Old Crow (whiskey)
Old Crow is a whiskey brand for affordable bourbon whiskey from the Beam Suntory Corporation. The origins of bourbon go back to 1835 and the bourbon pioneer James C. Crow . Old Crow is sold as a three year aged Old Crow with an alcohol content of 40% and a four year aged Old Crow Reserve with an alcohol content of 43%. Once one of the most successful and highly regarded bourbons in the world, Old Crow is now a brand in the lowest price segment of the Beam Suntory group.
history
James C. Crow had studied medicine and chemistry in Scotland before he emigrated to the USA and worked there as a master distiller. Numerous innovations in bourbon production, such as working with sour mash , go back to him. Above all, however, he used his methods to ensure that his whiskey reliably received a consistent quality. Although never produced in large numbers and although twice as expensive as whiskey on average during this period, Crows whiskey spread throughout the USA and found prominent followers from Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster to Mark Twain . The first written document exists about Crows Whiskey that explicitly speaks of an "amber-colored whiskey", that is, a bourbon that was not sold immediately after it was distilled, but matured in barrels for a few months. Crow worked for most of his life in the Old Pepper Distillery (now Woodford Reserve ) in Kentucky.
After Crow and Pepper died, whiskey industrialist EH Taylor Jr. bought the recipe, distillery, and remaining supplies of the Crow whiskey from the Pepper heirs. The new master distiller was Mitchell, who passed the recipe and Crow's methods on to Van Johnson at the turn of the century. In 1878 Taylor sold the Old Pepper Distillery and built a new Old Crow Distillery on the same river ( Glenn's Creek ) and on the same street as the Old Pepper Distillery, just closer to Kentucky's capital, Frankfort . There, Old Crow was made according to the old recipe until Prohibition and immediately thereafter. The grain mix from which Old Crow was distilled at the time consisted of about 75–80% corn, 12–15% malted barley and 8–10% rye.
After the end of Prohibition, United Distillers bought equipment, supplies and recipe and expanded the distillery significantly. During World War II, American whiskey distilleries no longer produced whiskey, but instead produced neutral alcohol for use by the American military. The distillery was rebuilt for this purpose so that it could produce alcohol with an alcohol content of more than 95%. After whiskey production resumed after the end of World War II, Old Crow was one of the best-selling whiskey brands in the world. For the title of best-selling bourbon in the USA, Old Crow fought primarily with Early Times , Ancient Age and Jim Beam . From the 1950s to 1970, however, Old Crow was the best-selling bourbon in the world. Since 1952, the distillery has not only sold 50% whiskey, but also brought a variant with 43% alcohol onto the market. In 1965 the brand expanded into the Federal Republic of Germany.
Further major expansions and renovations took place in the distillery in the 1960s, when it expanded its capacities considerably. However, during the renovations, the manufacturers accidentally changed the recipe. The proportion of sour mash - that is, mash that was left over from the previous distillation process and added to the new grain mix to ensure a consistent taste - was changed, which affected the taste of the whiskey. Although sales figures fell continuously and both customers and internal test rounds complained about the taste, United Distillers did not change the recipe back into the 1980s. In 1970, Old Crow lost the place of best-selling bourbon to Jim Beam. The entire bourbon market collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s, but no brand lost as much market share as Old Crow. Previously consistently number 1 or 2 of the best-selling bourbons, Old Crow wasn't even in the top 10 in the 1980s.
In 1987 Jim Beam bought the distillery, brand name and supplies. Jim Beam closed the distillery and has been producing Old Crow in his own distilleries ever since. The recipe that Jim Beam uses for this is the same as for Jim Beam himself. However, Old Crow is shorter in storage than Jim Beam and when blending is geared towards a slightly lighter taste than Jim Beam White Label.
The distillery that produced Old Crow until 1878 is now the Woodford Reserve distillery, the buildings of which essentially date from 1867. The former Old Crow distillery was abandoned between 1987 and 2014 and fell into disrepair. In the midst of the bourbon boom since the 2000s, two entrepreneurs bought the building in December 2013 with the aim of brewing bourbon again in a microdistillery with an attached restaurant.
Remarks
- ^ Gilbert Delos: Les Whiskeys du Monde. Translation from French: Karin-Jutta Hofmann: Whiskey from all over the world. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-442-7 , p. 140 f.
- ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky. Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 111.
- ^ A b C. K. Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 112
- ^ A b c d C. K. Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 113
- ^ A b F. Paul Pacult: American Still Life. The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World's # 1 Bourbon. Wiley, Hoboken NJ 2003, ISBN 0-471-44407-3 . P. 226
- ↑ key instead of ky , Der Spiegel November 3, 1965
- ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 114
- ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky, Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 115
- ↑ Staff: Old Crow Distillery will return to operation , Louisville Business First June 16, 2014