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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409300927892850912016-05-27T09:49:30.800-05:00The Chuck Cowdery Blogamerican whiskey & other stuffChuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-36635867657546812982016-05-20T14:39:00.000-05:002016-05-20T15:22:09.635-05:00Master Distiller Greg Metze Leaving MGP of Indiana

Master Distiller Greg Metze

MGP Ingredients, Inc. today announced that Greg Metze, master distiller at MGP of Indiana, is departing after 38 years of service. MGP President and CEO Gus Griffin said, "We appreciate all that Greg has done for us and the outstanding mentoring he has provided to the next generation of our master distillers. We wish Greg the best of luck with any endeavors he may pursue in the future."

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Asked about the naming of a successor, an MGP spokesperson said this: "MGP has developed a solid base of talent, including a team of other master distillers and experts within the company who have greatly benefited from Greg's many years of mentoring. We will be making an announcement in the future about specific personnel moves."<o:p></o:p>

Metze spent all 38 years at the Lawrenceburg, Indiana, distillery which makes whiskey, vodka, and gin. He was named a master distiller in 2000. As he said in a 2013 company press release, "As in my case in Lawrenceburg, this position has always been achieved through on-the-job training and a lengthy internship under a master distiller mentor. I had the privilege of studying under Larry Ebersold, who was a master distiller here for 20 years. Learning all aspects of the facility, equipment, processes and quality control measures is extremely important since making quality spirits and whiskey is an art and science that depends on this knowledge. Additionally, although a background in chemical engineering is not an absolute requirement, it is extremely beneficial."<o:p></o:p>

Metze has been an MGP employee only since 2011, when MGP bought the distillery then known as LDI from its owners, CL Financial. CL bought it in 2007 through its Angostura subsidiary, which also bought the shuttered Medley Distillery in Owensboro, Kentucky. CL Financial collapsed during the 2008 worldwide financial crises and LDI was on its last legs when MGP bought it. Industry sources say MGP bought the whole distillery for just the value of its inventory. <o:p></o:p>

MGP's timing could not have been better because now the distillery is thriving.<o:p></o:p>

Before Angostura and CL, Metze was an employee of Pernod Ricard, which acquired the distillery as part of the Seagrams break-up in 2000. Pernod never really wanted the facility and began to shop it almost immediately. In 2006 it announced that if the plant could not be sold by 2008, it would be closed.<o:p></o:p>

Originally, Metze was a Seagrams employee. Seagrams bought the Lawrenceburg distillery during Prohibition and rebuilt it substantially after repeal. All of the buildings still bear the Seagrams name in gigantic letters and most locals still call it by that name. Seagrams used it to make a variety of products, primarily Seagrams Seven Crown American Blended Whiskey and Seagrams Gin. Pernod began the practice of selling its whiskeys, including its now highly regarded 95% rye, on the open market in about 2004. Some of the first customers, such as High West in Utah, learned about the whiskey's availability through Jim Rutledge at Four Roses, himself a long time Seagrams master distiller.<o:p></o:p>

In the post-Prohibition era, Seagrams always had a reputation for producing first rate distillers because of its exceptional distiller training program. In addition to Metze, Ebersold, and Rutledge other well-known graduates of the Seagrams program include Ova Haney, David Scheurich, and Glenn Glaser. <o:p></o:p>

According to Metze (in that 2013 release), the master distiller monitors production schedules, product quality and multiple steps in the production process including yeast propagation. Other day-to-day tasks involve making sure all standard operating procedures are followed and that all product specifications and organoleptic standards are met. There is considerable interaction with distillery operators and other internal colleagues to provide assistance and expertise in coordinating logistical issues.<o:p></o:p>

"Many customers rely on the expertise of the master distiller to ensure the creation of products that are superior and unique to others in the market," said Metze. "Producing what are considered to be among the finest spirits and whiskeys in the world is very gratifying. Customer satisfaction is the purest form of a compliment. As such, I take great pride in being able to utilize my background and experience to directly assist in delivering the results customers want. While challenging at times, solving equipment and process issues can also be uplifting experiences. Additionally, being able to perform an active role in developing unique and innovative techniques, distilling methods and mash bills is extremely rewarding."<o:p></o:p>

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-23891425559573678092016-05-14T17:51:00.000-05:002016-05-16T18:50:02.290-05:00Labor of Love. What I Did for Booker's Rye

Fred Noe demonstrates the proper way to apply the wax 'B' emblem and ribbon to a bottle of Booker's Rye.

That is Fred Noe, the great-grandson of Jim Beam, showing us how to finish a bottle of Booker's Rye. After Fred's photogenic demonstration we were trained by the Beam employees who do this for a living. Then our band of ink-stained wretches was ready to try our hands at it.

Booker's Rye is a limited release and each bottle is hand-numbered. If you get one of the first 120 or so, you can enjoy our handiwork.

The bottles were already filled, corked, and labeled when we got them. We just applied a few finishing touches.

Write the bottle number on the neck label.

Affix the self-adhesive wax 'B' and ribbon emblem to the bottle.

Apply tear tape to the bottle closure, leaving a small tab.

Dip the bottle in green wax. Remove and angle it so the excess wax drips off.

Place it in the rotating drying rack.

Remove bottle from the rack, inspect the wax, and trim if necessary.

Position bottle in its wooden box.

Slide the clear front of the box into position.

Fasten the front to the box by looping the leather thong over the screw head.

Place finished package in the shipping case.

In case you haven't heard, Booker's Rye is a limited edition that will be in stores soon. It is a genuinely small batch of whiskey that Booker Noe made shortly before his death in 2004. It uses a different mash bill from the standard Beam rye recipe with a higher rye content. They won't give exact amounts, but the standard Jim Beam rye recipe, like most, is 'barely legal' at not much more than 51 percent rye. Booker's Rye is probably 60 to 70 percent rye, based on how it tastes.

And how it tastes is quite good. They probably chose just the right time to harvest it because there is a good balance between the grain and barrel notes, always a concern when age gets into double digits. As we know from the MGP 95 percent ryes, you need some corn for body. Booker's Rye gets that balance right too.

It's a very good whiskey but because it is so limited, it will cost $300 a bottle. It should be in stores soon, but it won't last long. If you are interested, the time to consult your whiskey monger is now.

The room set up for the finishing tasks was adjacent to one of the automated high speed bottling lines. That room probably bottled and labeled 1,000 bottles for every one of ours. It was hot in there and the pressure of that kind of work is to be very precise while also moving at a reasonably fast clip. What Fred is using in the picture is a guide that helps put the 'B' in exactly the right place, at a particular height and aligned between the 'e' and 'r' in Booker's on the main face label. You also have to get it on straight. Applying the tear tape is surprisingly difficult, because you have to be careful about allowing any wrinkles. You have to wear protective gloves to dip the bottles in the hot wax. Holding it by the base, you lower the top of the bottle straight down into the wax until it just covers the 'B.' Then you pull it out and hold it at an angle, aligned so that the excess wax drips off the tear tab.

The rotating drying rack was obviously made just for this purpose. Bottle are inserted so they are angled down, with the tear tab at the lowest point. You have to put it in carefully to avoid damaging the wax, but you can't take too long because it is moving. The wax sets up quickly so that by the time the wheel has rotated 180° the bottle can be removed and boxed.

We weren't told in advance that they were going to work us so hard. The itinerary just said "Booker's Rye experience." But it was fun and it's always interesting to meet some of the many Beam employees who make Fred and the other bosses look good.

In an attempt to make him look too good, the Booker's Rye fact sheet says "Fred Noe personally tastes and selects every barrel of Booker's Bourbon before it is bottled." This is not true. Each batch of Booker's consists of 350 to 375 barrels and they produce six batches per year. Fred works hard but he isn't tasting and evaluating 2,250 samples every year just for Booker's. (He has many other things to sample too.)

What Fred does is sample a barrel from each production run that has been nominated to be a component in a Booker's batch. That amounts to a dozen or so samples, not 375. Other people taste them too.

A bottling batch usually contains three to five different barrel lots. Each lot consists of 50 to 100 barrels, all made on the same day and aged in the same warehouse location. In the case of Booker's Rye there were only 100 barrels made. They were all made on the same day but they were stored in a couple of different warehouse locations. Again, every lot was tasted but not all 100 barrels.

Still and all, a lot goes into making a bottle of whiskey so all we have to do is open, pour, and drink it.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-26638586283572020762016-05-06T14:49:00.000-05:002016-05-06T14:49:01.480-05:00Hey, Mint Julep. Your One-Day-a-Year Is Here

If ever there was a special occasion drink, it is the mint julep, so closely is it associated with the Kentucky Derby, which is tomorrow, May 7, at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Since the Derby is always run on the first Saturday in May, this is the latest it can be.

Many people misunderstand the mint julep. It is not a cocktail in the ordinary sense. It is more of a shooter. A mint julep should be made quickly, served immediately and consumed promptly, before the ice starts to melt and turn the drink watery.

The julep is at its peak of flavor the instant it is completed. Every moment that passes thereafter diminishes its quality. There should be just enough liquid in the glass for one or two good swallows.

