what proof was whiskey in the 1800s

Strangely enough, one of the major beneficiaries of World War II was the rum industry, the very enterprise that, in America, had fallen at the heels of the whiskey business some 150 years previous. A man named Evan Williams actually built a whiskey distillery in Louisville in 1783, and this is the first recorded mention of a commercial distillery that we can find, although that doesnt mean that Boone and Ritchie werent selling or bartering their product. Glenmore Distilleries (Kentucky Tavern, among others) survived Prohibition well and went on to become major producers and importers of a number of liquors and liqueurs. Demand was diminished--and things didnt change a great deal until some learned spirits aficionados decided that whiskey wasnt getting enough attention and started to shed some light on the intricacies of single malt Scotch in the 1980s. Although these rogues would grow more prevalent during the latter part of the century, by 1860 there was already at least one book on the market that gave instructions on how to make imitation liquors and wines. Methyl alcohol has a direct affect on the optic nerve, and as little as one ounce has been known to cause death. Also, drinks like beer and whiskey were a lot lower in alcohol content. In those days, rum was known by many different names: Rumbullion, rumbustion, rumbowling, kill-devil, rhumbooze, and Barbados water were all common terms for the distillate of sugar cane or molasses. He was buried in a drunkards grave. Instead, they would sell the entire batch of spirits and the resultant whiskey, although it wouldnt make you blind, was a far cry from the pure, bold red liquor that the whiskey men had fought for at the turn of the century. Cabin Still and Kentucky Tavern whiskeys were both trademarked in 1903. Thomas B. Ripy, whose sons would build a distillery that is known today as the Wild Turkey Distillery, opened his first whiskey distillery in 1869. Members lectured and wrote to prominent people on both sides of the issue trying to bank the fire a little. Babcock became an Inspector of Lighthouses and drowned in 1884; McDonald was found guilty of his crimes in 1875, fined $5,000, and sentenced to three years imprisonment--but was pardoned, less than two years later, by President Hayes. Furthermore, the solids left behind from the distillation process were usable as cattle feed, thus, for farmers, producing whiskey made darned good business sense. According to Gerald Carson in his book, The Social History of Bourbon, since the Northern soldiers had more money than their adversaries, they could buy more whiskey. 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. During the same period of time, names of other whiskey distillers crop up, and many of them have faded into obscurity. Most settlers from Maryland and Pennsylvania started their trip to Kentucky in Pittsburgh and floated down the Ohio River on flatboats into Kentucky. An editorial in The New York World Telegram in 1944 stated, public and official alarm over the shortage of liquor is pathetic in a people who are supposed to be adult.. To a large extent, it worked. Crockett also mentions a tradition of this era that was never properly re-established after Prohibition ended--the free lunch table. Whiskey labeled as bourbon was actually distilled from low-grade molasses. The death knell was tolling for the slower, more work-intensive, old-fashioned pot stills. Whiskey bonds became a very valuable commodity. The plant produced Tom Moore Bourbon in 1879, and Mattingly & Moore Bourbon by 1896. However, the treasury was not to be deterred. Buy British--or else. The distillery that made Old Grand-Dad whiskey was taken over by the Wathen family in 1899. But, on the other hand, a great deal of poison or methyl alcohol has taken the place of the good old pure whiskey. 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. But by contrast, a large part of the population has become accustomed to disregard and to violate the law without thinking. John E. Fitzgerald, whose Old Fitzgerald bourbon would become the joy of the Stitzel-Weller brands, built a distillery in 1870. From there, things went from bad to worse for the investigators. 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. Fact was, that by passing on the taxes to the general public, whiskey had become too expensive for the common man. By the 1880s, however, when some of those travelers had amassed small fortunes, decent, aged whiskey was at last being shipped to the Wild West. Maybe as a matter of routine, distillers who invested in used cooperage would set fire to the interior of the barrel to rid it of any lingering odors or dirt, and once again, at some point, charred barrels were recognized as having a good effect on whiskey. James E. Pepper built the James E. Pepper Distillery in 1879 and soon produced a whiskey that bore his name. World Class 'Sipping' Single Malt Whiskies Under $100, Ranked. Anyway, this woman believed that she had conversations with Jesus and that He had directed her to destroy saloons. 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. Captain James Thorpe, a missionary in Virginia at that time, wrote to friends in London that he had learned to make a drink from Indian corn that was so good, he sometimes chose it over English beer. This date coincides nicely with George Garvin Browns 1870 decision to sell his Old Forester bourbon exclusively in sealed bottles. They used grains to feed their cattle or farm animals--if they had them. This bourbon was rested for 7 long years in hand-selected white oak barrels. Therefore, strong drink is a luxury that takes food from the mouths of all people. That year saw the birth of yet another organization, The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, made up of many brewers, distillers, and some very wealthy and influential people, DuPont family members among them. Another liquor was far easier and much less expensive to produce, and it was about to become one of the first industries in America. In modern terms, those seven gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of a standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week nearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation. I. W. Harper, Old Charter, and Cascade (George A. Dickel) brand names were purchased by Schenley in the late 1930s, and Schenley itself was later acquired by United Distillers. Colonel Albert B. Blanton became plant manager at the George T. Stagg distillery in 1912. George T. Stagg (The Ancient Age Distillery) opened his first distillery in 1840. And then theres the sour-mash component. 