The Filson Historical Society Blog

The Filson Historical Society took a bus trip to the Four Roses Distillery on Saturday, October 31^st. Yes, Halloween day.  A rainy Halloween morning, but as the day progressed the sky cleared some it turned to a typical brisk fall morning in Kentucky. The bus left the Filson just a few minutes after 9:00 for the hour drive to the distillery, just south of Lawrenceburg, Ky.

The Four Roses distillery, then Old Prentice, ca. 1915

The drive to the distillery was filled with a lecture about Kentucky’s distilling history. I started the talk with the requirements for bourbon whiskey and then launched into its history. I described the earliest records, the change from farmer distiller to industrial distilling, the conflict between straight whiskey distillers and rectifiers, the “what is bourbon” debate of the 1890s and 1900s, prohibition, World War II, the golden days of the 1950s, the decline of the 1970s and the rebirth of the 1990s. With the questions asked, the hour drive passed quickly.

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For the final week of the Filson Bourbon Academy, the subject of the history portion was the post prohibition bourbon world and bourbon in the 21st century. The tasting segment of the night was the “final exam” where the students were asked to take notes on two unknown whiskeys.

When prohibition ended in 1933, the distilling industry wanted to prevent it from happening again. The distillery owners met and set up self regulations and codes of conduct. They agreed that they would not use women in advertising, no images of Santa Claus or other images appealing to children in advertising, and no radio (and later television) advertisements. In 1959 Glenmore Distillery was the first company to break one of the self regulations by using women to advertise Glenmore Gin. When there was no public uproar, other companies quickly followed their lead. The other regulations are still in place but there is movement to advertise spirits on television today.

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The third week of the Filson Bourbon Academy started with the discussion of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, a precursor to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. The law simply states that the whiskey was all made by the same distiller, in the same season (Spring is from January to June and Fall is from July to December), aged at least four years in government bonded warehouses and bottled at 100 proof with only water added to adjust proof, all under government supervision. It does not guarantee quality beyond these points, but it does mean that it is straight whiskey without any adulteration.

Prescription for medicinal bourbon

The Pure Food and Drug act of 1906 immediately created a question as to “What is Whiskey?” The government under President Theodore Roosevelt answered that question as it had to be straight whiskey, aged in wood with no ingredients other than water added to the product. Anything else had to be labeled “Imitation Whiskey”. This led to a legal battle between the government and the rectifiers who were making blended whiskey products with neutral spirits and flavorings. The issue was all settled in 1909 when President William H. Taft took it upon himself to settle the question. The “Taft Decision” defines the categories of whiskey that we have today. For a hand out, I furnished the student with a copy of the Taft Decision and a copy of a letter from President Taft to Kentucky Governor Augustus E. Willson thanking Willson for his support of the Taft Decision.

The history discussion ended with a discussion on prohibition. One of the myths of prohibition was that it was illegal to own whiskey. Not only did the distillers still own the whiskey that was made before prohibition, they actually had a very limited outlet to sell it for “medicinal use.” The companies that had a license to sell during prohibition were Brown-Forman, Glenmore Distillery, Frankfort Distillery, Schenley Distillery, National Distillers Corporation and A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery. W.L. Weller and Sons piggy backed on the Stitzel license since they were owned by the same people and formally merged to form Stitzel-Weller Distillery after prohibition ended.

For the tasting portion of the class we looked at single barrel bourbon using Four Roses Single Barrel, small batch bourbons using Knob Creek, extra aged bourbon using Russell’s Reserve 10 years old and specialty bottling using Bernheim wheat whiskey.

Harlin Distillery in Monroe County, Kentucky in 1918. This photograph shows what typical farmer-distiller would have looked like in the early 20th century.

It is not often that the Filson has an opportunity to combine fund raising with public service, but the Filson Bourbon Academy fits the bill on both counts. The Filson Bourbon Academy is aimed at educating local bartenders and others involved in the service industry in heritage and use of Kentucky’s favorite distilled spirit – Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. At the completion of the Academy, those who are STAR Certified (Servers Trained in Alcohol Regulations) will be certified as an “Official Bartender For The Kentucky Bourbon Trail” from the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA).

The first class was held on September 14th with a class of 9 people. Besides bartenders, there are people from a local distributor company and a local liquor store. The class discussed the early years of American distilling and the origin of Bourbon Whiskey in the first hour of the two hour program and concluded the night with how to do a tasting with Wild Turkey 101 the bourbon of the night. The class compared different types of glassware and looked at the six sources of flavor in American Whiskey. Read the rest of this entry »