Taken appropriately in a suitable context the mint julep is delightful. Its sensuality can be nearly overpowering.

Secret: many Kentuckians on Derby Day have one julep, then switch back to what they usually drink, which is usually Bud Light.

As for a recipe, here is the simplest one I know that is authentic, tasty, and easy. First, muddle some fresh mint leaves with one tablespoon of powdered sugar and a like amount of water. There are some specialized tools for doing this, but a spoon works fine.

How much mint? If you have plenty, use it liberally. It's hard to use too much.

"Muddle" just means work everything together until the mint leaves have been crushed and the sugar is dissolved, forming a kind of paste. Fill the glass with crushed ice, then with bourbon. Stir vigorously for a few seconds. Garnish with more fresh mint leaves. Serve and drink immediately.

To make multiple juleps at the same time, have your ice and bourbon ready. Then in a bowl make enough muddle (the mint, sugar, water mixture) for one round. Place some of the muddle mixture into the bottom of each glass. Fill each glass with ice, bourbon and mint leaf garnish, stir, and serve.

Although there are various ways to get mint flavor into a drink, the use of fresh mint is essential for an authentic mint julep experience. The fresher the better. Just-picked is best. The stuff is easy to grow.

As for glassware, a sterling silver julep cup is the traditional container. They hold between 9 and 12 ounces and cost several hundred dollars each. Silverplate and pewter are also common. A metal glass has some obvious advantages.

The julep in general and the mint julep in particular are both very old, much older even than the 141-year-old Kentucky Derby. John Milton mentions the "cordial Julep" in a poem from 1673. It or similar words occur in many languages. It first appears in English in 1400 and means a syrup of water and sugar.

The mint julep is specifically American and was originally intended as an 'eye opener' to start the day. In an era when most distilled spirits were unaged and nasty, concoctions like the mint julep were invented to make the green whiskey more palatable by overpowering it with sweetness and masking it with aromatic mint.

In Kentucky, the julep is always made with bourbon whiskey but in the Old Dominion (Virginia), rye whiskey is preferred.

Each year, some mixologists try their hand at mint julep variations. Charles Joly has one this year that uses Woodford Reserve Bourbon and fresh mint, and gets its extra sweetness from Koval ginger liqueur and honey syrup. Then he rounds it out with a little lemon juice. He calls it the Prospector's Julep.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-42699882421031373542016-05-04T11:59:00.000-05:002016-05-04T12:53:15.663-05:00Beam Suntory Makes Statement about 50 Cent Vodka Brouhaha

Actor-rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) is all over the news today, at least in southwestern Ohio, because of a video he posted in which he mocks a handicapped teenager who 'Fitty' thought might be on drugs. The performer was in Cincinnati doing promotion for Effen Vodka, for which he is a paid endorser. Now major stores and bars in the region, including where he had just appeared, are boycotting Effen in protest. Upcoming appearances by 50 Cent in St Louis have been cancelled because of the flap.

He has since apologized but the damage is probably done. No one in the retail community is in a hurry to get the brand back on the shelves. Boycotting Effen is a pretty low-cost protest for the retailers since the brand is not a big seller in a category jammed with alternatives.

So far, none of the news accounts have mentioned that Beam Suntory is the brand owner. Might the boycott spread to other Beam Suntory products such as Jim Beam itself?

What does Beam Suntory have to say about it? Just this.

"As a brand that considers social responsibility the highest of priorities, EFFEN® Vodka does not condone the recent behavior of 50 Cent. We have expressed to him our profound disappointment for his actions, which are in no way representative of the brand's values."

That probably won't be enough. They should have fired him immediately, before the Beam Suntory name gets dragged into it as it inevitably will. Now, in a way, they can't since they have publicly admonished him and he has expressed contrition.

Beam acquired Effen Vodka in 2009 in an odd deal that sent Old Taylor Bourbon to Sazerac. The brand's creator, Constellation Brands, had dumped it along with a basket full of other cats and dogs when it decided to reduce its footprint in distilled spirits.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-42528303743101478972016-05-02T19:16:00.000-05:002016-05-03T12:28:04.581-05:00Jim Beam Is Filling 500,000 Barrels a Year. That Is the Real Story

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe fondle barrel number 14,000,000.

Jim Beam (Beam Suntory) filled its 14 millionth barrel today. That is 14 million barrels (53 gallons each) since the distillery reopened after Prohibition. Put another way, it is 14 million barrels in 83 years. That averages out to 168,675 barrels per year, but it has been just two years since barrel number 13 million was filled, so the current rate is 500,000 barrels a year. That is the key information to take from this milestone.

Not only is bourbon booming today, this means the major producers believe it will continue booming for many years to come.

Million-barrel milestones are a traditional photo opportunity for Kentucky's biggest distilleries. Today Matt Bevin, Kentucky's new governor, joined the festivities at Beam's Clermont distillery in Bullitt County. For the milestone, Beam counts barrels filled there and at the Booker Noe Distillery in Nelson County. It does not count barrels produced at Beam Suntory's Maker's Mark Distillery in Marion County.

"Kentucky bourbon has become not only an American icon, but an international symbol of our proud heritage and craftsmanship," said Governor Bevin. "I'm pleased to toast Jim Beam's impressive milestone, rich history and spirited future."

Kentucky's whiskey-makers did well during the eight years Steve Beshear was governor. Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers Association, took office shortly after Beshear did, so he has never worked with any other governor. Bevin, a Republican, succeeded Beshear, a Democrat, who had succeeded a Republican, Ernie Fletcher, but the current productive partnership between the state and one of its signature industries mostly developed under Beshear.

Bourbon is crucial to Kentucky's economy, in terms of whiskey production and its associated industries (e.g., cooperage), as well as its contribution to tourism (Kentucky's third largest industry). According to the Kentucky Distillers' Association, bourbon is now a $3 billion industry in the state, providing more than 15,000 jobs and generating more than $166 million in tax revenues annually. Over the past five years, the bourbon industry has grown 35 percent. Over the next five years, Beam Suntory alone plans to invest more than $1 billion to make bourbon in the Commonwealth.

Virtually all of the growth in bourbon production, distillery expansion, new distillery development, and bourbon tourism occurred during the Beshear administration. He showed up at just about every event, to welcome new distilleries to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, to honor Master Distillers, and to commemorate industry milestones. It was something Kentuckians and industry watchers had never seen before, their governor arm-in-arm with the commonwealth's whiskey interests.

Many Kentucky producers, large and small, and many others involved with the industry held their breath when the administrations turned over this past December. Bevin ran as a pro-business conservative, but also as a social conservative. Many of his supporters are rabidly against alcohol consumption in any form. Bevin was also a wild card because he had never held elective office before. It was impossible to know for sure if there would be any change in Frankfort for the whiskey industry.

Bevin also attended today's groundbreaking for the new Luxco Distillery just outside of Bardstown.

So it is good, reassuring, to see Governor Bevin at a distillery, pounding in a bung, and smiling for pictures with his hand on a whiskey barrel. We hope he will be supportive in more tangible ways too.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-14242089132370989592016-04-28T16:38:00.000-05:002016-04-28T16:38:21.513-05:00Here Is the Scoop on Jim Rutledge from the Man Himself

Rumors about Jim Rutledge have been burning up the interwebs for the last few days. Today, he revealed his plans. To get right to the heart of the matter, click on "Jim's Message" and watch the video.

Just in case you don't know, which is hard to imagine, Rutledge was Master Distiller at Four Roses Distillery for nearly 21 years. He has been in the distilling business for 50 years, most of that with Seagrams and its successors, until Four Roses was sold to Kirin in 2002. He started out at Seagram's Calvert Distillery in Shively (a Louisville suburb).

Rutledge was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in the inaugural class (2001) along with Parker Beam, Lincoln Henderson, Elmer T. Lee, Fred McMillen, Booker Noe, Jimmy Russell, and Bill Samuels, Jr. He served on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Distillers Association for 13 years and on the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival for 9 years – the last 7 years as Chairman.

Without his advocacy, it is possible Four Roses Bourbon would never have been re-introduced into the U.S. market. His initial argument was that they should at least sell it in Kentucky so the people who made it could buy it. He then led the brand's re-launch into all 50 states, in the process visiting most of them as brand ambassador.

His partners in the new venture are a lawyer and a finance guy, both of whom are industry veterans.

They plan to raise some of their capital through crowdfunding, but that site won't go live until next week.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-79001428431119351382016-04-25T17:07:00.000-05:002016-04-25T18:44:50.179-05:00We've Got Trouble, Right Here in Derby City

Jay Blevins is missing.

The 41-year-old former co-owner of Louisville's Derby City Spirits (formerly Derby City Shine) is accused of stealing thousands of dollars by renting out an event space at the distillery he no longer owns. He has been missing for several weeks and no one seems to know where he is.

Last September, Blevins and partner Harrison Hyden were in trouble for distilling without the necessary state and local licenses. A year before that, it was all upbeat as Blevins and Hyden looked set to revitalize a shuttered bar in Phoenix Hill, a long-popular Louisville entertainment neighborhood that has seen better days.

