Bourbon Was Long-Aged Before The Civil War

There's a lot of history and 'lore' behind bourbon so discuss both here.

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Bourbon Was Long-Aged Before The Civil War

Unread postby gillmang » Tue Jul 12, 2016 9:47 am

There is a tendency to think that bourbon and rye were very young, primitive drinks before the Civil War.

In fact, the opposite was true, as this new research shows here: http://www.beeretseq.com/most-antebellu ... -aged-not/

The minimum acceptable age was six years and fine whiskey ranged at 10-20 years old - not just as a curiosity, or one-off, but an established practice.

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Re: Bourbon Was Long-Aged Before The Civil War

Unread postby Bourbon Joe » Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:53 pm

Thanks for that Gary.
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Re: Bourbon Was Long-Aged Before The Civil War

Unread postby whiskeytramp » Tue Oct 18, 2016 5:03 pm

I think the general thinking on that is that because of the influence of climate bourbon, as opposed to Scotch where the climate is much lower and steadier, evaporates and takes on the characteristics of it's barrel at a different rate. That sort of assumes the same climate everywhere in the United States which is a somewhat dubious assumption but it's not entirely wrong either. I know I visited the Virginia Distillery in Lovingston Virginia and they make a single malt (now they are importing from Scotland and aging here but are in the process of making their own) and they said that there's no doubt the difference in climate in Virginia as opposed to Scotland does have an influence on the aging process. You have to be much more careful about rotating your stock, I think, for one.
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