Stillbrook

Have an old/rare bottle you'd like some more info on?

Moderator: Squire

Stillbrook

Unread postby Conny » Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:01 pm

I have a bottle of Stillbrook Bourbon.
I can't find anything about this kind of bottle.
Can someone tell me something more about Stillbrook Bourbon?
What is this bottle worth?
Is this a nice Bourbon to drink?
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Squire » Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:31 pm

Sorry Conny, I can't make out enough from the photos (glare washes out the words) to say specifically. I am familiar with this brand from the late 1960s but without clear information am unable to say more.
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Conny » Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:56 am

Squire wrote:Sorry Conny, I can't make out enough from the photos (glare washes out the words) to say specifically. I am familiar with this brand from the late 1960s but without clear information am unable to say more.


Hi Squire, thanks for your response.
I have enlarged the photos, maybe you see more now.
The story of this bottle is that somebody swopped it with american soldiers in WW2 for a bottle of jenever (=Dutch Gin).
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Squire » Thu Sep 24, 2015 10:10 am

Ah, thought so. Stillbrook was a product of The American Distilling Co. who registered the brand from the company beginning in 1892 until it was closed by Prohibition in 1920. The Pekin, Illinois distillery owned by American Distilling survived and is today owned by MGPI who use the plant to produce both food and industrial grade alcohol.

Stillbrook was revived as a brand under different ownership in the 1930s and continued until, I believe, the 1970s or 80s. Could still be around as a cheap blend in some markets, really don't know. Stillbrook was always a mass market, value item designed to compete on price and bottled to minimum standards (4 years old, 80 proof). By the mid 1960s it was also sold as a blend.

Need a bit more information to help date your bottle. Has it been opened? The seal around the neck appears to have separated from the top portion. Is the neck seal plastic?
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Conny » Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:39 pm

I didn't open the bottle. But is it been opened over the past seventy years? ... I don't think so, but i'm not 100% sure.
The neck seal is paper.
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Squire » Thu Sep 24, 2015 7:59 pm

Paper is probably 50s or 60s, plastic 70s. I was guessing from the upper serrated edge of the neck wrap over whether the bottle had been opened. I apologize for calling it a seal, that's misleading, actually it is a covering wrap that extended up the sides of the neck to the top of the cap closure, forerunner of the modern tamper proof seal. If the single paper strips going up the sides of the neck and over the top of the cap are fully intact the bottle has not been opened. If they are broken at the lower edge of the cap the bottle has been opened.

Doesn't mean the whisky has gone bad or anything, but it does mean the bottle cannot be sold by an auction house which is about the only legal way an individual can sell a bottle of spirits.
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Conny » Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:39 am

This bottle has been swopped with American soldiers in WW2, so it should be from the 40s!?
What if the seals were intact, what is this bottle than worth?
And is this a nice whisky to drink?
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Squire » Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:47 am

If the whisky is not tainted (doesn't look like it is) it should be drinkable but this was not considered to be a high quality brand. If it was bottled during WW2 the whisky would have been distilled around 75 years ago. The only way to determine if it's still drinkable is open the bottle for a sample.

I would consult with an auction house to estimate value.
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Re: Stillbrook

Unread postby Conny » Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:56 pm

Thanks a lot for your help! :thumbright:
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