It was a large space and they had big plans for it. They said they would be the city's first craft distillery featuring a full line of spirits, including vodka, rum, gin and flavored 'moonshine.' All of their spirits would have a cane sugar base. Plans included an event space, bar, 'mock' casino, and retail store. It all seems faintly preposterous now, in light of the collapse, but even a year ago coverage was glowing in the local press.

Earlier this year, when Blevins and Hyden were unable to sort out their licensing issues, they sold the business to one of their investors. Blevins, meanwhile, started to take deposits to rent the distillery's event space, even though he no longer owned it, and it still didn't have the necessary permits. He still had keys to the place and showed it to people who paid up to $2,500 to rent it for wedding receptions and other events. Catering, he told them, would be handled by a nearby restaurant. When people began to show up for their events only to find the space locked, Jay Blevins took off.

All of that was bad enough, but now with the police involved and the local press taking a hard look, things have begun to get really weird.

In Louisville, Blevins left behind his business partner as well as his fiancée and their newborn son. Since 2009, when he moved to Louisville and started to work at Buckhead Mountain Grill, a chain restaurant with two Louisville-area locations, everyone knew him as Jay, only that isn't his real name. He is really Benjamin Blevins, brother of the real John 'Jay' Blevins, who still lives in Tennessee where they are both from. The real Jay Blevins has made several criminal complaints against his brother for identity theft.

You can understand why Benjamin Blevins might want to pose as his law-abiding brother. Benjamin Blevins has a string of criminal arrests and convictions in both Tennessee and North Carolina, including check kiting, money laundering, breaking and entering, forgery, possession of stolen goods, and...well, you get the picture.

In retrospect there were probably signs. The distillery plans seemed both vague and overly grand. With dozens of craft distilleries opening left and right, the template for doing it legally seems pretty well known. Maybe friends should have become suspicious when he spelled his name 'Blevenzze' on his Facebook page.

So far, only Blevins is accused of any wrongdoing. Everyone else seem to have been taken in by a 'good guy' who seemed to be a hard worker. The new owner still hopes to make the business a reality. We will see but, clearly, the Derby City name deserves better.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-49678579051117769572016-04-15T08:00:00.000-05:002016-04-15T21:22:25.432-05:00Are Whiskey Warehouses 'Agricultural'?

Warehouses at the Willett Distillery (Bardstown) back in the day.

The Lexington Herald Leader reported Wednesday that Brown-Forman wants to build twelve bourbon warehouses near Midway on land zoned for agricultural use. This raised the question of whether or not bourbon aging is an agricultural pursuit. The site is in Woodford County and would serve Brown-Forman's Woodford Reserve Distillery. The warehouses will be built over a 12-year period. When completed they will have a capacity of 900,000 barrels.

Before it can go forward, the proposal must be approved by the Woodford County Board of Adjustment, which has forwarded it to the county's Agricultural Advisory Review Committee. Some members have expressed skepticism. "It does seem kind of a stretch to call the making of bourbon an agricultural enterprise," said one of them.

Bourbon warehouses can be built close together in an industrial park or other places zoned for industry, but a site with lots of land where the buildings can be widely spaced has advantages. It is safer from the standpoint of fires, and good for the whiskey because of better air circulation. A rural site with few neighbors avoids complaints about the inevitable harmless black fungus that always grows near whiskey warehouses. Using land zoned for agricultural use also has tax advantages.

If bourbon aging is not an agricultural activity, it would be equally hard to call it an industrial activity. No processing is done on the whiskey in the warehouses. No machines are involved. There are no moving parts. Rural warehouses, unlike urban ones, have no climate controls beyond opening and closing the windows. Putting new barrels in and taking mature barrels out is just about the only activity.

If bourbon aging is not an agricultural use, it is certainly compatible with such use. At the Four Roses warehousing site at Cox's Creek, cows graze on the grass between buildings.

When Kentucky was a major producer of tobacco, nobody argued that tobacco warehouses were not an agricultural use.

The reality is probably that bourbon aging is a unique land use, not anticipated in normal distinctions between agricultural, industrial and commercial classifications. If any state can sort that out and accommodate it correctly, that state should be Kentucky.

As a footnote, this is another example of the fine job the Lexington Herald-Leader does covering the state's whiskey-making business. They are the best in the state.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-63400805254675602452016-04-13T08:00:00.000-05:002016-04-14T13:52:21.142-05:00New Bourbons from Brown-Forman and Beam Suntory Emphasize the Role of Wood

Brown-Forman is the only major American whiskey distiller that also owns cooperages and makes all of its own barrels, a fact celebrated by its new bourbon, Coopers' Craft. Beam Suntory buys barrels from Independent Stave Company and others, and had to buy twice as many to make its new bourbon, Jim Beam Double Oak.

Brown-Forman's last new bourbon brand was Woodford Reserve, launched 20 years ago. Made at the Brown-Forman Distillery where Old Forester and Early Times are also made, Coopers' Craft has its own unique mash bill of 75 percent corn, 15 percent rye, and 10 percent malted barley. That is a little less rye than the Old Forester/Woodford Reserve recipe (18 percent) and a little more than Early Times (11 percent).

But that's not what Coopers' Craft is about. It is, instead, "a celebration of barrel-making and a recognition of the importance of wood when it comes to crafting bourbon. In addition to being matured in barrels raised by master coopers at the Brown-Forman Cooperage, Coopers' Craft is crafted using a special beech and birch charcoal filter finishing process, creating a smooth and flavorful bourbon."

Do you think they want to position this as a craft whiskey?

The Coopers' Craft neck label describes it as "Toasted Wood Whiskey," but the press release is silent about what that means. An inquiry produced this explanation: "Toasted wood whiskey is the result of Brown-Forman Cooperage's proprietary process during which we toast the staves ahead of charring."

Although it is not always done, stave toasting is nothing new. It involves heating the wood enough to change its characteristics without setting it on fire, which is the charring process that comes later. Something must be unique about how they toast the staves that is 'proprietary,' which means "we're not telling."

Similarly, charcoal filtering just prior to bottling is an almost universal practice, not to be confused with the Lincoln County Process used at Jack Daniel's, which involves new make distillate before aging and a lot more charcoal. Charcoal filtering just prior to bottling, usually called 'chill filtering' because the whiskey is chilled as part of the process, is intended to prevent 'flocking,' aka 'chill haze.' It is often criticized as removing flavor for a merely cosmetic benefit, but Brown-Forman says it makes Coopers' Craft more flavorful. They are also the only producer to name the woods used for their finishing charcoal. Beech, by the way, is the wood Budweiser claims makes its beer so good.

When it goes on sale this summer, Coopers' Craft will be available in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. In part, this may reflect where Brown-Forman's two cooperages are located, in Kentucky and Alabama. It will be 82.2° proof. Suggested retail is 28.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Jim Beam Double Oak comes in a little cheaper, at $22.99 for a 750ml bottle. What this is is Jim Beam white label, aged four years, that has gone into a second new, charred oak barrel for some 'proprietary' length of time. It tastes like a wood finish, not unlike Woodford Reserve Double Oaked or Maker's 46. The lab sample I tasted was 86° proof. Jim Beam Double Oak was released in the UK, Germany, and Travel Retail last month but they don't even have a COLA yet so look for it here perhaps late summer or fall.

Wood treatments are generally considered 'authentic' by enthusiasts and are not scorned like products that get their modified flavor by mixing the bourbon with another liquid. That said, Beam Suntory Americas President Tim Hassett just yesterday described Jim Beam Apple (a mixture of Jim Beam bourbon and apple liqueur) as "the most successful launch in the brand's history."

One thing Jim Beam Double Oak tells us is that the Scots are paying high prices for used barrels right now. American distillers have little use for second-fill barrels except as a by-product. Most are sold to scotch producers. A whiskey such as Jim Beam Double Oak is only practical if the difference is small between the cost of a new barrel and price being paid for used ones.

Both companies are to be commended for introducing new products in the sub-$30 price segment. Coopers' Craft is Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey without qualifications. Jim Beam Double Oak is Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Oak.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-77875483420761386742016-04-10T19:44:00.000-05:002016-04-11T15:24:42.150-05:00The Golden Age of American Whiskey? You're Living in It

A small subset of whiskey enthusiasts are 'dusty hunters.' Since whiskey keeps in the bottle indefinitely and some retailers have lax inventory controls, the odd bottle or two can sit on a shelf gathering dust for decades. Often these finds still bear their original price tags.

Dusties are also found at estate sales and in the liquor cabinets, or under the kitchen sinks, of elderly relatives after their demise.

Especially prized are bottles believed to have originated at long-closed distilleries. Favorites include Stitzel-Weller in Shively (Louisville), National's Old Grand-Dad Distillery in Frankfort, and Heaven Hill's distillery in Bardstown. Some of the best I've tasted came from Cummins-Collins in Athertonville.

Not surprisingly, some practitioners of this pastime declare these old bottles to be universally better than modern production. It's all very subjective, of course, as is this:

American whiskey has never been better, more plentiful, nor more diverse than it is now. We've never had better access to reliable information about what we're drinking and prices, all things considered, aren't bad. Producers large and small are innovating like never before. The Golden Age of American Whiskey? This is it. It's now. Thank your lucky stars and enjoy it.

