Broad Ripple Whiskey

[cowdery]

As Mike and John know but maybe some others do not, the Frankfort Distillery was originally at Forks of Elkhorn in Frankfort. It was owned by the Paul Jones Company, makers of Four Roses. It was emptied out during Prohibition. After Prohibition it was reestablished in Shively and did distill there, with Joe Beam and a couple of his sons in charge, though they didn't make it through World War II. The distillery was bought by Seagram's, used to make industrial alcohol, and closed immediately after the war. Seagram's built its new post-Prohibition distillery nearby. Some of the property may even be adjacent but I know that a few years ago, Brown-Forman was using part of the old Frankfort/Four Roses plant to knock down used barrels for shipment to Scotland. One of the warehouses from that site was demolished about 10 years ago. This is all off the top of my head so some of the particulars may not be quite right, much like the top of my head.

[cowdery]

In Milwaukee over the weekend, someone brought in a bottle of "Whiskey" that had been made by National Distillers in Milwaukee. It appeared to have been made very early in the post-Prohibition period and seemed too dark in color to have been aged naturally, i.e., I suspect a lot of caramel coloring. There was a lot of very rough product produced during that period, just to try to get something on the market while the good stuff aged.