Did you know that the original recipe for Old Taylor called for an heirloom white corn, not yellow corn? Generally bourbon made today uses feed corn in their recipes because […]
What is Corn Whiskey?
What is corn whiskey? With bourbon booming in America, I wanted to discuss the difference. Bourbon needs to be made from at least 51% corn, but can, of course, have […]
There Were No “Old” American Whiskeys Before 1958…
Picture the whiskey industry after WWII. The few distilleries that remained after prohibition had been successful with pulling themselves out of a whiskey drought by producing massive amounts of young […]
Whiskey Production Finally Rebounds to Pre-Prohibition Numbers…
It may seem like an enormous amount of whiskey is being produced in the United States right now. That may be true, but we’re only just catching up to production […]
Biggest Consumers of American Whiskey…Not Americans.
Did you know that the biggest consumers of American whiskey (per capita) are not Americans? It’s the Australians! It is very close, as they only really beat us in the […]
Store Picks Are Not Necessarily Better…
A whiskey that was chosen by a liquor store is NOT necessarily better than the bottle without their name on it… Some liquor stores hand pick selections of whiskey and […]
XXX on Whiskey Jugs Means Something…
Did you know that the XXX on old whiskey jugs actually means something? We’re all familiar with these jugs from cartoons and from American mythology. It was a common marking […]
Proof of Proof? History of Proof vs. ABV
Did you know that “proof” of alcohol content used to be proven with gunpowder? The term proof probably originated in the 16th century. Soldiers had no tools to determine whether […]
Is Distilling Illegal? Yes.
Is distilling legal if you’re just making it for personal consumption? NO. It is very much ILLEGAL. I get these questions a lot. Why would they sell stills smaller than […]
Angel’s Share Effect
How does the angel’s share affect my whiskey? A lot of different things affect the flavors in whiskey, not least of which is the addition of water or loss of […]