The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
How Whiskey Has Shaped America's Past and Its Importance in its Future!
What if whiskey shaped the course of American history? Join us on this thrilling episode of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys podcast as we unravel the intricate tapestry of whiskey’s role from the Revolutionary War to Prohibition and beyond. We kick things off with the buzz surrounding the upcoming Kentucky Bourbon Festival and our eagerly awaited fourth annual bus tour. Listen to the captivating stories of Freddie Johnson’s Ohio tour, where he's bringing bourbon magic to communities and offering exclusive bottles for raffle.
Journey with us as we explore the pivotal moments that whiskey influenced in American history. From the Whiskey Rebellion, where George Washington himself had to enforce the whiskey tax, to the Bottled and Bond Act that revolutionized the industry, we trace the significant milestones that have shaped whiskey's legacy. We also delve into the dark days of Prohibition, highlighting its unintended consequences like the rise of organized crime and agricultural disasters that led to the Dust Bowl.
In the latter part of our episode, we pay homage to iconic bourbon brands like Jim Beam, Booker's, Knob Creek, and Basil Hayden, and celebrate the innovative introduction of Blanton's single barrel bourbon. We share personal anecdotes, including a nostalgic glance at a Wisconsin bottle stamp and an unforgettable visit with Bill Samuels of Maker's Mark. As we wrap up, we spotlight our exclusive Scotchy Bourbon Boys merchandise and revel in the camaraderie that makes our community extraordinary. Tune in for an episode brimming with historical insights, personal stories, and our unending love for bourbon.
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Hey Scotchy Bourbon Boys fans, this is Alan Bishop, Indiana's Alchemist of the Black Forest, so I'm tuning in here today to tell you all about the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute channel on YouTube. If you're at all interested in the art of distilling whether it be home distilling or professional distilling, and the intense geekery that goes into that process, then check out the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute on YouTube. I promise you're going to learn something you didn't know before about the arts. We'll be right back. Boys, we're here to have fun. Boys, we're here to have fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys Tiny here tonight. Oh great, there we go. I haven't done that in a while Straight in. I know better, but that's the way this goes. Uh, getting better tonight. Uh, welcome, welcome to the podcast wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom for everything scotchy bourbon boys.
Speaker 2:Remember follow us on facebook, instagram, youtube and x. Remember like, listen, com, comment, subscribe and leave good feedback and then listen to us on all the major podcast formats when you're driving around. If you can't watch live we are you can always watch it on YouTube and Facebook secondary but we are also on Apple, iheart and Spotify, along with Pandora, amazon. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we're there. So check us out there, especially when you're driving around in your car. But remember also, whatever you listen to, please leave good feedback. It means a lot. The higher the rating, the better chance we have of getting bigger and bigger. We are growing so very excited about that. Uh, we, it's. We are growing so very excited about that. Uh, also, tonight's podcast is live on youtube and facebook and, uh, I'm monitoring both. So you know in the past, if you're listening on youtube, please leave your comments. So that, uh, so far. Hey, did I actually push that. Let's see. All right, I pushed up, hey, everyone there. So anybody uh listening on youtube, give us a, give us a talk to us, uh, comment along. Uh, I, if it's a good comment, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, uh, cheers to matt Lyson. We still have to do a live like this. Bring you in and we do something like that. We always talk about it but we haven't been able to get to it.
Speaker 2:But one of the things that's coming up is that the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is getting closer and closer and closer. I think it was 85 last week. I mean, we got to be right. Let's see. Thursday, four, three, two, one. We're down to about 80 days now. Tuesday maybe 79. So the Scotchy Bourbon Boys are going to be in Kentucky that whole week. We've got our September 11th fully booked Scotchy Bourbon Boys fourth annual bus tour, which is fantastic. Next year we might have to get two buses, but this year we're have to get two buses, but this year we're right where we need to be. And then also we are going to be tomorrow actually not tomorrow, thursday. I'm going to be locally here in Canton at Top Shelf Liquor where Freddie Johnson is coming up.
Speaker 2:Ann Dimmick of OHLQ has arranged for Freddie to be touring the state. He was in Dayton and Columbus today. I believe tomorrow he's going to be in the Cleveland area and then Thursday he will be in either Cincinnati he might be in Cincinnati tomorrow, but I'm not exactly sure Kicked off in the Dayton Columbus area, but then he might be in the Cincinnati area tomorrow, then the Canton area, then the Cleveland area to finish up on Friday. But it's an event. So supposedly today in Dayton there was about 400 people, there was about 45 total Buffalo Trace bottles, but they were also. They had Buffalo Trace there, so Freddie was signing people's bottles. I'm going to bring one special to hopefully get that signed in the picture with Freddie Say hi, freddie, when we were at New Orleans was on the actual.
Speaker 2:He was actually on the New Orleans, which has not aired yet. So that's, that's still to come, but he was on with us. So that was good. Let's see there's Chuck Worley. Yes, okay, so he was in Cincinnati tonight. All right, thanks, chuck.
