expanding, it became easier, and quicker, to get whiskey to new markets. He died in 1917. The name firewater comes from the practice of cowboys or tradesmen exchanging whiskey for goods from the indigenous populations. No, not really, it turns out she was more a *sexual dalliance in the White House than an anonymous inside source, and that it was Babcock who wired the warning and added the odd signature. So, during the Civil War, more than a little red liquor was poured over a wound to clean it and much, much more was poured down parched throats to depress awareness and ease the pain of countrymen fighting countrymen on their own land. Yes, all sorts of deals were going on throughout this period--distilleries without a medicine license were selling their stocks to those who did, others maintained warehouses where those with licenses could store their whiskey under government supervision, and an unofficial cartel sent Owsley Brown of Brown-Forman to Europe to try to sell over 20,000 barrels of bourbon--a mission that was only partially successful. Members lectured and wrote to prominent people on both sides of the issue trying to bank the fire a little. Russian businessman Peter A. Demens wrote about their nasty business in Sketches of the North American United States, 1895, Several weeks ago the Illinois whiskey trust by hired agents dynamited a distillery in Chicago that refused to enter the combine.. Trains and Boats and a New Look at Drinking Habits. This product represents a huge milestone for our distillery and embodies our core mission of blending the best of classic-style spirits with innov If temporary refuge from their plight lay in a slug of whiskey, they would find a way of getting it. Even the whiskey bottles had to be made to new government standards that called for thinner glass and no unnecessary designs. Of course, settlers in the islands made their own rum, and that, too, was exported to the American Colonies, ready for immediate consumption. Actually, by that year, every state in the union had some form of prohibition. Some canny souls of the period between, say, 1800 and 1840, probably savvy distillers who managed to put two and two and two together and eventually arrive at six, must have noticed that, not only was this aged whiskey smoother than the raw product straight from the still, but also that the stuff that came from expensive brand new casks didnt have quite the finesse of that from the used casks that had been charred to clean them up. There is no doubt that liquor was being abused, and one fellow, George Garvin Brown, creator of the Old Forester brand and a founder member of the Wine and Spirits Association (W S A), did take steps to counter the prohibition movement. It is what its name indicates--a League. During the months leading up to Repeal, speculation was rife about how the liquor industry would handle the expected new business. For those who insist on having a name, we say James Crow invented bourbon sometime between 1823 and, say, 1845. The woman had a mission, but her ways were too radical even for the WTCU--they eventually rejected her, leaving her without financial support. Once again, just as in the case of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, whiskey was being made to help finance the armed forces. By the turn of the century, total abstinence was the goal. Two of the more popular American spirits during the first century and a half of colonization were peach brandy, made mainly in the Southern colonies, and applejack (a brandy distilled from cider), which probably originated in or around New Jersey. However, there was yet a third group of so-called rectifiers who had an eye on a fast buck. And according to various industry documents of the time, it was used in a variety of fairly astounding ways: A by-product of making any form of beverage alcohol from grain is the leftover mash, which is dried and used as feed for farm animals. Stitzel, Glenmore, Schenley, Brown-Forman, National Distillers, and Frankfort Distilleries--and these companies were allowed to store whiskey and sell it to licensed druggists, who in turn, could mete it out to customers who had a doctors prescription. At one point he advocated reducing taxes on such products saying that nations where cheap wine was available for the common man did not suffer the same insobrieties as those where whiskey was the least-expensive ardent drink. After trading the slaves, gold, and pepper in Barbados, the ship returned to Rhode Island carrying 55 hogsheads of molasses, 3 hogsheads of sugar, and over 400 in bills of exchange. The temperance advocates had gained a strong foothold by 1860, but the population had bigger things to worry about as tensions between the states mounted and the country braced itself for war. However, to some extent, Grant was directly involved with this scam: One of its main culprits, who was never convicted of any wrongdoing, was protected by Grant, and rumor at the time had it that Grants son Fred and brother Orvil had directly profited from the fraud. Others--those who continued to defy the tax collectors--had their property plundered, their backs lashed, and were carted off to collection centers to settle their debts. Rumor had it that McDonald had helped Grant by making sure Sylph left him alone, and if the rumors were true, it was no wonder that Grant allied himself with McDonald. Once again, people were demanding straight rye whiskey--not the blended product that had been poured as rye at many a bar since as far back as the 1950s. Most of them were dismantled, and of the 17 plants operating in Kentucky prior to Prohibition, only seven were making whiskey in 1935. The sandwich was never eaten--but many drinks were sold. 8During the first half of the nineteenth century, America also saw a vast increase in immigration from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany--all countries whose inhabitants are generally regarded to be fond of a drink. The Lever Food and Fuel Act was enacted later that year; designed to preserve food supplies during World War I, it made all distillation of beverage alcohol illegal. Jack Daniels No. There are still shiners in America today, and apparently the greatest concentration of such people is probably in the Carolinas. During the dry years, Seagram had used the same name in Canada, but American bootleggers sold an inferior whiskey that they called Golden Wedding, and thus the public was still very aware of the name. Corn, an indigenous grain, was also cultivated, and although the immigrants werent used to using it to make whiskey, it was gradually introduced to the process in small quantities. John D. Rockefeller, Sr. had paved the way with Standard Oil and all it took after that was a few clever men in Peoria, Illinois. 20 Washington with liquor 1870s Until the 1870s, schnaps, a distilled spirit, was included as part of wages in Denmark. But this profession is beloved because it is essential, and it is respected because its pursuit is clothed with an element of danger and with a sporting risk. After that time, surveyors and prospectors offered land for sale at very reasonable prices to pioneers heading west. The plant produced Tom Moore Bourbon in 1879, and Mattingly & Moore Bourbon by 1896. Jere had worked with his father for two years before his death. Rates were based on the alcoholic strength of the product, spirits made from home-grown products were taxed less than those made from imported goods (rum, made from imported molasses, therefore, was more-heavily taxed than whiskey), and an annual tax was levied on each still, dependent on its capacity. 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