America's Drink: Bourbon

Welcome to Civics and Coffee. My name is Alycia and I am a self-professed history nerd. Each week, I am going to chat about a topic on U.S history and give you both the highlights and occasionally break down some of the complexities in history; and share stories you may not remember learning in high school. All in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee. 

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Hey everyone. Welcome back. 

If you’ve joined the patreon series then you’ve likely listened as I struggled to imbibe the key ingredient to many of America’s earliest cocktails: bourbon. Originating in the frontier of Kentucky as early as 1774, Bourbon Whiskey, or Bourbon, is as American as apple pie. And while your host prefers a bit of a lighter flare in her cocktails, people throughout the country - and the world - enjoy a good Bourbon. So how did it all get started? 

This week’s episode dedicated to the history of Bourbon comes to you thanks to a listener request. Peter, former host of the podcast Two Songs One Couple, suggested I dive into the history of the amber liquor. How did it start? Why is it called Bourbon? And how has Bourbon influenced American culture? 

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

While we know a few basics on the history of Bourbon Whiskey, many of the larger questions remain mixed in mystery. Even how the drink got its name is under a bit of a debate - so while I will strive to share what I’ve found, I am adding a disclaimer here that some of this history remains contested and different sources have different theories. 

Despite the ongoing debates about various aspects of Bourbon Whiskey, everyone agrees that it all started in Kentucky. Early settlers to the colonies brought alcohol with them - and residents were brewing their own concoctions as early as 1639, making alcohol out of everything from pumpkins and parsnips to cherries and persimmons PER SIM INS. Apples in New England - still too bitter to enjoy as a food - were instead processed to make hard cider. And before Bourbon Whiskey entered the scene, brandy was the drink of choice for many in the south where they would procure it at a local dram shop. Alcohol played a significant role in the early republic as it was seen as a necessary agent in combating a whole host of ills including malaria. Trading alcohol also helped ease tense relationships with the surrounding indigenous communities who accepted spirits and other goods in trade for game and other commodities. This trading relationship, at least initially, helped avoid violent confrontations as white settlers continued to carve out more and more land as they explored the western frontier. 

As one documentary noted, alcohol was quote “fundamentally among the necessities of colonial life,” end quote. Some of the first laws passed by colonial governments had to do with the consumption and sale of alcohol with rules prohibiting public drunkenness and controlling the rates and fees for the ingredients required to make liquor. There were even early laws on the books that sought to regulate the amount of distilled spirits that were sold and traded - which were often unsuccessfully enforced. During the American Revolution, laws were passed to control the percentage of wheat and barley that went toward distilling liquor, hoping to ensure a proper balance so that the grains could be used to feed the fighting soldiers. However, there was concern that this was a bit of an overreaction and that it would instead lead to a shortage of spirits available for the men on the frontlines. Even George Washington, a distiller in his own right, wrote to Congress to explain that liquor was a needed commodity for active soldiers and it should remain easily accessible. Congress agreed, and voted to ensure a supply of liquor was available to the troops for war.   

Rum, rye whiskey, and distilled liquors were all part of the early republic, but it was rum that dominated the colonies prior to the American Revolution. Rum soon fell out of favor during the war as trade with Britain slowed and Congress, worried that any money spent on rum would eventually end up back in British hands, enacted a tax on the liquor and the molasses used to make it - clearing the path for whiskey - and eventually Bourbon Whiskey - to rise as the preferred liquor of Americans. Whiskey’s development was also aided by the arrival of colonists who came from places like Scotland and northern Ireland and brought a long tradition of whiskey distilling with them. Passed down from generation to generation, these new arrivals would put their knowledge to work as they settled along the frontier. Up north in places like Pennsylvania and Maryland, distillers used rye to distill their whiskey as it was a crop that could grow in the sometimes harsh climates of the northeast. 

