What to drink next?Can you walk into a store, armed with some basic knowledge, and make a good whiskey purchase without doing any homework in advance? You can if you read the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader (Volume 21, Number 3).Also, dis…
Jim Beam’s American Stillhouse opened in 2012.The last two decades have been a whirlwind for fans of American whiskey. As we start to look back on the year now wrapping up, here’s a peak at what seemed exciting ten years ago, at the end of 2012.One of …
‘A’ Building at Westinghouse Mansfield, in its heyday.It is a milestone few will note, as the Westinghouse ‘A’ Building has been empty for more than 30 years. The rest of the factory was demolished long ago. In addition to ‘A,’ there are some sma…
Red Likker, a novel by Irvin S. Cobb (1929)Almost a century ago, a spectacular and suspicious fire at a whiskey warehouse in Kentucky inspired a popular author to write a fictional history of bourbon.Irvin S. Cobb was an American author, humorist…
The romanticized image of moonshine.Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.Without much regard to the moon or the stars.Lazily killing the last of a jarof the strongest stuff you can drink.From The Ballad Of Love And Hate by the Avett BrothersOkay, cla…
The Nelson Distillery Warehouse, Louisville, looking east from Lexington Road. (Demolished 8/31/2022.)As reported by WDRB.com, the Nelson Distillery Warehouse at Louisville’s Distillery Commons complex is being demolished after an emergency order…
To be called bourbon it must be at least 51% corn. The rest may be any grain.”What does the industry mean when they say ‘high’ or ‘low’ rye bourbon?”It is a common question, often misunderstood.First, this is rye-recipe bourbon we are talking about, no…
In June 2008, the second year of this blog, I wrote a post about Chicago theater based on a performance I had attended the night before, and on an article that day in the Chicago Tribune.As it happened, the artistic director of the theater company that…
The Edith Farnsworth House. Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1951, on the Fox River just outside Plano, Illinois.The Edith Farnsworth House is one of the most significant buildings of the 20th century. It is one of the jewels of the Chicago area an…
As I recount in the new issue of Bourbon+, the 1980s were the worst of times for American whiskey. Sales were off by half, from a high-water mark more than a decade in the past. Producers at first believed the decline would be temporary, a hiccup…
