"Old Mock" Whiskey

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"Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby mikemakeswine » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:32 am

I came across a few bottles of this and "Old Oscar Peppper". Distillation date is 1916 bottleing date is 1933. The distiller is A.P.H Stitzler. Does anyone have any information on it other than is was used in pharmacies?
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Re: "Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby mozilla » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:25 pm

What kind of information are you in search of? A picture of the bottles would help decipher any clues.
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Re: "Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby TNbourbon » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:35 pm

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Re: "Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby TNbourbon » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:39 pm

deleted duplicate
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Re: "Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby cowdery » Wed Sep 17, 2008 12:41 am

Old Mock is an actual Stitzel-Weller product. I only know about it because Mike Miller got a hold of a case or so and he sells it at his bar, Delilah's, in Chicago. It's kind of his trump card. Pretty hard to beat that in terms of something you can go into a bar and buy by the drink. I forget what he charges for it. It's a lot.

I don't think I've ever seen an Old Oscar Pepper medicinal whiskey. The Pepper family scion by then was James E. Pepper and he sold his own James E. Pepper brand. I think he sold the Oscar Pepper name, probably to Gaines-Berry. So about all I can tell you is that when that was made, the Oscar Pepper brand had nothing to do with the Pepper family. Are they both 1916-1933? That's odd.

Prohibition was repealed in December of 1933, so this would have been some of the last medicinal whiskey bottled.

I can't say that I know of anyone obtaining a bottle of American whiskey that turned out to be counterfeit, but it happens with scotch and cognac from time to time. Were I to counterfeit something, medicinal whiskey would be a good thing to counterfeit. You want to counterfeit something that's valuable but not too valuable, which means rare but not too rare. There's still quite a bit of Prohibition medicinal whiskey about and it can be gotten for a modest price, but let's say that price is $200 a bottle. That might make counterfeiting pretty inviting, so anybody looking to buy that sort of thing should be cautious.
- Chuck Cowdery

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Re: "Old Mock" Whiskey

Unread postby bourbonv » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:00 pm

The "Old Mock" brand was sold by A Ph Stitzel Distillery and W L Weller and Sons during prohibition. It was bottled using bourbon made at the Stitzel distillery. My favorite story about Old Mock is from the Van Winkle papers in the U.D. Archive. A salesman for the distillery in 1934 is in Virginia and writes to Julian Van Winkle that he wants another brand to sell in Virginia because he can not sell Old Mock. He states that the buyers for the state stores tell him that they do not want "Mock" whiskey, they want the real thing. Van Winkle explains that it is real whiskey and the brand has a fine reputation in Kentucky and has one for many years.

Old Oscar Pepper brand became part of the Frankfort Distillery brands during prohibition. It was purchased by Labrot and Graham when they bought the Old Oscar Pepper distillery in the late 1870's. It came to Frankfort Distillery during prohibition and I would assume to Seagram in the 1940's. The brand has not been bottled since at least the 1970's and may have been discontinued before that time. It would be interesting to see who made the whiskey for this bottle. If it was was L&G then you would have an example of whiskey made at the present day Woodford Reserve distillery from before prohibition.
Mike Veach
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