That's not to take anything away from dusty hunting. It's fun and if you know what you're doing, some terrific drinks can be had.

What about those older bottles? Are they really better? Here's the thing. Although dusties can come from any era, a great many were bottled in the 80s and 90s. It just stands to reason that the most plentiful dusties are the most recent ones.

The 80s and 90s are known as the 'glut period.' When bourbon sales began to tank in the late 60s, most producers assumed the decline was temporary and would be brief so they didn't reduce production right away. As sales continued to decline, that excess (most of it still in barrels) continued to grow and move through the pipeline.

By the 1980s, there was so much excess whiskey in storage that producers were routinely bottling 8- to 10-year-old whiskey in their inexpensive mid-range NAS products. If you were drinking bourbon during that period or have had dusties from it, it is easy to reach the conclusion that whiskey then was 'better.' That phenomenon had nothing to do with how the whiskey was being distilled or aged, except for the length of aging. And that was unintentional.

And although it was a boon for drinkers, it was horrible for the producers. They were losing money hand over fist.

If we're suffering from anything now it's the opposite of that phenomenon, NAS products that are a little too young due to tight supplies of well-aged liquid. That will correct itself in short order, probably.

During the glut period, not a lot of new whiskey was made each year. Distilleries are like furnaces. They don't have variable speeds, they're either on or off. Back then, a distillery might operate for two months in each six-month season, four months for the year. Or it might go on hiatus for a year to 18 months. The long layoffs were hard on staff and sitting idle wasn't very good for the equipment either. I can't quantify exactly what effect that had on quality, but it can't have been good.

When your business is bleeding profits, you don't invest in the future and needed maintenance is delayed. When prices have to be cut, corners are cut too. Nobody enjoys coming to work.

Today, the business is healthy, new distilleries are opening, existing distilleries are investing, and everybody is working. It's exciting to be part of a robust, dynamic industry. Without question, the Golden Age of bourbon is right now. Enjoy it.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-13453679091507380202016-04-08T18:35:00.001-05:002016-04-08T19:29:19.525-05:00The Humble Beginnings of Sazerac's Bourbon Juggernaught

1969 Benchmark ad

The Sazerac Company originated in 1850 as a New Orleans coffee house (actually, a bar). It was named after an even older French brandy maker, Sazerac de Forge et Fils.

Although 1850 is the date the company claims, 1869 might be a better one. That's when Thomas Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffee House and began to use it as a platform for marketing liquor products.

Today, Sazerac is a large, privately owned-company with a vast portfolio of spirits and wine products. Some it manufactures, others it imports and distributes. Although it is ostensibly headquartered in a New Orleans suburb the company is run out of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, and is probably best known as a bourbon producer.

For a look at some of the American whiskey brands Sazerac makes, click here.

Although nothing in its portfolio rivals Jack Daniel's or Jim Beam for sales volume, names such as Van Winkle, Blanton's, and George T. Stagg make hearts flutter among bourbon enthusiasts.

It all began humbly enough. In 1989 Seagrams sold a basketload of brands from its vast portfolio. Sazerac picked up two bourbons, Benchmark and Eagle Rare. The company didn't own a distillery so it partnered with Heaven Hill to supply the whiskey. The two even shared an advertising agency, Louisville's Fessel, Siegfriedt and Moeller (where I worked from 1978 until 1980).

1975 Eagle Rare Ad

Benchmark and Eagle Rare were notable for being among the last new brands introduced after American whiskey sales began to tank in the late 1960s. That was also an era in which imitation was the sincerest form of flattery among spirits brands. Every successful product spawned numerous knock-offs. Benchmark, launched in 1968, may have been inspired by Maker's Mark, a very small brand then but one that charged a premium price and was growing. Eagle Rare, launched a few years later, is more obviously an homage to Wild Turkey.

Who developed Benchmark is not known but Charlie Beam, grandson of Joe Beam, created Eagle Rare.

Neither brand exactly turned the category around but both survived and were still selling well enough by 1989 to get Sazerac started as a national bourbon marketer.

Three years later, the cozy relationship between Sazerac and Heaven Hill abruptly turned ugly when Sazerac bought a distillery.

Japan's Takara Shuzo Co. had had an interest in the Ancient Age brand and Frankfort's Albert Blanton Distillery since Schenely sold them in 1983 to two veteran industry executives. The Blanton's bourbon brand was created primarily for Takara's use in Japan. With bourbon booming there, Takara wanted the brands but didn't want to operate a U.S. distillery. It sold the plant to Sazerac, with whom it forged a production and distribution agreement that continues to this day.

Overnight, Heaven Hill and Sazerac went from being partners to bitter rivals. In a sideshow, the advertising agency was forced to choose between them. Although it had a longer relationship with Heaven Hill, Sazerac at the time was billing more so it won. Both companies survived the split, the ad agency did not.

The distillery, established in the 19th century but largely rebuilt by Schenley after Prohibition, was very large and had a lot of unused capacity. Sazerac grew its bourbon business primarily with regional brands shed by the giant, increasingly international drinks companies. After Frankfort it acquired a large, modern bottling plant, along with a few whiskey warehouses in Owensboro. Next was a small distiller, rectifier, and bottler in Virginia; then a second bourbon distillery in Bardstown. At the time, the Barton Distillery was desirable primarily for its aging warehouses, but as bourbon sales exploded its distillery became a valuable asset too.

Buffalo Trace was short of aging space because, during the dark ages, Schenley had converted some of its Frankfort warehouses into rentable office space.

Today, all of Sazerac's distilleries operate at full capacity. Many of its brands sell so well they are on allocation. Its Van Winkle brand, made and sold in partnership with the Van Winkle family, has become an international phenomenon. Its other international phenomenon is Fireball, a cinnamon-flavored Canadian whisky. The company has purchased hundreds of acres of farmland adjacent to Buffalo Trace, where it is growing corn now but where aging warehouses will sprout over the coming decade.

Those warehouses that became office space 40 years ago have become whiskey warehouses again.

As Sazerac has made its acquisitions over the years it has also acquired more history. The Buffalo Trace Distillery was once owned by E. H. Taylor. Barton was started by Tom Moore. Sazerac is heir to Mr. Boston, Peychaud's, Fleischmann's, and Glenmore. Its newest acquisition, Southern Comfort, is rooted in the same mid-19th century New Orleans that produced Sazerac itself.

Today, with the entire distilled spirits category doing well and Kentucky-made whiskey doing fabulously, there are many new players. Sazerac has gone from a middling regional company to an international powerhouse in about 30 years. Will any of these newcomers do as well? The point is, they might.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-51443918093074579342016-04-04T21:30:00.000-05:002016-04-04T21:30:22.713-05:00ISC to Build New Barrel Stave Mill in Western Kentucky

Independent Stave Company (ISC), the principal U.S. manufacturer of whiskey barrels, announced today that it will build a new American oak stave mill on 48 acres near Benton, Kentucky (Marshall County). This will be the company's seventh stave mill, its sixth in the U.S. (The other one is in France.)

American Stave Company, a division of ISC, will build and operate the state-of-the-art mill. The company's other U.S. mills are in Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. In September 2015, American Stave opened its first Kentucky mill in Rowan County.

Once operational, the new facility will create approximately 40 new jobs in the Marshall County community.

"Our strategic plan has been simple – continue investing to best support our customers and the growth in the wine and spirits industry," confirmed Brad Boswell, president and fourth-generation cooper. "This new stave mill will be an important addition, allowing us to further augment our supply of high-quality American white oak. It is also the final step as we position ourselves for a major expansion to our barrel-making operations."

Marshall County is known to be an excellent area for sourcing cooperage-quality white oak. American Stave Company has been purchasing logs in this area for years, making it a top contender during site selection.

Once complete, the new mill will supply staves and heading material to the parent company's cooperages in Lebanon, Kentucky and Lebanon, Missouri.

"As we continue building for today and tomorrow, we are honoring our heritage, and most importantly, our customers," confirmed Boswell. "Our company has been supplying the wine and spirits industry since our inception in 1912, first as a domestic supplier of staves, and today as a cooperage company crafting a wide range of barrels and oak products. We remain committed to any investments that benefit our customers and support the industry as a whole."

Typically, stave mills are located close to the resource, America's robust forests of white oak trees. The forests are well-managed and sustainable. Buyers from the mills purchase suitable trees from area landowners. The landowners hire loggers to cut the trees and deliver them to the mill, where the lumber is allowed to air dry naturally until it is dry enough to cut. The wood is then roughly cut into staves as well as pieces for the barrel heads. Then it is shipped to the cooperage, where it is air seasoned for another six months or more. In the cooperage, the rough pieces are planed, shaped, and formed into barrels.

Marshall County is in far Western Kentucky, close to two huge man-made lakes popular for boating and fishing; Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. The lakes are parallel and the landmass between them is a national park creatively known as the Land Between the Lakes. The region is also famous for producing some of the world's best ham, sausage, and bacon.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-12006239273134357042016-03-25T14:51:00.000-05:002016-03-25T18:14:00.151-05:00Drinking Alcohol 101

I wrote in the introduction to Bourbon, Straight that alcohol is a lot like sex, in that most of what we learn about it growing up comes from informal sources and most of what we think we know is wrong. In both cases the process of separating fact from fiction can be long and arduous.

