BourbonEnthusiast.com

The letter book from 1871-72 OFC distillery states that Taylor created the brand in November 1870 and that "OFC" stands for "Old Fashioned Copper". It is interesting in that Stagg changed that to "Old Fire Copper" after the settlement of the laws suits with Taylor.

Now that is quite an interesting tidbit of bourbon trivia, Mike! I have read in different books that the 'F' is Fire in some and Fashioned in others. So now we know that both are true and why and when.

Perhaps Buffalo Trace will revive the O.F.C. brand as "Ol' Funky Chicken"!



ima

Linn,
Buffalo Trace can not "revive" the OFC brand because it still exists as the Canadian whisky Schenley created in the 50's. I an not sure who owns the Canadian operations from U.D. now, but I don't think it is Buffalo Trace.

Oh well! I guess that makes O.F.C. just an 'Other Flippin' Canadian'.

Officially Schenley had a contest amongst its employees to decide what "OFC" would stand for and they decided "Oldest, Finest, Canadian". I personally like "Oh, F--k! Canadian!" This was amongst the paperwork for the contest. Evidently someone at Stagg was not thrilled that the brand was being made into a Canadian whisky.

This "old fogey Canadian" can attest that Schenley OFC is still made in the Valleyfield, Quebec distillery built by Schenley in about 1945. That distillery is now owned by Barton Brands as far as I know, so it owns OFC. It is still quite a popular whisky here. I find it odd that OFC was selected to transmute into a Canadian brand. OFC to my mind is very rye-leaning and yet I understand it was a famous bourbon name. I would think Schenley would have used the good bourbon it made to flavor the brand (or make something like that bourbon in Canada if it was intent on using Canadian-produced flavoring whisky). However, a Canadian rye palate was selected, it seems. Maybe this is because at the time (circa- 1940's) the Canadian taste was firmly for rye albeit in dilute form. Today, my sense is many Canadian ryes incline to a bourbonish palate. I think Crown Royal does (and it seems clear real bourbon is used in CR although how much I do not know). I don't see why Barton couldn't use OFC as a bourbon name in the U.S., but I don't know the legalities and perhaps the way the trade marks for OFC have been registered that can't be done.

OFC is pretty good Canadian whisky and even Mike has to admit that the Alberta Distillers rye whisky we tasted at Gayle's wasn't so bad.

Gary

Gary (Old Fogey Canadian! I like it),
I always thought the OFC was a decent Canadian product when I was with United Distillers. It was Canadian, but it seemed a little more flavorfull than some of the other Canadians in the UD portfolio, but not as flavorfull as bourbon. The Canadian rye you brought me last month really is a nice product. It is too bad that type of taste is not more common in Canadian whiskies.

Now that you mention Barton Brands I recall that they did acqire the Canadian operations with the brand sale that included Kentucky Tavern and the Glenmore brands and bottling operations. I would suspect that if they tried to bring the brand back as a bourbon then someone at Buffalo Trace might object making it more costly than it would be worth.

As you can see here, on the only OFC bottle we have left in the store -- a 200ml -- the current tag is "Original Fine Canadian". Also note the additional reference to Lethbridge.

Thanks Tim, I see they've got the Lethbridge distillery also owned by Barton on there. Clearly OFC may be a blend of both Valleyfield, Quebec and Lethbridge, Alberta spirit. Interesting how OFC has been a flexible abbreviation over the years..

Gary

Gary,
The U D Archive has the Schenley news magazines from the 40's and 50's. They have many articles about the entry into the Canadian Whisky market with articles about their two distilleries - one in Quebec and the other in Alberta. The next time you are in town I will try to get you in the archive to look at the articles if you wish.

The OFC certainly has stood for many things. It seems to me they changed it from Oldest, Finest Canadian to something else when Rosenstiel sold the company and that UD may have changed yet again, but since Canadian was never a main point of research for me while employed at UD, I never really looked into it too deeply. The current statement may be something different still.

I just found in a ledger that the distiller at the OFC distillery in 1878-1879 was named L A DeLime and earned $150.00 per month as distiller. Taylor's salary as book keeper was only $75.00 per month. Gregory and Stagg paid their distiller more than the former owner.

Some additional information on DeLime. He was distiller at OFC as far back as 1874 and may have been there when Taylor Opened the distillery. He was born in France about 1830 and is listed in the 1880 census as a distiller so he was probably still at the distillery in 1880. He was married with two children. The $150.00 figure seems to be the standard rate for a month's work as a distiller. W F Mitchell was making the same amount at Old Oscar Pepper in the same period.