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. These groups took aim at irresponsible drinking. After taking office in 1869, the politics of Reconstruction plagued him, and his administration was beset by scandal after scandal. To have lived during this period must have been similar to people who were born in the 1930s; one minute you get your first telephone installed, and before you know it, you are accessing information from libraries in Budapest. After the Civil War, many of the smaller distillers just didnt have the capital to comply with the law since the tax was due upon production--as soon as the whiskey ran out of the still, the tax was due. 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. In 1791, George Washington approved an excise tax on liquor. This version is Barrel 2 and bottled at 97 Proof. The George T. Stagg Distillery went on to become the Ancient Age Distillery and was sold before Schenley was taken over. And although Grant allowed Babcock to return to his job at the White House, officials made sure that he was replaced just a few days later. This was by no means an uncommon practice. I do not believe that men can be legislated into angels--even red-nosed angels. Henry Watterson, owner and editor of the Louisville Courier Journal, wrote those words in 1913. The public houses are always crowded, especially so during the sittings of the courts of justice. However, Jefferson did stop those excise taxes on American liquor, and apart from the few years between 1813 and 1817, when taxes were levied in order to pay the costs of the War of 1812, whiskey wouldnt be taxed again until 1862. A book in the United Distillers archives in Louisville mentions charred barrels, but unfortunately, the cover is missing and there is no date printed on its pages--just a handwritten note that includes a reference to the year 1854. 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. They made wines from elderberries, parsnips, pumpkins, and the like--if it fermented, they turned it into some form of beverage alcohol or other. Federal and local investigations into the Trust (which changed its name to the Distilling and Cattle Feeding Company in 1890), finally forced the company into receivership in 1895. He had the scientific knowledge to be able to tinker intelligently with various aspects of his processes in order to make a better whiskey. Aside from having no cash, the distillers in western Pennsylvania were also exasperated because, when summoned to court to answer their charges, they had to make their way to Philadelphia. Smart marketing has been around for millennia--what could be better than declaring a good Christian as the inventor of bourbon when the distillers had to argue against forces that quoted the Bible to further their cause? So, along with the steamboats on the Mississippi, the whiskey industry now had railroads to take its product south. Whiskey had great value during the Civil War. Lincolns secretary, John Hay, when recording the 1863 arrival of the Sons of Temperance at the White House, noted that the group blamed the defeats of Union troops on intemperance among the soldiers. To match todays style of bourbon whiskey, we must use todays standards as our guide: Bourbon must be aged for at least two years in charred oak casks (folk may tell you they must be white oak, but government specifications dont designate a type), and contain more corn than the sum of all *other grains used. A: Because charring the inside of a cask reduces it to a kind of charcoal; and charcoal (by absorbing animal and vegetable impurities) keeps the liquor [liquid] sweet and good. But this document, assuming the 1854 date is within fifty years of the publication date, is from the nineteenth century. 1. Was it a specific person on a specific date? And America was still producing Pure Malt whiskeys at the time--in 1913, a dozen bottles of Regans (no relation) Pure Malt Whiskey would cost a mere six bucks, whereas four quarts of I. W. Harper brought $5 on the mail-order market. The world of bourbon is complex and the brands are numerous. In the years between the settling of Kentucky and the Civil War, many minor and a few major events started to affect the whiskey business in America. Here again, the whiskey business contributed to the war effort by keeping cattle and pigs well fed when food for the general populace was at a premium. In 1640, William Kieft, the Director General of the New Netherland Colony, decided that liquor should be distilled on Staten Island. By the early 1940s, however, the distillers had managed to age sufficient quantities of straight whiskey to have an appreciable amount of good, aged bourbon and rye back on the shelves. Heres what was happening to the brand names at this time: Of Hymns To Be Sung and Axes To Be Wielded. Back in the mid-1800s, the Crown began taxing barley a strategic way to indirectly tax the single-malt whiskey (whiskey that . Up until this point, cultural and agricultural needs and feasibilities had dictated the production of Americas whiskey, but a major event was about to occur, just a decade after the Declaration of Independence was issued, wherein whiskey would have a direct affect on the nation itself. A lid of sorts must then have been fitted onto the top of the log. However, its interesting to look at why so many farmers in the century preceding independence were also distillers. Most whiskeys of this time was sold in barrels to retailers. Only time in wood gives it color, and only time in charred wood results in the crimson-hued tint that is peculiar to bourbon. Willard fought for more than temperance; she was also involved in other womens issues, such as suffrage and civil rights, and she had some further attributes that frustrated the anti-temperance folk. However, those nineteenth-century temperance movements had been gaining momentum, and the whiskey industry was about to confront its most formidable enemy. In the twentieth century, Alcoholics Anonymous went on to prove his point. After taking a 10-year sabbatical from the industry, he returned to his whiskey roots, bought a plant in Loretto that he named Star Hill Farm, and started to produce Makers Mark bourbon in 1953. A paper, written in 1993 by Mervel V. Hanes, M.D. Rye whiskey had been born in Pennsylvania, and Kentucky was about to give birth to a whiskey that would become known as bourbon. But in those pre-pasteurization days, beer didnt keep too long, so they brewed only as much beer as would be consumed in the very near future. 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