It is in that spirit that I present the following alcohol basics as a public service.

All alcoholic beverages are either fermented or distilled. Your fermented beverages are beer, wine, and cider. Your distilled beverages are vodka, whiskey, rum, liqueurs, etc.

All alcoholic beverages are a solution of alcohol and water. Distilled beverages are fermented beverages that have been concentrated, they have a higher concentration of alcohol. This is accomplished by separating and removing some of the water from the alcohol and water solution.

The alcohol concentration of any beverage is expressed as the percentage of alcohol by volume (% alc./vol. or ABV). While beers are usually around 5% ABV and wines are about 12%, spirits are mostly around 40%. The exception is liqueurs, which can be as low as 20%. If you want to be the boss of your alcohol consumption (and you should), this is crucial information.

Where does alcohol come from? Yeast! They are living organisms that eat sugar and excrete alcohol. We call that fermentation. Their limitation is that they die if the alcohol concentration gets much above 10 percent. That's why we need distillation.

Distillation uses heat to separate alcohol from water in the fermented brew. Traditionally, this process was repeated two or three times until the alcohol reached a desirable concentration. Modern stills can do it in one pass.

Beyond that, alcohol is alcohol. The potency of any drink (i. e., its capacity to intoxicate) is just a matter of its alcohol concentration. Intoxication is a matter of how much you drink, how fast you drink it, and the way your particular metabolism processes alcohol. Nothing else matters.

The alcohol concentration is always printed on the label, except on beer in some states.

Obviously, mixing your alcoholic beverage with a non-alcoholic beverage (water, juice, soft drinks, etc.) dilutes it, i.e., it lowers the alcohol concentration of the drink. This is a simple relationship. Add one ounce of water to one ounce of a 50% ABV spirit and the ABV of the drink drops to 25%. Simple!

The type of alcohol in every alcoholic beverage is ethanol. It is all the same, regardless of the type of beverage. Chemically, the alcohol (i.e., ethanol) in tequila is exactly the same as the alcohol in white wine. When people think different types of alcohol affect them differently, that is called 'imagination.'

Among distilled spirits, there are straight spirits and flavored spirits. Among the straight spirits you have two categories: Clear or 'white' (vodka, gin, white rum, white tequila, etc.) and aged or 'brown' (whiskey, brandy, anejo rum, anejo tequila, etc.).

White spirits have little or no flavor on their own and so are usually flavored or mixed with something. The most popular mixers are fruit juices and soft drinks. Some drink recipes call for a mixer, a straight spirit and a liqueur. Others mix several liqueurs together. The combinations are endless. Brown spirits typically have a complex and distinctive flavor of their own and are consumed with nothing added ('neat'), or with only ice ('on the rocks'), water, or the simplest mixers (e.g., club soda).

Neutral spirits are distilled spirits that leave the still at more than 95% ABV. Any fermented beverage can be used to make neutral spirits. 'Vodka' is what we call a neutral spirit sold as a beverage. After distillation, filtration (usually through charcoal) is often used to remove any residual taste, color, or aroma. Then the alcohol is diluted with water to 40% ABV. Whether the vodka costs $10 a bottle or $1,000, that's all it is.

Neutral spirits, usually made from grain, are the basis for many other beverages. Gin is a flavored neutral spirit in which juniper berries are the principal flavor. Akavit is a flavored neutral spirit in which caraway seeds are the principal flavor. Both are, essentially, flavored vodkas of which there are many.

Liqueurs (e.g., Kahlua, Baileys, Jagermeister, Cointreau, Gran Marnier, amaretto, schnapps) are like mixed drinks in a bottle. They combine neutral spirits with flavorings and, usually, lots of sugar. They come in a wide variety of flavors and alcohol concentrations.

Some final words about potency: A mixed drink with a little liquor and a lot of mixer will have an alcohol content about the same as a typical drink of beer or wine. However, straight spirits served without mixers have a much higher alcohol concentration and should be savored, i. e., sipped slowly, possibly accompanied by a chaser (i.e., water, sparkling water, beer, or some other no- or low-alcohol beverage).

There is a difference between drinking and dosing.

So what should YOU drink? In bars, especially those frequented by young adults, there usually are all kinds of fad drinks. They come and go. They are fun while they are happening but quickly forgotten. My personal bias is for that pinnacle of the beverage alcohol art, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. If it seems too strong straight, dilute it with water or ice. Adjust to taste. Practice makes perfect. By learning to appreciate bourbon at the beginning of your drinking career you will save time and never feel the shame of catching a glimpse of yourself in a bar mirror with a big, pink drink in your hand.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-8165931947004913792016-03-19T15:24:00.000-05:002016-03-19T15:24:54.484-05:00The Smell of Prosperity

Bardstown, Kentucky; Bourbon Capital of the Known Universe.

Many years ago I was in Bardstown and the Barton Distillery had the dry house going, which is what produces that yeasty aroma you can smell all over town. It's a very pungent odor. I asked an old timer on the street if it bothered people. "Nope," he replied. "That's the smell of prosperity."

Kentucky benefits generally from its distilleries and other businesses related to bourbon whiskey, but the counties where distilleries are located benefit the most. Property tax revenue is the most obvious benefit, but bourbon generates taxes and jobs in many other ways too, from trucking to tourism.

At the moment, quite a few new distilleries are recently opened or being built. Most of them are in Kentucky and most of those are in the same communities that already have them, most prominently Nelson County, where Bardstown is the county seat.

Jefferson County (Louisville) has distilleries and is getting more, but it has many other businesses too, so bourbon doesn't make as big a dent. Adjacent to Nelson is Marion County, which has Maker's Mark and Limestone Branch, and may get more. In Boyle County (Danville), Ferm Solutions has a growing business selling yeast to distilleries They also have their own distillery, Wilderness Trail, that is growing too. Franklin, Fayette, Bullitt, Anderson, and Daviess Counties all benefit from the bourbon boom.

Not everyone appreciates the benefits bourbon brings, however. Prompted by a zealous attorney, many people who live near distilleries are trying to profit from the harmless whiskey fungus (Baudoinia compniacensis), a familiar nuisance in whiskey country (Scotland has it too). They're suing some of the distilleries. Considering all that the industry is already doing to pay for their schools, libraries, and other services you might expect them to be a little more grateful and a little less greedy.

The politicians in Frankfort have done a few good things to encourage the industry's growth but they could do a lot more. Kentuckians who buy their state's product pay some of the highest liquor taxes in the country. Kentucky could learn a lot from California if it wants to get the maximum benefit from its locally-made hooch and the culture that surrounds it.

Finally, there is the fact that Kentucky as a whole remains extremely conservative. Kentucky bourbon may not even be sold in 39 of Kentucky's 120 counties and sales are severely restricted in another 49. (Those may not be the latest numbers.) It's not a coincidence that most of the distilleries are in communities with very large Catholic populations. Bourbon and everything about it is frowned upon where the protestant evangelicals rule.

The counties that already have distillery businesses are getting more because they are more likely to have experienced workers available but also because they are generally more welcoming, with tangible business development enticements as well as bourbon-friendly citizens.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-31237057300096471972016-03-17T09:00:00.000-05:002016-03-17T09:00:08.922-05:00Popcorn Sutton Releases Limited Edition Barrel Finished Spirit

This is not John Lunn

A year ago, John Lunn was Master Distiller at the George Dickel Distillery. He was responsible for the production side of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville too. At 45, Lunn seemed to have a bright future with the world's largest spirits company.

So it was quite a shock when Popcorn Sutton Distilling named him Master Distiller and gave him control of their shiny new distillery in Cocke County, Tennessee, where Sutton spent much of his later life and, more importantly, close to Gatlinburg, Gateway to the Smoky Mountains and a major tourism destination.

Popcorn Sutton, who died in 2009, is probably America's best-known moonshiner. He was notorious, a true outlaw in a world of poseurs, with few redeeming qualities. But he was a character, one-of-a-kind, with a distinctive look and memorable name.

From that, you can build a brand.

Sutton's widow and one of his buddies started a legit alcohol business in Sutton's name shortly after his death. It was very slapdash and small scale. About three years ago it was acquired by Mark and Megan Kvamme. He's a successful tech investor. She became CEO.

The new distillery in Newport is 50,000 square feet. The solid copper pot stills are true alembics (no rectification section), built by Vendome. The two beer stills are 2,500 gallons each. The spirit still is 1,500 gallons. That's big, about the same size as the stills at Woodford Reserve. They only use about 20 percent of their capacity now, so there is plenty of room to grow.

Or do contract distilling if you have something you would like to make in those big copper pot stills.

The first new product introduced under Lunn's guidance is Popcorn Sutton Barrel Finished. Barrel finished what, you ask? Technically, it is a 'distilled spirit specialty,' but Popcorn's recipe is a bourbon mash (corn, rye, malt) augmented with sugar.

Meet the new boss, nothing like the old boss.