Distillers quickly learned they could make 3 gallons of whiskey from 1 bushel of grain - meaning it was an inexpensive product to make and one that could command high returns when bartering for other goods. As settlers continued to move west, paper currency and coins were hard to come by; having inconsistent access to cash, many settlers took to engaging in a bartering system, trading goods with their neighbors and domestically produced whiskey was one commodity that was in high demand. Whiskey generated so much income that after the American Revolution - with the country facing a mountain of debt from the cost of war, first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton suggested imposing a tax on domestic liquor to help pay it off. The idea of paying taxes was about as popular then as it is now and farmers and distillers were incensed at the new tax - especially since it had to be paid in specie - or hard money - instead of what they had at their disposal - whiskey. As the newly formed federal government tried in vain to collect these taxes, collectors were met with animosity and more than one was attacked in their quest to fulfill their duty. This came to a head with the Whiskey Rebellion - which you can learn more about by checking out my episode on the affair back in 2021. I will include a link to the episode in the show notes for this episode. 

But where and when, exactly, does Kentucky come into play? As it turns out - pretty early on. While northern colonists enjoyed whiskey distilled with rye, further south, settlers struggled with growing the grain but seemed to have no issue growing another crop, maize - or corn. Introduced to planters by indigenous communities, the corn crop seemed like a god send that could be used in a variety of ways: it could be eaten off the cob, ground into a coarse meal to make flour, fed to livestock and, perhaps most importantly to this story - could be processed with liquor. Virginia residents were the first to recognize the potential of corn when distilling liquor, but it would turn out to be a combination of natural elements that made Kentucky the one and only place Bourbon would be possible. 

It all came down to the water. Settlers entered the territory that would become Kentucky as early as the 1770s, mainly settling along the numerous natural waterways that peppered the landscape. The climate proved to be quite hospitable for growing corn and residents were able to grow sufficient quantities to support themselves. Early politicians pushed for corn farming in the area - and helped pass the Corn Patch and Cabin Rights Act in 1776 which granted 400 acres to any settlers who built cabins and planted corn. It is believed that the earliest distilling of Bourbon Whiskey was in 1775 when distillers used the limestone spring water which is high in calcium and low in iron, to mix with their ground corn to distill a new corn-based whiskey. These two ingredients are at the heart of every Bourbon made and remain the key ingredients to distilling the amber colored liquid to this day. 

One other key part of making a true Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey has to do with how it is stored. Kentucky Bourbon sits - or ages - in charred oak barrels. The oak allows for water vapors to escape faster than the alcohols, which increases the strength of the whiskey the longer it sits. It remains yet another debated mystery as to who, exactly, decided that storing the corn whiskey in a charred oak barrel was a good idea. There are legends that suggest a Baptist Minister by the name of Elijah Craig obtained a number of oak barrels and decided to burn the interiors to clean them, but there is enough evidence to suggest that he wasn’t the first to do so. Whoever and however the decision was made, charred oak barrels is a key component to Kentucky Bourbon and deviates from its cousin overseas who use casks to store and age their liquor. There is also some science behind what can be accurately called Kentucky Bourbon. To qualify, the liquor must contain at least 51% but no more than 80% corn and must be distilled at less than 160 proof. And what is proof, exactly? 

Proof is how early distillers determined the alcohol’s strength and came from the term “gunpowder proof” when distillers mixed an equal amount of spirit and gunpowder together and lit it on fire. If the powder failed to burn, it was seen as too weak. If it burned bright, it was too strong. But if it burned slowly, evenly, and had a blue flame? It was proofed. 100 proof refers to the volume of alcohol contained in a barrel, with 100 proof equating to roughly 50% alcohol by volume. The legislators who offered up vast amounts of land to compel settlement within the Kentucky territory were incredibly successful - in fact, they were so successful that distillers were faced with a problem: they had too much corn whiskey on hand. Luckily, President Thomas Jefferson helped expand the whiskey market when he completed the Louisiana Purchase. Now, distillers could ship their whiskey to one of the largest and busiest ports in the country: New Orleans. Demand for corn based Kentucky whiskey exploded and distillers sold their liquid gold to the international city for other goods and commodities like bigger stills and copper piping to help increase their production. With such a large market, there was renewed competition to see who could make the best whiskey. 

Distillers also discovered that if you let the corn whiskey sit for a few years, the flavor had a much smoother finish and didn’t come with the bite that was prevalent in younger whiskey’s. Eventually aged Bourbon was hitting the market at a much higher price point than quote unquote new whiskey and distillers worked overtime to ensure they had a properly proofed and appropriately aged corn whiskey for the thirsty customers in New Orleans. But when, exactly, did it go from being call Kentucky Corn Whiskey to Bourbon? Well, that too, is under some debate. 