Speaker 2:But he's touring the state of Ohio and the bottles that were available for a raffle today it was it was the, the Weller, I believe, centennial, and then there was the Eagle, double, double Rare, I think that's what it is. And then it was Double Double Eagle Rare, and then the other one was Blatton's Gold. So those are bottles that they're having right there at the liquor store. You get your ticket and they do a raffle calling the winners. So that was pretty. That's pretty cool that Freddie's going to be touring around and that's one of the things we are going to be talking about with the history tonight, and what the podcast of what I want it to be is pretty much what it comes down to is.
Speaker 2:What it comes down to is one whiskey and history exists on two. It's a symbiont relationship because one needs the other. The reason in history whiskey is very involved. And then history means, and so whiskey means a lot to history, but also history means a lot to whiskey. So I'll explain what I mean in a couple minutes, but at this point we'll just get into the history of whiskey. Why? Let's just get into. Why is whiskey so? What would you say? Why is it so related and embedded in history?
Speaker 2:Well, one whiskey is made from cereal grains. We're talking about wheat, rye wheat, winter wheat, all that it's made from also corn, and it's also made from. You could put oats in it, you can put buckwheat in it, you can use it and you can also barley. And there's a lot of reasons why all this was done, but one of the main reasons were is because when you grow a crop, the main reasons were is because when you grow a crop, the crop at one point starts to deteriorate.
Speaker 2:Shipping corn and wheat and rye to the mill is a you know. So when you're shipping off your you know the certain amount if you grow extra. A lot of people ship their corn down the river or they were shipping it down, and then once again it's bulky. There's the mass that it takes to get it there that you could grow more corn than you could ship to get processed. So what did they do with that? A lot of times it would just if it just rots, it's just a waste. So what you can do is you can grind it, grind it yourself, cook it and distill it, and when you do that, you take a large amount of grain in bulk format and turn it into a smaller, more manageable format that people pay more than they will for the bulk grain.
Speaker 2:So it made sense for whiskey on the farm to be made as a secondary trading. A lot of the farmers who did make whiskey could trade for their goods. They could, you know, two bottles of whiskey for, you know, seacorn, or it was a bartering thing that you could do. Plus, it was shippable. So, um, that's one thing.
Speaker 2:How bourbon brought its, you know, came up with its name, uh, it was because of the fact that it went down, though, from kentucky. They took that, they distilled it and then they put it in, uh, uh, oak, wooden oak barrels or oak barrels. They put it in wood barrels. At the time, when it first started out, there wasn't any rules, folks, and so they would ship it down the Mississippi all the way down to New Orleans. And when it was taking that route, it was sloshing around in that barrel for a couple months and in heat and cold, and, you know, as it went down the river and that is one of the reasons why, as it, you know, as it went down, it gained the flavor from the wood. It's really kind of a cool, cool thing. So, hey there, dario, good to see you. Um, double, yes, double eagle, very rare, weller millennium and blanton's gold chuck. You've got me tonight, that's for sure, thank you. Uh, that's what's going to be available.
Speaker 2:So, anyways, as it's going down, uh, so at one point they started charring the barrels on a lot of people. There's so many different reasons why they charred the barrel, nobody knows exactly. But, uh, what happened was, uh, also there was a Burbon County in, uh, in uh, kentucky, and they would ship the whiskey to the ohio. The ohio would feed into the mississippi and the mississippi would take the whole trip down. So, uh, louisville was a port, uh, that you had to take the boats out because they're the waters and the drop was too much and they would have to take them out and put them back in on the bottom after that. So there was, louisville was formed because of exactly that on the Mississippi, and there's an Evan Williams story that goes about him being the portmaster, plus, you know he, you know that's beside the point, plus, you know he, you know that's beside the point. But as it kept going, the bourbon started, it made sense to make it in, also start to distill and make it in Louisville, because you could just make it and you didn't have to start up the Mississippi, you were there and you could just start after the lock. And so, anyways, the port. And so, as it would go down, it would gain flavor. So that's kind of how bourbon was able to evolve, being shipped down and got its name that it came from Bourbon County, it was being sold on Bourbon street, whatever and then the char aspect was able to add that little extra flavor that, let's just say, if you had a barrel of pickles and you charred it to remove that flavor, there was a caramelizing of the wood sugars and that's how the whiskey would, uh, gain more flavors and that's how bourbon was pretty much born.
Speaker 2:But as far as the grains go, it's this is. This has been a part in Scotland and Ireland pot distilling. They were doing that before we were even discovered and the reason why they were doing that is exactly it. Now, it's funny because you'll find out the different whiskeys Irish whiskey and scotch. The reason why they're malted barley or made mainly of barley and there's not a lot of corn, is because barley grows heartily in Ireland and Scotland. That's the grain they grow. So that's why you're dealing with the pot stilled and the distilling of malted barley. So to add a little bit of flavor, the Scottish started blowing. When they would malt their barley, they would blow peat smoke over the top of it, so that would add a burnt kind of a smoky flavor to it. The Irish with their open pot still they didn't do that. So their whiskey is very unique in itself.
