I’ve read plenty of explanations for why “proof” is so American. (I’ve even written about this topic before!) But like everything else- other than Native American culture- it came from […]
What the Pre-Pro Master Distillers Still Have Teach Us…is a Lot.
I was talking with a distiller the other day about how little is known about pre-Prohibition rye whiskey distillers. It’s sad to think that about 200 years of generational knowledge […]
A Much Needed Discussion About Rectifiers
One of the more confused topics when we talk about the history of the American whiskey world is the topic of rectifiers. I really wish there was a way to […]
What Should a “Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey” Category Look Like Today?
This has been an ongoing debate for a while now…even if it should have been a debate that took place in the 1930s. (Hindsight is 20/20 they say…) The question […]
The Halloween Tragedy that Relocated a Distillery
On Halloween night, just outside Connellsville, Pennsylvania, a man was violently murdered for the gold in his pockets. Mystery surrounded the event, and for years the townspeople spun tales and […]
How Canada Quietly Changed the American Whiskey Drinker’s Palate
The last few weeks have been spent trying to find my way back onto social media platforms. I was kicked out on October 1st when I crossed our northern international […]
The Old Monocacy Creek and Her Distilleries
I was recently asked about distilleries that would have once existed in a specific area of eastern Pennsylvania. Why not, right? It seemed a good time to post about a […]
Where Did All Those Whiskey Terms Come From?
I have been thinking a lot lately about labeling terms for whiskey that we take for granted in the United States. Bottled-in bond, straight whiskey, bourbon, pure rye, fine old […]
The British Connection to America’s “Bottled in Bond” Whiskeys
What connects “bottled in bond”, a term we tend to associate with American whiskeys, to English investments? Let me explain… I am so VERY curious about the history of American […]
When Bottled in Bond Was Not Actually “Bottled in Bond”
The Bottled in Bond Act is something that most whiskey enthusiasts can recite the basics on fairly easily. A whiskey that’s bottled-in-bond is a 100 proof, four-year-old whiskey that’s been […]