There is some evidence that the name Bourbon was first used in 1821 by the distillers Stout and Adams who listed their whiskey in the paper The Western Citizen. Stout and Adams did not necessarily choose the moniker Bourbon, but likely used it to denote where exactly in Kentucky the whiskey came from as the distillers set up shot up Bourbon County. The county name was intended to be in honor of the French royal family who aided the colonies during the American Revolution. It also happened to be the area of the territory that housed a large number of distillers. Yet another hypothesis I read speculates that Jacob Spier - who lived and distilled in Bourbon county - was the first to corner the Bourbon market, putting the Bourbon label on his whiskey in 1840. The name Bourbon only helped increase the drink’s popularity in the heavily French populated area surrounding New Orleans, who dedicated a very popular street in honor of the same royal family. While the origins of the title remain under debate, by the Civil War the name Bourbon came to be accepted as the term for Ketucky-made corn whiskey. 

Bourbon remained at the center for early American drinking culture with one of the oldest known cocktails - the Old Fashioned - pouring onto the scene in the early 1800s. The Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktails as it was originally known, called for bourbon or rye whiskey, with a dash of bitters and sweetened with a bit of sugar. According to the Diffords Guide, there were mixed drinks before the Old Fashioned, but it was this spirit forward concoction that was the first to meet the true definition of a cocktail which was published in a newspaper article on May 13th, 1806, quote: “cock-tail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters,” end quote. 

In 1880, several distillers got together to establish the Kentucky Distillers Association. It was one of the most powerful lobbies in the commonwealth and one of the oldest trade associations in the United States. They focused primarily on reducing whiskey based taxes and lowering insurance fees and after going dormant for a few years, re-emerged with new vigor during Prohibition. 

On May 4, 1964, Congress passed a resolution making it official - Bourbon Whiskey would now be considered a distinctive product of the United States and therefore could not and cannot be produced anywhere in the world. Much like champagne from France, anyone who tries to replicate the process to make Bourbon outside the borders of Kentucky must do so under another name. 95% of the world’s supply of Bourbon is produced in Kentucky and the Bourbon industry earns roughly nine billion dollars annually - not too shabby for a liquor made with a mix of corn and water. Bourbon tourism is a major part of Kentucky’s economy and in 1999, the local tourism board launched the Kentucky Bourbon Trail where visitors can enjoy the latest and greatest from some of the area’s finest distillers. 

Bourbon is one heck of a liquor that has stood the test of time and permanently altered drinking culture in the United States. Whether you enjoy it neat, on the rocks, or mixed into a cocktail, Bourbon’s signature taste and amber color make it a distinct choice and one that if you’ve listened to any of the episodes of the patreon series - is one I that would rather pass on. 

A big thanks to Peter who suggested that I look into the history of Bourbon. As usual, it was a fascinating dive into American history and sent me on some interesting historic rabbit holes. If you ever have a topic you’d like me to discuss, let me know. You can find me on most of the socials or through my website at www dot civics and coffee dot com. The website is where you can see source material, transcripts, and learn ways that you can support the show. Whether its through a one time donation via Buy me a Coffee or leaving a review, I always appreciate the support from listeners like you. Lastly, because I’ve plugged it a few times - the website is also where you sign up for the Patreon where - for less than a latte from Starbucks - you get access to my special monthly bonus series, Civics & Cocktails. 

Civics & Cocktails is a more relaxed, definitely more adult, version of Civics & Coffee where I invite friends to chat about history - all over a delicious cocktail. Thus far we’ve covered things like the Petticoat Affair during Andrew Jackson’s administration and the mass murder of the California Ground Squirrels during World War I. I also release a monthly book review sharing my thoughts on some of the great historic scholarship out there. If you haven’t already, consider joining - I’d love to have you there. 

Thanks, peeps. I will see you next week.

Thanks for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Civics & Coffee. If you want to hear more small snippets from american history, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and I look forward to our next cup of coffee together. 

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