Speaker 2:But in the United States corn was grown plentiful. Corn. Rye, also as a grain, is a heartier grain. That wheat was being used to make bread and that type of stuff. So there wasn't as much. But rye grew longer, and in the northern states. So that is another reason why they used rye. Because you're talking about Pennsylvania, you're talking about Ohio, you know different places like that. So that was interesting and let's see, I'm trying to monitor everybody on YouTube. If you need to make a comment, feel free to make a comment. But getting back to, uh, the history, so because it was in uh, so ingrained in the settlers in the United States and it was actually a form of money and something that you could do, um, with the crop that would be wasted, uh, with the crop that would be wasted, plus anybody when you own distill and you could distill properly. It also was considered at the time.
Speaker 2:Whiskey was considered had medicinal purposes. It was prescribed by doctors. It was used to clean wounds before surgery on the battlefield. It had so many different uses. It was for common cold. Alcohol was used in tonics all over the place to make you younger, to give you energy. I mean up until penicillin was discovered, which was in the, you know, as we get into the more modern times, it was the only, pretty much the only medicine that was being, you know, part of the medicinal. What a medicinal doctor would have. It was a must. So that's another aspect of why people distilled because they wanted to make sure they had enough on hand for medicinal purposes, because it was used.
Speaker 2:A lot of people during the pandemic of the Spanish flu in the 1916s, drank whiskey to protect themselves. They would say that there were people who drank it and people who didn't, and they believe that some people perished that didn't drink whiskey. So those are like from the history. That's the kind of aspect of where whiskey evolved. It was part of everyday society, it was part of your life. As a farmer in farm communities grow, you know, you grew your crop and you were able to get a little extra out of it and it was a really good way to pull in more income. So now the government.
Speaker 2:Now when the government started, when we formed our government, it's George Washington at Mount Vernon it is running. His distillery runs today. Steve does a really good job honoring the history there. At Mount Vernon he basically makes rye whiskey the way that George Washington has done, almost to a T. If you watch what they're doing there it's just amazing the marketing, the labeling, everything. It's some place that I really want to get to. I met Steve in Pennsylvania at Stolen Wolf for the veterans distilling program that Super Nash did and you want to get that. That is a dedication to history. He's running the same pot stills. He's grinding the grains on the mill, using the same mill that George Washington did at the same place. I mean, some of the you know what they do there and how they do it and their attention to detail and history is just amazing.
Speaker 2:But when the government was formed, whiskey was very important. You would say why? Okay, so one the troops, when they're in the Revolutionary War, were drinking whiskey that got them through cold winters. There's a lot of stuff that happened, you know, like that. But at the same time, once the war was over, whiskey was taxed. And when whiskey was taxed after the Revolutionary War, it was used to pay for it. We were able to as a country through the taxation of alcohol, through bars and whatnot, through bars and whatnot, we were able to go about and pay for the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 2:Now, right around the turn of the century, you know, they had imposed the whiskey tax and they were starting to go after the distillers of the whiskey, not the bars and the patrons, but they wanted to go after the people who were distilling it on their farm. And the problem was they wanted to tax it and they wanted to tax it based off the size of still you had and the amount that you would make off that still. They could estimate it and then you owed that. But the problem was is once again, they weren't selling the whiskey, they were bartering with the whiskey. They were bartering for things. So they didn't have the money to pay the taxes that you would. You know they didn't have cash to pay the government now with their crops and everything whatever.
Speaker 2:So that led to what we now know in Pennsylvania as the whiskey revolution, where George Washington sent his troops into Pennsylvania and went farm to farm and got people to comply. Put it that way, that's the easiest way to do it. A lot of people spread out into different places. Kentucky was already established. I know we me and Alan, talked about this a little bit Fighting the tax man, yes, hey, hey, stacy, good to see you too, yeah, and then are we still? Oh, so, okay, we've got, um, uh, musir, who's on from indonesia, welcome, welcome, welcome, and being a part of this. And then, so then there was, uh, I believe we went.
Speaker 2:So, once that was done, they stopped taxing and they didn't start taxing till, I believe, they paid for the war of 1812. They taxed it for a little bit and then they paid for, uh, the civil war. That way, actually, uh, what was happening was the temperance movement was gaining, right before the Civil War gained, a lot of steam to make whiskey and alcohol illegal in the United States leading up to the Civil War. But when the Civil War happened, that all went out, that lost its hold, and whiskey was being produced for the troops. And so, as you keep going through history, once again, after the war, they paid for the Civil War, which was very expensive because it was both sides, and they paid to rebuild with tax money from whiskey and alcohol. And so what happened after the Civil War was the start of the as we went into the late 1800s, that's when some of the laws to commercialize whiskey started where a large distillery could. That's the Bottled and Bond Act, for instance, where they would have an on-presence federal tax agent on site who would watch over the bonded warehouse, which would then make sure everything that came out of that bonded warehouse was four years a hundred proof that was bottled in bond and that went on. And so this part is something that nobody teaches us in school and it's really kind of a unique part of the American history is that they don't teach it.
