History of American Whiskey

Whiskey has been the drink of choice for many Americans since it was first distilled
here. Through many wars, triumphs, prohibitions, and rebellions, whiskey has lasted
and survived. Each century has only worked to add character to it and make it a more
lovable product. Strap yourself in as we take a journey through history and unravel the
mystery that is the history of American whiskey.

Beer was probably the first kind of beverage alcohol produced in the early settlements
at Jamestown and Plymouth. The early setters brought quite a supply of ale and spirits
with them from England, but when their supplies dwindled, in the early 1620s they
had no choice but to brew their own beer, using whatever ingredients were close at
hand.  

Flavorings like molasses, tree barks (spruce, birch, and sassafras were popular), and
fruit and vegetables, such as apples and pumpkins, to their brews. Though many types
of grapes were native to America, the wines they produced were not great. And,
European grapevines didn’to well on the East Coast. So, they fermented other fruits--
and even vegetables. They made “wines” from elderberries, parsnips, pumpkins,
(whatever they could). If it fermented, they turned it into some form of beverage
alcohol or other.

The first settlers after the Pilgrims imported some alcohol too--wines, brandy, and
fortified wines such as Madeira, and port. But being self-sufficient they soon started to
make all kinds of drinks from the abundant native ingredients. Including honey to
produce mead. And when they had fruit, cider and perry (pear “cider”) was added to
the menu.
Like the first beers and wines, the first liquors made here used a variety of
ingredients--berries, plums, potatoes, apples, carrots, and grain--anything that had the
power to attract yeast and then ferment. The spirits they made were probably not the
smoothest but they were liquor. Two of the more popular American spirits at that time
was peach brandy, made mainly in the Southern colonies, and applejack (a brandy
distilled from cider), which probably originated in or around New Jersey.

Interestingly enough, cider-makers who didn’t possess a still would, during the winter
months, leave cider outside to freeze. The following morning they discarded the
frozen portion, leaving them with very strong cider--the alcohol content was
concentrated in the liquid that didn’t, or couldn’t, freeze. Since the distillation of
beverage alcohol is, in simple terms, the separation of alcohol from water, they were
actually performing a form of distillation by freezing instead of heating.

Until the mid-1700’s, whiskey was made in relatively small quantities, mainly by
farmer-distillers, and without distinctive or consistent techniques. Though they were
producing whiskey, its quality had to have been questionable.

Early farmers, from time to time, must have had extra crops of grains. What could
they do with all the leftover grain after all had bought or traded and enough to keep
them in their daily bread for the next year or so? First, they made beer. But in those
pre-pasteurization days, beer didn’t keep too long, so they brewed only as much beer
as would be consumed in the very near future.
Distilling grain gives farmers two distinct avenues for profit-making: The distillate
can be stored almost indefinitely, and liquor is relatively easy to transport. Also, the
solids left behind from the distillation process were usable as cattle feed, thus, for
farmers, producing whiskey made good business sense. The choice was simple: Let it
mold and rot; or make whiskey.

The Spirit of America--Rum?

The first liquor to be made in quantity and to have a major impact on the colonies was,
in fact, rum. Starting in the mid-1600s, sugar, and molasses were exported from the
West Indies to New England where the colonists made their very own variety of rum.
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.

By the early 1700s, the monarchy in England was paying a little more attention to
their colonies. One of the first acts designed to raise money for the crown, was the
taxation of the sugar, molasses, and rum being imported *from the “any of the
colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession of or under the dominion of
his Majesty.” The Molasses Act of 1733 levied five shillings per hundredweight of
sugar, six pence per gallon of molasses, and nine pence per gallon of rum.

The colonists, however, found an ingenious way of coping with these new taxes--for
the most part, they ignored them. In the mid-1700s, New England rum was actually
used in lieu of currency in what was known as the “triangle trade” with Africa and the
West Indies. Rum would leave the new world and head to Africa. The cargo was
traded on the Gold Coast, and the ship headed for Barbados with African slaves, gold,
and peppercorns. After trading the slaves, gold, and pepper in Barbados, the ship
returned to the new world carrying molasses, sugar, and currency.

The manufacture of rum continued to be big business in America right through until
1808 when the U.S. prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa. The triangle
trade was broken, but by that time, whiskey was well on its way to becoming the
native spirit of the United States.

