Captain James Thorpe, a missionary in Virginia at that time, wrote to friends in London that he had learned to make a drink from Indian corn that was so good, he sometimes chose it over English beer. By the early 1620s, colonists in Virginia were brewing beer that they claimed would “tide them over” until they got used to the water. The early setters brought quite a supply of ale and spirits with them from England, but when their supplies dwindled, they had no choice but to brew their own beer, using whatever ingredients were close at hand. Furthermore, we can track the creation of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey back to their very roots-a rare opportunity when the subject is food or drink.īeer was probably the first kind of beverage alcohol produced in the early settlements at Jamestown and Plymouth. By tracing the thirst the settlers wanted to slake we can plot the development of American whiskey from the early days of the settlers in Virginia and New England all the way through time to today. When the first immigrants arrived on this continent, their love for alcohol in almost any shape or form led to a chain of events that would culminate in the creation of distinctive American whiskeys. In short, where America has been, so has American whiskey-and where whiskey has traveled, so have Americans been influenced by its presence.īourbon, in fact, is so darned American, that, in 1964, Congress itself recognized it as “a distinctive product of the U.S.A.” And although straight rye, and Tennessee whiskeys haven’t attained such a prestigious honor, they too have traveled the same dusty trails that led to today’s superhighways and are as distinctively American as any bourbon whiskey. Whiskey spurred the women of America to lead a crusade that led to Prohibition, and has played a part in every major war this nation has seen. Whiskey was a spirit of contention during the Civil War, and was, in part, the reason that Grant never served a third term in the White House. Whiskey-making was one of the first cottage industries in the land it was responsible for George Washington mustering federal troops for the first time, and whiskey went with the early pioneers as they traveled westward to explore new territories. And at times, the reverse is true-whiskey has affected the nation itself. American whiskey, itself, has reached maturity in relatively recent years, after spending a 300-year adolescence being molded by every major event that has affected its native country. And through the years, whiskey has developed into the complex, big-bodied, distinctively American bourbons, ryes, and Tennessee whiskeys that today, are savored by connoisseurs, sipped by grandmothers, tossed back by barflies, and “discovered” by almost every American as he or she reaches that magical age of twenty-one. So it is with American whiskey-the original concept may have been imported from far away lands, but some 300 years later, American whiskey.is a product unto itself.Īmerican whiskey started its life as a raw, unaged spirit that had, as its main attribute, the power to spur the courage of the first colonists. The origins of whiskey can be traced back to the Medieval monks of both Ireland and Scotland, but now, those two countries make their own distinctive styles of their native spirit. Whiskey at the Close of the Twentieth Century.The Reawakening of the American Whiskey Business.Of Hymns To Be Sung and Axes To Be Wielded.Reconstruction-of the Whiskey Business.Whiskeygate-the Tale of the Infamous Whiskey Ring.Trains and Boats and a New Look at Drinking Habits.A Few Other Whiskey Men Who Appeared in Kentucky Before 1800.Whiskey and the Colonization of the United States.The Settler’s Search for a Decent Drink.The views and opinions expressed in the following book chapters are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Distilled Spirits Council or its member companies. The below information has been republished with permission of the authors, Gary Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan.

Empire of sin change alcohol production