Speaker 2:Prohibition is able to take, the temperance movement starts to get a hold. But one of the reasons why it did was the politicians started in 1916, income tax, and income tax is something that where they started taxing people's incomes and they thought and this is my opinion of history, it's not verbatim, but they thought that they didn't need taxation from whiskey anymore. They were, they could get it from Right. They could get it from uh right, they could get it from income tax, from the businesses, from the people making the money, uh, and so prohibition was able to get a stronghold and start in 1920. It actually started January 1st 19, on new year's Eve, uh, 1920, but little did they know that. Uh, what would happen for the next? I believe 13 years it lasted.
Speaker 2:They basically gave organized crime a stronghold to make all the money that they were making off of whiskey because they were illegally producing it. But when they cut whiskey down, there were large, large amounts of whiskey being stored in rickhouses and when it became illegal you couldn't distill it or sell it, but you could get it for medicinal purposes and drink it. It wasn't illegal to drink, so you were able also to make a certain amount of gallons on your own home still if you wanted to, but nobody could make it commercially. But all those stockpiles were then, through organized crime, distributed throughout the United States with the help of corrupt politicians, and back then politicians, there were way more corrupt politicians than there were good politicians.
Speaker 2:If you look at, I mean, the history, the president, the corruption of the president, the corruption of the district attorney it's just attorney, you know, it's just. You know the department, the DOJ, I mean it was crazy time and what that did is that, if you look at history, one people the farmers didn't need if you're not distilling and which they weren't you don't need to grow as much corn, you don't need to grow as much wheat, you don't need to grow as much. Why so they stopped growing it? Because you only needed to grow what you needed. This led to empty fields that weren't being processed.
Speaker 2:What happened was, after a couple of years of not growing corn and wheat those fields we experienced somewhat of a dry drought at the time and it wasn't. It wouldn't have been bad if we were growing crops, but they weren't and it caused a dust bowl which trashed a lot of the existing crops for a couple years. So one people weren't growing grain, which means you're losing jobs. I mean you have to have grain shipped, brought to market. You need to have carts to do this. The way that we were doing it it had to be, and trucks and whatever, and you didn't need it. You know trucks and whatever and you didn't need it. So people were out jobs. So that led to 1929, the stock market crashing and the Great Depression.
Speaker 2:The Great Depression, in my opinion, was almost 100%. The decimation of the Irish whiskey industry too. But yeah, because they were shipping it over here. Everybody you know what was Walter says he's never heard the income tax. Yes, 100 percent. And it's funny because I could tell. So now you're looking at the Great Depression and you're looking at they can't get out of it. You know you're not the jobs. So in 1933, when they reversed prohibition, they came back taxing it out full. Now another reason why I believe in 1933 is that you're 13 years into this believe in 1933, is that you're 13 years into this and now the good whiskey which the politicians were drinking all along out of Kentucky, the stock is depleted.
Speaker 2:You had some people, but Remus was very, very important out of Cincinnati, of getting the whiskey out of Indiana and Kentucky, getting it across the Ohio River, shipping it up from here to Chicago and then Chicago to New York. That was definitely 100% and he knew how to do it. He did it because he was a lawyer and he was a pharmacist and he was a gangster. He was able to run his pharmacies legally but illegally to obtain the notes he needed to distribute the whiskey where he needed to distribute the whiskey and he basically made so much money is all he did was pay off people so that they would look the other way. I mean the bridge across the Ohio River between Kentucky and Cincinnati. He had both sides paid off, I mean, and there's, you know the stories of what happened, but we're still talking the history.
Speaker 2:Once Prohibition ended, we were able to start recovering as far as making the whiskey. But the quality of whiskey was a problem because you had people trying to bring whiskey to the market and doing anything they could because there wasn't enough because of the fact that the age storage had been, you know, the coffers had been emptied. So you get going and you run into World War II. So World War II was when they converted the distilleries to start making and distilling for fuel and at that point a lot of the whiskey again went into the racks and they were doing this. And so there's some stuff that started getting age, that started aging.
Speaker 2:And one of the cool things this is another story, uh is that when we were producing gasoline, uh and uh, we were storing it. We stored it in uh oak with oak barrels. And when we invented plastic, which came out of the people, the making of tire rubber tires, they figured out, uh from oil, how to make plastic between um the rubber they were using and then how they were refining gasoline, they were able to come up with plastic. So they were able to start making 55-gallon plastic barrels and putting the oil in there and not having to use an expensive oak whiskey barrel. But there was such a surplus of those barrels because they were getting geared up to be able to meet the demand of how much gasoline we would have to ship in barrels. And when plastic came in there was all these barrels all around and it just made sense after that is to put the whiskey into a brand new charred oak barrel.
Speaker 2:And in 1964, congress made that declaration that in order for it to be bourbon, it had to be made in the United States, had to be put into a brand new charred oak container. It had to be off the still at 160 and then into the barrel no higher than 125 proof and made in the United States. Those rules came about, but that oak barrel was very important because of the fact they had so many oak barrels to put the whiskey in and start aging it. So that brings us up to like the modern, modern history. But also what I want to do is uh, go over over now where we're at now. So this, so we we've experienced the 60s.