The Early Years of American Whiskey

In 1777, the newly formed United States of America and George Washington was
concerned that his troops didn’t have enough liquor. He actually suggested that public
distilleries be constructed throughout the states citing that, “The benefits arising from
the moderate use of strong liquor have been experienced in all armies and are not to be
disputed.” Washington personally distilled at Mount Vernon and produced rum, and a
little later on, whiskey.

Meanwhile, during the late 1700s, the Scots-Irish, a huge group of immigrants from
Northern Ireland began arriving in the United States. There was plenty demand for
liquor, and the intimate knowledge of the still, made the Scots-Irish perfect people to
help carve out a new nation--and lay the foundations for the whiskey industry.

Most of them settled in western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, western Virginia,

and the western parts of North and South Carolina. Germans who settled in
Pennsylvania and became known as the Pennsylvanian Dutch were also well versed
with the still, and by 1775, there were just as many Germans here as Scots-Irish.
Whiskey and the Colonization of the United States

Daniel Boone first ventured into the eastern part of what would become Kentucky on
a hunting expedition in 1767, and due, in part, to his reports of its bounty, the land
soon acquired a somewhat idyllic status.

In 1776, Kentucky County was carved from the massive western part of Virginia. The
law allowed settlers to lay claim to 400 acres of land provided that they build a cabin
and plant a patch of corn prior to 1778. After that time, surveyors and prospectors
offered land for sale at very reasonable prices to pioneers heading west.

Meanwhile, the thirsty Scots-Irish and German distillers who settled in western
Pennsylvania and Maryland had been making rye whiskey--but why rye? Rye, another
European grain, was a hardy crop that took root and fared well almost immediately in
the middle colonies, and since the Europeans were accustomed to working with rye
grain, they turned to it as “the next best thing” to barley. Corn, an indigenous grain,
was also cultivated, and although the immigrants weren’t used to using it to make
whiskey, it was gradually introduced to the process in small quantities.

Up until this point, cultural and agricultural needs and feasibilities had dictated the
production of America’s 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.

Birthplace of a nation & Whiskey

The birth place of the American Whiskey can be traced back to the states of Virginia,
Maryland and Pennsylvania in eastern United States. In the year 1791, whiskey began
being brewed as a rye based product. The then incumbent president saw promise of
added revenue in the venture and so sought to levy taxes on it, which was met by open
resistance. This debacle came to be known as the “Whiskey Rebellion.” Irish pioneers
who settled in the hilly states of Tennessee and Kentucky were the first to begin
distilling American whiskey. In those states they could easily find the necessary raw
materials and other resources—which made the making of whiskey almost effortless!

They came across clean lime rich waters and plenty of wood to construct the needed
liquor barrels for transportation and storage. Corn, the main ingredient of whiskey,
(taking up 51% of the total ingredient share) was also plentiful. At this stage of its
inception, the American whiskey saw a further division of two common brands: sour
mash and bourbon. Each of these brands, though offering different tastes and
experiences, cut out their own niche and held strong reputations for being distinctly
American drinks. The sour mash brand, has remained true to its roots, and is still
largely produced in Tennessee. No surprisingly, sour mash has become the pride and
joy of this mountainous Southern state.

The ease of growing corn in Kentucky caused distillers who migrated from the East
Coast to change their whiskey recipes. “Rye was the plentiful grain in Pennsylvania
and Maryland,” Russell says, “but when distillers came over the Appalachians they
found corn the dominant grain so they used corn instead of rye.” Bourbon production
took foothold in Kentucky.

Although the term “bourbon” began to appear in newspaper advertisements for

Kentucky’s particular brand of whiskey by the 1820s, its origins are murky. Some
historians believe the moniker was inspired by Kentucky’s Bourbon County—itself
named after the French royal family in recognition of France’s support in the
American Revolution. Bourbon County originally occupied a large section of central
Kentucky, and local distillers stamped its name as the county of origin on whiskey
barrels transported around the country. Minnick says another theory is the name
derived from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where the drink was popular in the
French Quarter saloons. “There’s not enough good evidence one way or another,”

Who Burned the Casks?

The straight wooden staves that are used to form a barrel must be heated in order to
bend the wood into the familiar barrel shape. This shape is used, primarily, so that the
bands that hold the barrel together can be tightened around the wider mid-section of
the barrel, thus pushing the staves closer together and forming a watertight--or
whiskeytight--seal. Basically for all time, coopers have been forming barrels over fire,
and therefore “toasting” the staves while they were making them bow.