Although Lunn won't reveal the exact distillation proof he says it is not neutral (>95% ABV) but is higher than a bourbon, which must leave the still at less than 80% ABV. The un-aged distillate is Popcorn Sutton Original. The new product is that same distillate aged for three years in new, charred barrels.

The word 'moonshine' is nowhere to be seen.

How is it? The flavor is original, which is as it should be. The somewhat rough qualities of the still-young spirit are well tempered by the wood. Think smoked caramel and graham crackers. Although it won't take your head off it does have an edge. Lunn knows what he is doing. He has tamed the beast, but not too much.

Popcorn Sutton products are available in about 20 states. Suggested retail on the Barrel Finished is $49.99.

They call it a 'limited edition,' but Lunn says it is not a one-off. They expect it to remain in their portfolio, probably with an annual release.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-73999567293283902542016-03-15T15:45:00.000-05:002016-04-11T15:48:32.437-05:00The Whiskey Appraisal Racket

Photo courtesy of Luther / whiskeyid.com

I am asked all the time what this or that bottle of whiskey is worth. My answer is always the same; it is impossible to say. I will even go so far as to advise that anyone willing to appraise a bottle of whiskey for you is not to be trusted.

This is why.

In the USA, valuations of whiskey are problematic because the secondary market is illegal except for the rare licensed auction. You can't sell alcohol legally without a license. There are no exceptions. And just to be extra clear, trading is the same as buying/selling for legal purposes.

This is primarily a state law matter, although it offends Federal law as well. Primary enforcement, such as it is, comes via each state's alcoholic beverage control authority. Enforcement is lax but that doesn't change the facts. The entire secondary market for beverage alcohol is illegal.

Sales take place all the time, of course, but because they are illegal they aren't publicly reported. When they are reported it is informal, without documentation. Without a reliable record of recent sales to reference, accurate valuations are impossible. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either uninformed or dishonest.

People will hazard guesses based on what information there is and from their own experience but even when it is done honestly and with the best of intentions, it is not like appraisals in other fields. Without a reliable record of past sales it is impossible to estimate value accurately.

That said, and understanding that you have to view skeptically any attempts at valuation, some people do take an honest stab at it. I usually advise folks to start with Bottle Blue Book. They have their limitations, as I've already explained, but they are honest about them. Check out the site.

One criticism: They need to do a much better job of explaining their methodology and making that information easy to find. The best thing they have on the subject is here.

Most people who have something they might like to sell have no idea how much it could be worth, whether $50 or $50,000. A resource like Bottle Blue Book can give you a rough idea, which is all most people want anyway.

This is all presented here for the purpose of providing accurate information about the situation as it now stands. I support the legalization of secondary sales but it is unlikely to happen. Alcohol regulation hasn't changed much in 80 years. Prohibition sentiment is still with us, so constructive dialogue is difficult. State legislatures have been persuaded to modernize laws regarding alcohol production and primary sales on economic development grounds but no one has effectively made a similar argument for normalization of the secondary market.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-31610753165461924172016-03-04T17:02:00.000-06:002016-03-04T17:09:34.154-06:00E. H. Taylor Is a Wheater?

The press release starts like this: "Buffalo Trace Distillery continues its homage to former Distillery owner Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. with a special release bourbon whiskey aged in seasoned wood oak barrels. This 100 proof, Bottled-In-Bond, small batch wheat recipe bourbon was aged well over a decade and is a special one-time-only release."

Huh? E. H. Taylor is a wheater? And oak is wood? Who knew?

The point of this product, as Buffalo Trace (Sazerac) sees it, is the special wood treatment. "The barrels in this release underwent a variety of special seasoning processes, including barrels made from staves that were immersed in an enzyme rich bath with water heated to 100 degrees. After spending time in this proprietary solution, these staves were then placed into kilns and dried until they reached an ideal humidity level for crafting into barrels. Other staves were seasoned outdoors for six months, and still others were left outdoors for a full 12 months before being made into barrels and sent to Buffalo Trace Distillery to be filled and aged. All barrel staves were seasoned, dried, and crafted at Independent Stave Company, who consulted on this project with the premiere expert on oak maturation, Dr. James Swan."

So three different barrels, the results all mixed together. That's why there is enough for a release broader than the usual Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection (BTEC) release. Okay, that's weird, but let's get back to this wheater thing. As the press release points out, this is the eighth E. H. Taylor release. All of the previous releases were rye recipe bourbon except for one, a straight rye.

Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. Seasoned Wood Bourbon Whiskey should be in stores by the end of the month, for $70.

So does this mean E. H. Taylor is now a wheater going forward? No, this product is this product, although it certainly means E. H. Taylor could become a wheater again at any time in the future.

In response to my inquiry about how E. H. Taylor can be a wheater, I received this reply: "While the E. H. Taylor whiskeys to date have all been rye recipe, the experimental nature of this actually fits nicely with the EHT mark. As you know, Taylor himself was quite an innovator and risk taker. When we put these experimental whiskeys away, we really never know how they will turn out - we really like this one. The profile of this bourbon is different than Weller or Van Winkle. This is an exception to the rule; in fact, we don't have any more wheat expressions planned for EHT."

When they say, "When we put these experimental whiskeys away, we really never know how they will turn out," they are leaving out part of the explanation. When they put experimental whiskeys away they don't know if they're ever going to release them, nor do they know how they'll release them if they do. This whiskey didn't go into barrels branded as E. H. Taylor. They didn't know what it would eventually be, if anything. If they come out at all, most experiments come out in the BTEC. For reasons known only to them, they decided to put this one out as E. H. Taylor instead.

This is something new. Several brands now, including E. H. Taylor, are selling a straight rye under the same brand name as a bourbon. There is good precedent for that. Many brands did it before Prohibition. Jim Beam has done it ever since Prohibition ended. Wild Turkey has done it for a long time as well. Newer brands such as Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve, Russell's Reserve, and Bulleit have followed suit. George Dickel and Jack Daniel's, which never had rye whiskeys in their lines before, now do. None of the famous wheater brands -- Maker's Mark, W. L. Weller, and Old Fitzgerald -- has ever sold a straight rye or a rye-recipe bourbon. And there has never been a brand that sold both a rye-recipe bourbon and a wheated bourbon under the same brand name.

Until now.

This is a weird dilution of the brand identity. That doesn't necessarily make it bad. Certainly no one can say the E. H. Taylor line is going for a consistent flavor. This will surely taste completely unlike any previous E. H. Taylor release. That's probably the main thing consumers need to know. Like they say about investments, past experience does not necessarily predict future results.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-44158404608015695822016-02-28T20:27:00.000-06:002016-02-28T20:28:04.462-06:00Our Geekiest Issue Yet

Yeast

As we rapidly approach our 100th issue, The Bourbon Country Reader remains the oldest publication devoted exclusively to American whiskey. The Reader is still independent and idiosyncratic, with no distillery affiliation. It accepts no advertising. The Reader exists to serve the worldwide community of whiskey geeks and for no other reason.

Volume 17, Number 3 of The Reader may well be our geekiest issue yet, as we dive deep into real life "Jurassic Park" science, yeast division. It is the story of Limestone Branch Distillery and its new very-old yeast strain, which was obtained using advanced nucleic acid extraction methods and other brainy technology. We have tried to tell the story in a way most people can understand and believe we succeeded, more or less.

This all-Kentucky adventure starts with an old yeast jug that belonged to legendary Yellowstone master distiller M. C. Beam, great grandfather of brothers Steve and Paul Beam, who run Limestone Branch. It ends with the biological product scientists at Danville's Ferm Solutions. Just like the masters of old, the team at Ferm Solutions is both yeast-makers and distillers. Their other business is Danville's Wilderness Trail Distillery.

After they took care of Limestone Branch they dabbled in a little "Jurassic Park" science for themselves.

This geek-packed issue includes information about some important new straight rye whiskeys and will also introduce you to another up-and-coming micro, Wisconsin's Driftless Glen. The newsletter just went to the printer and will go into the mail in a few days.

To indulge in this whiskey geek's delight you need a subscription to The Bourbon Country Reader. Honoring tradition, The Bourbon Country Reader still comes to you on paper, in an envelope, via the USPS.

A subscription to The Bourbon Country Reader is still just $20 per year for addresses in the USA, $25 for everyone else. The Bourbon Country Reader is published six times a year, or thereabouts.

Click here to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card, or for more information. Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format). Click here to open or download the free PDF document, "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)

If you want to catch up on what you've missed, bound back issue volumes are available for $20 each, or three for $50.

If you prefer to pay by check, make it payable to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, and mail it to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 3712 N. Broadway, PMB 298, Chicago, IL 60613-4198. Checks drawn on U.S. banks only, please.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-2244029187802463672016-02-25T18:43:00.000-06:002016-02-25T20:56:47.570-06:00Other NDP Award Winners

As a small follow-up to yesterday's post, I looked at the Whisky Advocate Whisky Awards (announced in November) to see if any of them went to non-distiller-produced (NDP) whiskeys.

Out of the top ten, I found two.