Speaker 2:Uh, what happened was they had a ton of over-aging whiskey. Nobody liked 10-year whiskey back then. So another reason why you wouldn't get to 10-year whiskey is because you had to pay taxes on it up front. So what would happen at one point is, if it got too old, they would just dump it out. Happened at one point is, if it got too old, they would just dump it out. They'd dump it out of the barrel because it didn't make sense to keep paying taxes on something that someone wasn't going to drink. So at one point they changed the rules so that you could age the whiskey longer.
Speaker 2:Now one of the reasons why bourbon is good it's not always the same as scotch or Canadian whiskey is because it's got to be put in charred, new charred oak barrels, whereas American whiskey can be put in used barrels. But when you put something in a used barrel, you can leave it in the barrel a little bit longer because of the fact you're trying to pick up that flavor, and it's already. You know 70 of the flavor has been taken away from the bourbon in the first, the first place. So the longer you put it in there, you pick up more and more flavor. So that's one of the reasons why the scotches can go so long, because they're using used bourbon barrels or used whiskey barrels to put their the whiskey in, so it's a longer, more uh, subtle, uh process.
Speaker 2:Opposed to aging bourbon in kentucky. You, it's a that that goes pretty damn quick. Uh, I know that when, uh f Freddie, were getting ready to make Legion with the Japanese distiller, the Japanese thought when they would age it here, that it was going to take two years or two and a half years or three years or what they were thinking. And it took like eight months. It's just like it ages faster here than it does in Japan. There's no doubt, it's just the way it is. The heat, just the heat today was 90 degrees. So you know, that's there. Anyways, all right, so that's the part of history you know.
Speaker 2:Then we, then we went through the part where the clear spirits took over in the eighties and then, uh, the small batches and Booker and Elmer T Lee brought back single they, they invented the single barrel for marketing. They invent in the small batches and did everything. And now we got the, the bourbon boom now, but the bourbon boom which was probably just starting in like 2006, 2007,. They've been trying to meet the demand ever since that happened. So the amount of whiskey that's being produced at this point has been astronomical and the amount of money that's being made.
Speaker 2:And that's one thing that I wanted to get into, because we're always making bourbon or we're always making whiskey, everybody's always making whiskey. Sometimes they've made too much and they got to back off, but they still make it. They're just backing off. But there's a responsibility of the current, a responsibility of the current people that are running the whiskey, that are making the whiskey where they are, as Stephen Beam told me, the stewards of their brands. So they're there to make sure it's being made high quality, they're looking after it, but they're there to take advantage or in a down market, which existed. When you look at Fred Booker and Freddie, they've seen it all. I mean they saw the 1950s, then the 60s and then they saw the decline in the 70s, the resurgent in the late, early 90s and then this boom and honestly, they're the whole time they're making whiskey. But I mean they're always doing something to try and keep the brand going and making sure that the whiskey that they're making is high quality, for no matter when somebody would need it. You know, and they got to forecast demand. They got to forecast, you know what's going on and then if the market takes a turn for the, you know to go back the other way. It's a job of just being the steward of that brand so that brand keeps existing.
Speaker 2:When you're talking about Jim Beam right now, jim Beam, you know Booker's Knob Creek, basil Hayden and Booker's Knob Creek, basil Hayden, anders um have been around, uh, you know, since the 90s. So we're talking, we're 2024, so you know there were the bookers was a little you know we're talking about on the shelf since the 90s. Okay, bookers was around a little bit in the 80s, but you know, and then um elmer t lee, 1984 um put out, you know he put out Blanton's, the first ever single barrel, and that was that's been out there since 1984. So we're only talking. When you're talking 84 to 2024, that's 40 years we're talking 40 years. It's been on the shelf 40 years. We're talking 40 years it's been on the shelf.
Speaker 2:But compared to the brands throughout history, now one of the things right now in the boom, greg Schneider, he was able to. Let's see Michael. I just want to say hi to Michael. But greg um has restored the chicken cock late uh brand. Uh, his um the owner, monty from the grain and barrel spirits. They purchased the, the trademark of the brand, and he's brought it back and he's brought it back with good and.
Speaker 2:And then their what would you say? Their commitment to the history of the brand and Greg knows about this is something that you want to do. You want to honor it and get it going again because it had been gone for a while. You now produce it and you want to keep it going. And those are very, very you know. It's one thing to do it in a market like this, but then to keep it going for years and years and years. That's why Jim Beam and the Beam family, when we're talking about eighth and ninth generation distillers, is really quite amazing. Jim Beam had his brand, you know, but you're talking about Jacob Beam starting. You're talking about the old tub brand, which they have brought back also right here. These are the kind of things that they're able to do and try and do it the way that it was done back when the country was being founded and settled.
