Lizzie ‘Memphis Minnie’ Douglas (1897-1973)The blues tradition that most influenced modern popular music is that of the self-accompanied singer/songwriter. This tradition of the traveling musician who sings and plays guitar, and whose original so…
Photo by Fred MinnickThe “Scotch Guys Think Bourbon Guys Are Screwing with ‘Their’ Barrels” post got a lot of attention and sparked a memory.When Beam introduced Devil’s Cut in 2011, I asked Fred Noe how this new way of processing used barrels wo…
Dumping a bourbon barrel. But is it really empty?The headline seems innocuous enough: “Why more bourbon distillers are rinsing their used barrels.” In her article in Whisky Magazine, Susannah Skiver Barton explains how, since bourbon must be…
Image courtesy National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA)As American laws go, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution is stunningly brief, not even 100 words, most of them boilerplate. The first section repeals the 18th Amendment (…
A mini-bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky (L) and a mini-bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Flavored Malt Beverage (R)”There’s no whiskey in mini bottles of Fireball, so customers are suing for fraud,” reads the headline on the website for National Publ…
One of government’s most basic jobs is ensuring that things we buy and use are what they claim to be. Rules enforced by various agencies regulate what can be said about food, medicine, stocks, bonds, insurance, the hidden contents of mattresses, …
Chicago’s Chapin & Gore in its heyday.When beverage alcohol was outlawed in 1920, people lost jobs and businesses closed. Economic disruption was widespread, affecting not just distillers, brewers, and vintners, and their associated distributors an…
Bourbon whiskey is not only a signature industry for Kentucky but also weaves throughout the state’s history and culture. Making Bourbon. A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky, by Karl Raitz, is a monum…
It was a scandal that rocked the bourbon world in 1880, then faded from the headlines and from memory, as the more recent saga already has for many. It is a timeless tale: older man, younger woman, a heady mix of alcohol and sex followed by …
The latest release in the Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series: BRT-01 & BRT-02Would you pay $120 to taste Maker’s Mark’s mistakes? That is the proposition underlying these two new releases from Loretto. Mistakes, you say? Back in 2010, Ma…