Ranked at number eight is Compass Box, "This Is Not A Luxury Whisky," which at $225 a bottle is an homage to the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. As an independent scotch bottler, Compass Box is what Americans call an NDP.

Ranked at number one is John E. Fitzgerald Very Special Reserve 20 year old. Although the producer is Heaven Hill and Heaven Hill now owns the Old Fitzgerald brand and makes the whiskey for it, this whiskey was distilled at Stitzel-Weller when Guinness (predecessor to Diageo) owned Old Fitzgerald, so for purposes of this product, Heaven Hill is an NDP.

There is nothing wrong with an NDP whiskey winning an award unless the contest rules specify that all entries must be house-made, which most do not. Logic dictates that awards purporting to honor small distilleries should have such a rule, but competitions that welcome all comers shouldn't hesitate to take NDP products.

The fact that I want to know who actually made something is a separate issue. When I know a product is NDP, I try to find out who made it. If the NDP won't tell me I'm disappointed, but that doesn't diminish the whiskey.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-27291190645598197872016-02-23T22:26:00.000-06:002016-02-23T22:26:21.295-06:00MGP Deserves Their Victory Lap Too

In the World Whisky Awards (WWA) just concluded, Smooth Ambler Old Scout 10-year-old single barrel bourbon was named World's Best Single Barrel Bourbon.

The WWA is presented by Whisky Magazine. It is all blind tasting and they have good judges. Of all the awards for which I've served as a judge, nobody does it better than Whisky Magazine. (I was not a judge this time.)

The WWA doesn't make any distinction between large distilleries and small, or between distillers and non-distiller producers (NDPs). All are welcome. Because it is such a big tent, it is exciting when a small producer wins one of the top awards. The Smooth Ambler team is right to be proud.

Smooth Ambler is a good company that has always been transparent about its business. It is a small company, in West Virginia, that is both a distiller and an NDP, and they make it clear which products are sourced and which are housemade. Everything sold under the Old Scout trademark is sourced, all or most of it from MGP of Indiana. Another WWA award winner, Smooth Ambler Contradiction, won a gold. It is a blend of housemade (27%) and sourced whiskey.

There is nothing wrong with sourcing whiskey if you're up front about it and Smooth Ambler has always been a straight shooter. I wish all NDPs were as honest as Smooth Ambler. (They aren't.) The Smooth Ambler team deserves credit for creating and marketing the Old Scout line of very carefully curated whiskeys. Yet it's a shame that Greg Metze and his team at MGP, who actually distilled and aged the winning whiskey, don't get a nice plaque to hang on their wall. That's not Smooth Ambler's fault. That's maybe not even Whisky Magazine's fault, as they have never inquired about whether any winner actually made the whiskey that won.

Diageo, the world's largest spirits company and a very large distiller internationally, is an NDP for most American whiskey purposes. If Bulleit Rye won a big award, MGP wouldn't get a victory lap for that either.

About once a year, some major media outlet 'discovers' that some whiskey producers don't make the products they sell. People who actually pay attention to whiskey and maybe read a book or magazine now and then already know this, but the media outlet will play it up like some big revelation and it will be news to most of the people who see the report.

The problem is that most people assume--and they're not necessarily to be criticized for assuming this--that a company called Buick makes Buick automobiles, and a company called Hershey's makes Hershey's chocolates, and a company called Keebler makes all those cookies and crackers, though probably not in a hollow tree.

The reality is generally more complicated.

It is, however, always your right as a consumer to ask "Who made this?" And when you do, you deserve an honest and complete answer.

Perhaps it's also possible that whiskey is a special case. A quarter million people tour the Jack Daniel's distillery every year. How many Buick owners want to visit the factory where their car was assembled? And if whiskey is a special case, maybe craft spirits are a special case too. That doesn't mean a small distillery can't also be a NDP, but it can get tricky.

And you know at least one person is going to get a blog post out of it.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-32959779211028542152016-02-19T16:52:00.000-06:002016-02-19T16:55:54.196-06:00Compass Box Crusade Is Already Won in USA

You may have seen where independent scotch bottler Compass Box is campaigning for a labeling rules change. What you may not realize is that the rules Compass Box doesn't like already do not apply to whiskey sold in the USA.

Here is the Compass Box 'Statement of Belief' that they are asking whiskey enthusiasts to endorse:

We believe that Scotch producers should be given the freedom but not the obligation to include the age of all the components that go into their whiskies to bring them into line with the vast majority of other industries where total transparency is not only permitted but encouraged.

Americans are free to sign the petition if they want to but you should know that these rules don't apply to us and never have. Here, age statements are optional for any whiskey that is more than four years old. Age statements must state the age of the youngest whiskey in the mix, but producers are welcome to provide information about the other components too.

And they do. High West is releasing a new version of its popular Bourye that is "a unique and very premium blend of rich 9-year-old bourbon and 13- and 17-year-old ryes." Luxco's Blood Oath Pact 1 is a combination of three straight bourbons; a 6-year-old wheater, a 7-year-old rye recipe, and a 12-year-old rye recipe. Last year's Yellowstone Limited Edition was a 7-year-old wheater, a 7-year-old rye recipe bourbon, and a 12-year-old rye recipe bourbon. Diageo's new Gifted Horse whiskey is 39 percent 17-year-old Kentucky bourbon, 51 percent 4-year-old MGP Bourbon, and 10 percent 4-year-old MGP corn whiskey.

Diageo deserves credit for including the percentage of each component, which producers usually forgo. If you're looking for the distinctive taste of a 17-year-old whiskey, you might not get much if it's just 10 percent of the blend, but at 39 percent it should be very noticeable. That's why enthusiasts want this kind of information.

Compass Box wants to follow the Diageo example, describing all of the component whiskeys in its blend, including both age and percentage. In the U.S. market, their labels may contain all of that information right now.

Perhaps they had a good reason for it but the European Union (EU) rule, suggested by the Scotch Whiskey Association (SWA), seems absurd. Why prohibit producers from providing truthful information about their products? If the SWA/EU rule serves any interest it is certainly not that of consumers.

But it's not our problem.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-86496413414658841742016-02-17T09:00:00.000-06:002016-02-17T09:00:06.384-06:00The Van Winkle of Water

I used to know a lot of people who competed in triathlons. The triathlon culture seemed to be as much about shopping as it was about athletic competition. Instead of buying stuff for just one sport, you could buy stuff for three!

I thought of the triathlon people when I saw this picture and the attached article. It is on the Tales of the Cocktail web site and all over my Facebook newsfeed. The author describes a tasting that compared the effect of Old Limestone in bourbon with tap water and distilled water. It was a serious effort and the article is a good read.

All of which may be beside the point. This sort of product sells to people who just love to buy stuff. When they develop a new enthusiasm, buying the accouterments is some or maybe even most of the fun. I've known people who, upon deciding to try country line dancing for the first time, went out first and bought boots, a hat, etc.

It's about liking to buy things but also about having what they consider the total experience. The whiskey enthusiasm is no different. Some people can't wait to buy the special whiskey tasting glasses and all the rest. Surely there must be a special water to use, to enhance the experience. The next thing will be a whiskey tasting jacket.

Many distilleries as far back as the 1950s have done branded bottled water. If you have a productive spring and an under-used bottling line, it's practically a no-brainer. Stitzel-Weller did it, there are still a few bottles of 'Weller Water' around. Nobody has ever had a big hit with it, but these are unusual times. Calling it 'mixing water' is a clever wrinkle, makes it sound like a thing. People who inherently like to buy this sort of item need only the smallest push.

But come on, it's water. If you use water in your whiskey, the same water you drink and cook with will be just fine. If it tastes okay to you on its own it will taste okay in your whiskey. If you are noticing off flavors in your drink, by all means change your water, but there are plenty of other quality bottled waters.

Objectively, the problem with 'whiskey water' is that your water doesn't have to match your whiskey, it has to match you and your taste. Do you drink water? Then you already know what you like. It's not broke so don't fix it.

Unless you just like to buy things. In which case go right ahead. It's good for the economy.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-80967672439081415422016-02-13T18:49:00.000-06:002016-02-13T23:39:31.489-06:00Yes, Bourbon Fraud Is a Problem

In 2004, Dave Broom, Dominic Roskrow and WHISKY Magazine did some fine journalism that revealed a massive fraud in old bottles of Macallan. The wine world too is periodically rocked by counterfeiting scandals. There is one going on right now. Whether it's whiskey or art, when prices soar forgery soon follows.

Until recently, counterfeiting wasn't much of a problem with American whiskey. It wasn't worth the trouble when the most desirable bottles only sold for hundreds of dollars. That changed when secondary market prices, particularly for Van Winkle whiskey, soared into four figures.

Many rather shabby fakes have appeared recently, leading dimwits to conclude that they can spot the counterfeits. You can't. Why? Because most of them are refilled bottles. Faking the closure is all you have to do and it's not that difficult for someone with a modicum of skill.

One problem with forged whiskey that isn't an issue in, for example, the art market is the whiskey resale market's underground nature. Selling alcohol without a license is illegal everywhere in the United States. It's true that the agencies charged with prosecuting that 'crime,' the state alcoholic beverage authorities, have bigger fish to fry and rarely go after collectors. But the illegal nature of the marketplace forces it underground, into private networks and secret groups on Facebook, and other social networking sites.