Speaker 2:But it is difficult today because modern day whiskey techniques they rely on a lot of different things that weren't even being used the whiskey that was going in the bottle in the 50s and the 60s. The grains, the corns, everything there's, you know, heirloom corn there's, you know, corn. I mean right now, at Buffalo Trace, with Colonel Taylor, they were able to find through an archaeological dig the fermenting tanks and the cooker that EH Taylor used initially. That had been cemented over and they were able to restore it. So they are now fermenting and they analyzed the corn strain, they grew the corn and then so they basically are making EH Taylor from the first batch to match the first batch of 1906, using the same strain of corn. These are the kind of things that technology allows us to do, because we can analyze it.
Speaker 2:But just think the water. How is the water source different than it was back then? We, you know, know things change. I mean, you've got GMO crops and you know all this type of stuff. So there's a lot of things that go into modern day distilling that if you want to really stay true to the distilling aspect, you got to keep going. So, michael, you're asking what type of bourbon? All types of bourbon? We are just talking about the history tonight, but let's get into now the brands. So we went through the history. So that is how bourbon was a part of history. This is how bourbon was a part of history. This is how history has to be a part of bourbon one.
Speaker 2:You've got dusties, I've got a couple right here. I got a jw dant, I believe, from 1969. Uh, super nash was able to get this to me. It's in a milk, a milk uh jug. I mean, it's really kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Americana is a magnificent series of special living history bottles decorated with full color lithograph commemorating the greatest moments of American history. You can enjoy Americana two ways looking at it and drinking it. Inside the Americana bottle is the great traditional Kentucky sour mashed bourbon, eight years old and 86 proof. Truly a whiskey for the connoisseur. And long after you've enjoyed every precious drop, you continue to keep the handsome Americana bottle in place of honor. So this is actually Americana by jw dant, patrick henny, hen henry. Commemorative bottling number three. So, uh, I opened this a while back. It's got uh, patrick henry making his speech.
Speaker 2:Uh, greatest moments in history, bottled by the Dant Distillery Company, louisville, kentucky, frankfurt, kentucky, 86 proof. So this is the kind of history that you still can find and then pour yourself a pour. I'm going to use this stolen wolf instead of the normal scotchy bourbon boys. It's almost impossible to pour for me. At least I can open the bottles now, folks. All right, so you put a little bit in there. This when I've opened this before in the past, you can see clear, beautiful whiskey. But these are the kind of things that are part of history. This is what whiskey. You could see that even in 60s they are going through the rich heritage of the American. You know of what happened in the 1700s the American history of bourbon, and they were able to make this fine product bourbon, and they were able to make this fine product, uh, but also it's really kind of cool that you can, you know, take a little sip. So tonight I'll be sipping on that.
Speaker 2:So what kind of bourbon? It was jw dant, uh, the americana series 1969. I believe that's a good dusty. So when we were at, uh, a bunch, uh, we were the people from moonshine, which was, uh, j j j jackson. And then also, uh, oh my gosh, why am I having I'm having a mental block, like always. But yeah, let's just. But we all got together and I opened up this hill and hill and we had each one of us had a pour of it. So I got a little bit of that. Once again, what you're talking about is stuff that was made a long time ago. So that's one way that whiskey, in my opinion, really can still be a part of letting you know what history was like. Ooh, if that was my left hand I think I would have broke my arm again.
Speaker 2:All right, so this one is another bottle Decanter from Jim Beam. So whiskey allows you to go back in time and taste it when it existed in a different way. I can't do that, you dummy. All right, another little sip of this that I got, the jw Dent was very syrup corn. I could taste the corn, had a really nice taste. Let's just see what kind of proof this beam is. I love these bottles. Hauling in the gill net Frederick Remington. So it's a Remington on there. That's it. That's all we got.
Speaker 2:The cool thing is that this bottle came from Wisconsin with the stamp. I recognize that stamp as a kid. It's called Beam's Choice four-f for fifth of a court. Let's see Scott and state of Wisconsin, occupation tax and traditional occupational map. Nothing as far as price, I was hoping maybe they give you a, a year or a price, but that's that. So michael jackson's whiskey the definitive world guide new edition that, after he had passed, has some really good, uh, you know, information on what whiskey? Uh, and and history. So one of my fondest whiskey memories stems from around 2003 when michael jackson would have been working on the first edition of whiskey, the definitive world guide. No one knew it at the time, but the seeds had been sown in the world of whiskey for what was to be the start of not just remarkable journey but a whole whiskey revolution.
Speaker 2:Scottish single malts were very much in the spotlight and distillers had started to experiment with special finishes. Cast-strength whiskey was gaining traction, non-chill filtering was becoming popular and more and more bottlers were moving to 43 and 46 abv whiskeys rather than the standard 40 abv whiskey rather than this. Okay, the likes of compass box and john mark and robo easy drinking whiskey company were experimenting with flavors and dispensing with age statements on the label. Distilleries were being established or reopened. The sedate and orderly world of scottish whiskey was stirring with dynamic and passion at its core. So in ireland I just wanted to see in ireland in ireland, conley was stirring everything up too and challenging the view that irish whiskey should be non-peated, triple distilled, blended and bottled at 40 abv. Barry walsh was mixing single malt and pot still whiskey, and within a few years irish distillers would be setting the category alight with a series of superb and exciting pot still whiskeys under the red breast and powers brand. Japanese whiskey had arrived on the world stage not least because of the support and enthusiasm of Michael Jackson, but had yet to become the world's most exciting whiskey genre.