A popular story has it that a careless cooper accidentally let his staves catch fire and
conveniently “forgot” to tell the distiller who bought the barrel about the mishap. The
whiskey man noticed an improvement in his liquor, figured out what had happened,
and from that day forth charred barrels were preferred by whiskey-makers. It’s just an
old story, but there could be a grain of truth in it.

Fact is that the distillers needed to store their whiskey in “tight” or leakproof barrels,
and at that time, tight barrels were used to store just about everything from water to
molasses to linseed oil to tar. Tight barrels were valuable, and recyclable, and used
barrels were less expensive than new ones. 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.

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. The book is full of
questions and answers on many different subjects, one of them being: “Q: Why are
water and wine casks charred on the inside? 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. Were charred barrels being used before that date? Most probably, but the
chances of them being used exclusively by one distiller are very remote.

Development

By 1870, the whiskey trade had become well developed across America. Renowned
political figures, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and even
Abraham Lincoln each had a liquor license, and they participated in the trade in one
way or the other (most often privately). At this stage, legislation was bent on
providing oversight on the whiskey industry, and this regulation started being
enforced. The legislation, however, was not very stringent—and it wasn’t able to keep
unscrupulous traders from passing off non-whiskey drinks packaged in whiskey
bottles and labeled as such; this oversight was particularly difficult because
transportation between distillers and suppliers to customer taverns was handled
through use of horse drawn carriages and buggies.
It was quickly discovered that sealed and labeled bottles was the only way to ensure
fraudsters were kept at bay. George Barvin Brown began this practice, and he had
initially sold only to physicians and medical practitioners. Soon enough, however,
reputable taverns bought into the trend of branding their bottles with a label. After
some resistance from other traders who were making a killing out of selling sub-
standard whiskey, the trend became standard commercial practice (especially when
consumers rejected any products that came in unsealed bottles). Sealed bottles with a
printed label became the best way to make real money selling whiskey.

In other developments, the year 1897 saw another piece legislation passed to
guarantee customers the authenticity of their whiskey. This law, led by Colonel
Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr and the Secretary of the Treasury, John G. Carlise, set out
to enforce standards over selling “straight” whiskey. The “Bottled in Bond” act was
born, which means that the whiskey must be straight (50% alcohol by volume), and
produced by one distillation season under one distiller and on the grounds of one
distillery. It also must have been stored in a federally bonded warehouse under the
supervision of the U.S. Government for at least four years. This bonded whiskey still
holds a reputation for being the best of the best.

Backlash & Recovery

Later on in history, abuse of alcohol resulted in high levels of drunkenness among the
Americas, spurred the policy of prohibition. This legislation was directed towards the
major vises seen as a detriment to societal values and character. The prohibition era
was between 1920 and 1933, and these laws barred production of all alcohol; the
supporters of prohibition saw alcohol as a major catalyst for the ills experienced in the
society. By the 1933, however, it became apparent that prohibition was going to
remain a noble experiment, since its failures were too conspicuous to deny. American
whiskey, therefore, survived this great challenge, further forged its existence, and rose
to claim its place again in the hearts of Americans.

By 1964 Bourbon had become such an integral part American identity that the US
congress acknowledged it as “a distinct product of the USA”; this declaration was a
great honor, because it used the symbol of whiskey to unite all Americans. As such,
legal statute were then clearly set down for the quality standards of true bourbon.
These standards of quality were set to the following: at least 51% corn distilled to
80% alcohol volume. the whiskey can contain only natural ingredients (i.e. no other
artificial additions were permitted, save water), and the bourbon was to be aged in
specific barrels made only of charred oak. Other American whiskey brands were
required to meet additional quality control standards for grain, aging, and proofing in
order to qualify certain whiskey designations. It is no doubt these strict standards that
have ensured the American whiskey is still a drink of choice.

Some brands of American whiskey that have stood the test of time include Jim Beam,
Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey, and Eagle Rare. Distilleries in Kentucky, Tennessee and
Virginia are open for tours and tastings to allow the public to experience the origins of
true American whiskey. Distilleries like Maker’s Mark even allow you create your
own mark in the red sealing wax that has become their trademark. Raise a glass to the
rich history of Whiskey.