Speaker 2:Across the globe, the early signs of distilling revolution had started to emerge. Sweden, india, france, wales and England were taking their first tentative steps into the international whiskey markets, and in Australia a big whiskey beast was starting to stir. Then there was Kentucky, home of bourbon, a state where history hangs heavy and where tradition and heritage matter as much as anywhere else in the world. Around this time I had traveled over to write about Maker's Mark and, as in the way with folk of Kentucky, was invited to stay in the home of legendary whiskey maker Bill Samuels. Bill had retired now, but he is a genuine, a creative force that, over his whiskey making and marketing years, turned his dyslexia into a weapon of mass construction, generating one original idea after another as he took his weeded sweet bourbon brand maker's mark up the whiskey league table. But Bill was. But.
Speaker 2:Bill has the attention span of a goldfish and he can be frustrating to have a conversation with. He is like a badly tuned analog radio playing your favorite song clear, concise and wonderful. One minute drifting away into the either the next, and that is why one saturday evening at his home counts as one of my favorite whiskey moments. I'm standing on the veranda by the swimming pool, brightly lit and very blue, sipping a maker's mark on ice, looking out over the valley and down to the ohio river. The sunset has turned the sky chocolate orange color. The valley is dark and intimidating, the air warm and humid. And then Bill stands beside me sharing the view and starts to speak.
Speaker 2:He talks of the importance of the Ohio River in the history of the country, kentucky's neutrality in the Civil War, how the communities were ripped apart and about the terror gangs who would use Kentucky as a base to launch demoralizing and savage attacks into the north. He tells me the notorious James brothers had operated along the river and had come to Kentucky and how, after the war, the James gang continued its crime spree. He tells me that the James brothers were given sanctuary by his relatives and how, when they were offered amenities, they surrendered their arms on Samuel's land. Finally, he says the brothers married into his family so that he has James blood in his veins. That ain't good or bad. You can't choose your relatives, he says Then, after a pause. There will be a storm soon and he heads back into the house. Bill and Jesse James Gunn in his house, as well as a letter from Abraham Lincoln sent to one of his relatives, thanking him for the suggestion that he enters politics, but suggesting he did not have what it takes.
Speaker 2:I often think about those moments in the calm before the storm, and how symbolic then suing Deluge was, without a doubt, a worthy metaphor for what's happened in the world of whiskey since. So right there. So I just wanted to read that to everybody because, honestly, seriously, um, sounds like me, ah, so, and, and thank you for uh watching uh, yeah, he definitely. Uh, let's see we might have some. Your mic isn't on or something. Oh, did it die? All right. So let's try this. Let's see, it must have died, all right, how's that? You have no audio coming through? All right, that just must have happened because the mic must have died. But I'm back on. I should be back on, all right. So that's real quick. You know, two-digit year is coded on the bottom usually, but I haven't looked at that bottle, okay. So, uh, I just wanted to read what, what, how.
Speaker 2:Whiskey is a part of history. You're talking about the Samuels, who are the family that make maker's mark. Uh, you know, they're still doing it, being part of Jesse James. And yes, bill Samuels has that gun framed on his wall in his office at Maker's Mark, I've heard. Actually, stephen Fonte took a picture sitting in his desk with that gun behind him. So that's really a kind of cool thing. But you know, from the standpoint of how whiskey is in the families who made the whiskey, is embedded in our history. And you know, you know, jesse James was drinking at the saloon and drinking whiskey, they all. So that's, you know, those are the dusties.
Speaker 2:But then let's just talk about. Let's just talk about, uh, what, what is happening, for instance, at buffalo trace with, uh, oh, eh, taylor. It was, uh, that brand started out at the distillery. This is actually Brad Bonds who does Revival Vintage Spirits and Bottle Shop down in Covington. He was able to obtain the first batch of Colonel Taylor from 1906. That came out of the distillery that was now Buffalo Trace. And then eventually, taylor left that distillery and he built the you know, the EH Taylor distillery which is now Castle and Key. He built a castle that was for. He did it to bring in tourists and it's now still. It's running again. He, taylor, had some very many innovations, including heating the warehouses with steam heat Beam and eventually, when Buffalo Trace in the 90s opened up and became Buffalo Trace, they were able to acquire the Colonel Taylor brand because they were running from the Colonel Taylor Distillery I mean the distillery that he worked that he then partnered with George T Stagg and you know, if you go to this distillery the history is so rich throughout the property, just an amazing place to visit. This is Buffalo Trace.
Speaker 2:Like I said, this distillery has only been running brands or Pappy Van Winkle. They were able to help the Van Winkles transfer from Stiller Wetzel Distillery in the Louisville area to the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfurt, in the Louisville area to the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfurt. So now all the Pappy coming out of Frankfurt is Pappy Van Winkle that was distilled there. They have lots of different. They've just doubled their capacity on their main still, but that doesn't mean that they aren't running other stills. They do a lot of experimentation. What they're doing in the whiskey industry is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:So, once again, paying respect to bringing back a brand. And then the same thing with the old Jet Brothers, that is, the Neely family. They're bringing back this particular brand that was right by their property that they acquired. And then they used Brad Bonds to create a brand of the old Jet Brothers by having the taste profile, because they were able to obtain bottles that were being distilled originally of the old Jet Brothers. So that's really kind of a cool thing. Uh, steven beam at limestone branch, he opened that up but he was able to through luxco and now I believe I can't say it it's uh, oh, the mgp. Uh, he brought back the yellowstone through the luxco company and uh, limestone Branch and the Yellowstone label which has been around forever. It's still today. When you buy a bottle of Yellowstone, a dollar of the proceeds go to the National Park. So that's one of the things that's always been a part of Yellowstone that's being restored.
Speaker 2:But then you've also got some of the newer distilleries, like in ohio where they pulled the, the stills out of the that that her grandpa ran uh pre-prohibition and got put into storage. They pulled a misty, has pulled them out and started the indian creek distillery, indian Creek Distillery in, you know, up in the Dayton area of Ohio. Right here I have their bourbon, the American Bond House no 1. And that is a brand that they put out on their pot stills, which were the same pot stills that were used by her, I believe, her great grandfather. But they've got those running. So that's how, the dedication to history.
Speaker 2:But these brands need history, right? So wouldn't you say that that's very, very important? Let's see, did I lose that one? I don't know why they're shutting off on me. I shouldn't. All right, these brands need the history. Yeah, that's running, okay, so, anyways, all right. So you know anybody else? All right, hey, tiny two digit year is coded on the bottom usually, but I haven't looked at that bottle. Which bottle were you referring to, walker, is the question? So, anyway, anyways, uh, that's kind of what I wanted to portray.
Speaker 2:You know, we've got the chicken cock brand. Uh, greg schneider's bringing. He uses the, I mean circa 18. Oh gosh, 18, it's not 18. I know 46, 18, 40, 18, 6, 50, 60s, uh, I think I want to say 1863. Uh, anyways, they have a new tasting uh. Uh, new tasting room in bardstown that you got to check out, and the actual tins from the whiskey that was served from the cotton club. Uh, when you look at what they the dedication they had to the tins that were actually original, it's spectacular. So, uh, what chicken cock has done to bring back the brand? Yes, initially the stuff that they were releasing was a little pricey, but they were purchasing whiskey, and really good aged whiskey, and putting it out and making it spectacular while they were waiting for their whiskey that they've been distilling since 2018. It's all coming to market right now and what Greg Schneider and Monty have done has been totally fantastic.
Speaker 2:I'll give a shout out to Liberty Pole Once again. Pot stilled in making bourbons and ryes in Pennsylvania, that is, you know, the name of their whiskey is Liberty Pole. I mean, do you have to say anything else for it? Michter's, who brought that back, the Pennsylvania distillery, and has been producing some fantastic, fantastic ryes and bourbons. There's no doubt about that. Oh, circa 1856. Thank you, walker. I miss you man. Oh, you were talking about the old bean bottle. Yeah, the bottom, let's see. That would mean I would have to put some. I don't think. Let's see what we got.
Speaker 2:No the felt. There's nothing at the bottom, really, seriously. Well, maybe there is, let's see. I see something. Make sure that cover's on Underneath the felt. I got a 2, an R, a 20.
Speaker 2:Oh, there, it is 68. 1968. There, thank you for that. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Oh, I think both my microphones are dead. All right, anyways, I think both my microphones are dead. All right, anyways, I think that should cover it. Thank you everybody for watching. It's been a good night. I wonder what happened. Oh, I must have bumped the witch cut to lose. All right, you're very welcome. All right, you're very welcome, all right. Thanks everybody for watching. It's been a fun night, I've had a good time and it's time for this podcast to end. All right, we're the Scotchy Bourbon Boys wwwscotchybourbonboyscom for all things Scotchy Bourbon Boys Merchandise, glen Cairns T-shirts, and then also check us out on Facebook, instagram, youtube and X, along with all the podcast formats, mainly Apple, iheart, spotify, pandora and Amazon, but we're on whatever you need us to be on. So, with that said, remember, good bourbon equals good times and good friends. Remember, don't drink and drive. Make sure you drink responsibly and live your life adventurously. So little Steve-O is going to take us out.
Speaker 1:Let's do it. Show me the way to the next whiskey bar. Oh, don't ask why. Oh don't ask why. Show me the way to the next whiskey bar. Oh, don't ask why oh don't ask why For if we don't find the next whiskey bar, I tell you we must die. I tell you, we must die. I tell you, I tell you, I tell you, we must die.
Speaker 2:Alright.