The market's underground nature also makes it attractive to thieves. It gives them cover. If your illegal whiskey transactions go bad, you can't very well call the police, can you?

You may think you're safe if you buy your overpriced Pappy from a licensed retailer, but some of them buy their 'special stock' on the secondary market too. Yes, that's illegal, and consequently those retailers may not care if the bottles are fakes. They may even be forgers themselves or in cahoots with forgers. Except where the state dictates prices, retailers are free to charge any price they want, so charging inflated prices for prestige bottles is generally legal. The producers and distributors may not like it (and they don't) but there isn't anything they can do about it. Is that $2,000 bottle of Pappy at the liquor store authentic? It might not be.

The online auction site, eBay, stopped alcohol sales several years ago, so what does eBay have to do with this? It's simple. You can sell empty bottles on eBay and people do, sometimes for hundreds of dollars. You can sell empty bottles wherever you want, it's perfectly legal. You can, however, be pretty sure that anyone who is willing to spend hundreds of dollars for an empty bottle of Pappy 23 is planning to refill it and sell it for thousands.

So, the folks who made the graphic above have this suggestion for people who want to sell their empty bottles but don't want to encourage and enable fraud. When you offer your bottles for sale, do these two things:

1. Include clear photos of the laser-coded numbers on the bottle. The bourbon community will keep track of those codes and match them against any new full bottles offered for sale.

2. Drill a small hole in the base of the bottle. The hole will not be noticeable if the bottle is for a lamp (as some buyers claim), or if it's intended to be filled with liquid for display. The hole can easily be plugged but never fully disguised, which discourages resale as a counterfeit.

The other problem, of course, is that many of the people who pay absurd prices for Pappy and other prestigious bottles (full) are morons. They are people with way more money than sense. They want to be instant connoisseurs, so they buy what everybody says is 'the best,' and don't care how much it costs. If awareness that fraud is now rampant chases some of those people away, well then that's the silver lining.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-88433455893127164832016-02-05T13:46:00.000-06:002016-02-12T16:16:20.121-06:00There Are Many Different Ways to be Craft

Chattanooga Whiskey Co distiller Grant McCracken

After many years of talking about it, 2015 will be remembered as the year new American whiskey distilleries began to matter in volume terms. More new distilleries producing between 500,000 and 2 million proof gallons per year will come on line in 2016. There are now about ten new distilleries in that size range, mostly in Kentucky, who have started to produce in the last two years or will this year. Collectively, they amount to the addition of another Jim Beam in terms of industry-wide production capacity.

Watch for my story about this phenomenon in an upcoming issue of Whisky Advocate.

Significant increases in production capacity are a big deal for American whiskey, but they aren't the only exciting development, or even perhaps the most exciting one. All across America, people are setting up small stills (let's say fewer than 500 gallons) and doing interesting things with them. Case in point: Chattanooga Whiskey Co.

The current NDP range.

Since its inception a few years ago, Chattanooga has been a non-distiller producer (NDP), selling whiskey distilled by MGP in Indiana. It also has evolved into a popular tourist attraction in Tennessee's fourth largest city, welcoming 15,000 visitors in 2015.

A year or so ago they hired Grant McCracken, former head brewer and researcher at Sam Adams Boston Beer Company as their distiller. They gave him a tiny (100 gallon) still to play with. Here is what he has been doing with it.

"One thing our guests are surprised to find out when they tour the Stillhouse, our research and development micro-distillery, is that nearly every one of these barrels holds a different whiskey recipe. Why not make the same thing every day? Well, it's not as much fun for us…or you."

Those guests also may not realize that all of the flavor in a whiskey distillate is created during fermentation, the part of the process that is very similar to brewing beer. The still concentrates good flavors and takes out some of the bad ones, but it doesn't add any. The barrel adds flavor, of course, but that comes later.

McCracken continues:

"Eventually we'll release many different whiskies from the micro distillery - all with different ingredients and profiles. So far, we've experimented with around 5 different varieties of corn, 40 different malted grains, 15 strains of yeast and a few different mashing and distillation techniques. Most of the recipes we've made are in fact bourbon, yet all of these different ingredients and techniques give our whiskies a wide range of profiles. Sometimes the difference is slight, other times it's overt. In any case, it makes the process of tasting, selecting and blending extremely challenging, a little confusing and…exhilarating."

The oldest whiskeys from Grant's still aren't even a year old yet, so we're a few years away from tasting them in their final form, but it's good to see this kind of imagination and creativity at work. This is what the craft distilling movement should be about and not just standard bourbon and rye production on a slightly smaller scale.

"Every time you sample a barrel, it's kind of like getting a post card; the barrel tells you where it's been since it last said 'hello.' Sometimes where they're at is predictable, other times it appears they've taken a detour.

"What you begin to realize though, is that when you send whiskey into the barrel, it's traveling alone. While a distiller can control much of the flavor up front in the process, there are many aspects of the barrel aging that is out of our hands. So, while we're still a little ways off from the process of selecting or blending for an actual release, we'll have to wait and see where the barrels go. Until then, it seems like they're having fun on the road to becoming Chattanooga Whiskey. Here's to a great new year."

With so many new distilleries and distillers out there, you can't follow all of them and it can be hard to know which ones bear watching. People like Grant McCracken, who really seem to get it, are the ones on my watch list.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-840930092789285091.post-1428125724283380082016-01-29T09:00:00.000-06:002016-01-29T13:35:37.286-06:00Hoarders. Prohibition Whiskey Edition

Front of box with bottle
showing through cutout.

Throughout Prohibition (1920-1933), legal whiskey was available to everyone. All you needed was a prescription from your doctor. Some doctors refused to write them, but many believed (as many do to this day) that drinking whiskey was beneficial to health. Bakers could also buy liquor legally, since they couldn't very well be expected to make a rum cake without any rum.

Prohibition proponents didn't like these exceptions but accepted them in the spirit of compromise. Remember compromise?

There were limitations, of course. Doctors could write no more than one prescription per patient per month. This is very stingy. Few of my drinking friends could make one pint of whiskey, albeit at 100° proof, last for a month.

Yet some people made them last for almost 100 years.

An actual prescription

It went something like this. With the prescription from your doctor (a serial-numbered, government-issued form printed on banknote paper), you went to your neighborhood pharmacy, where they sold you one pint of the whiskey of your choice. Many of the same brand names you knew before 1920 were still available. The typical Prohibition pint is a flask-type pint bottle in a box, usually cardboard, sometimes metal.

Another reason for the medicinal whiskey compromise was that it gave distillers something to do with all of the whiskey they made before 1920 but couldn't legally sell any other way.

Back of box

Especially in the early days of Prohibition, the medicinal whiskey exception was also a hole through which clever bootleggers such as George Remus literally drove trucks. Remus bribed federal officials to get medicinal whiskey withdrawal permits for the pharmaceutical wholesalers he controlled, which he presented to the distilleries he also owned, allowing him to remove barrels by the hundreds. It was all legal on paper. Once the whiskey was in his possession he didn't bother with prescriptions, pharmacies, and special packaging. He sold it however he could.

That aside, millions of Americans legally bought whiskey from retail pharmacies such as Walgreens, by prescription, so much so that by 1929 the government had to allow several distilleries to make whiskey again, as the whiskey made before 1920 was nearly gone.

As dear as whiskey was, however, many people who went to the trouble of obtaining prescriptions and buying the whiskey never touched it. They never even took the bottle out of the box. They put it in a drawer or a closet and forgot about it.

Why? One assumes they just thought it was something good to have in case they or someone they knew needed it. Bottles turn up all the time. It is rarely a cache of them. It is usually one bottle that someone tucked away for an emergency that never came. Perhaps by the time whiskey became legal again, in 1933, many of them were already forgotten. We'll never know.

How much are they worth today? It is impossible to say. To accurately assess the value of anything you need a reliable record of recent sales of that same or similar objects. Secondary market whiskey sales aren't reported, a pre-condition for accurate assessment, because all such sales are illegal.

Anyone who claims to be able to accurately assess Prohibition pints or any other collectible whiskey is either a liar or a fool.

Because they are so common, Prohibition pints are probably worth less than you think. When they sell at the annual (legal) auction to benefit the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History in Bardstown, Kentucky, it is usually in the low hundreds, but most of the bidders there are mindful that they're making a donation to the museum, which may bid things up beyond their true value. It's impossible to say for sure.

Chuck Cowderyhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Part 1 of 2
SAN FRANCISCO—"Technology disruption" is creating more opportunities for collaboration, cost savings throughout the project and building operation and sustainable design. That is according to Amy Bunszel, V.P. of the AutoCAD Product Line Group of Autodesk. Bunszel, who will serve as a panelist at the upcoming CREW California Conference April 24-26 in San Francisco, exclusively chats with GlobeSt.com on technology advancement in the CRE building space.
GlobeSt.com: We understand you will be speaking about "Technology Disrupters in the Building & Construction Industries" at the upcoming CREW California Conference. What role are these "technology disrupters" playing in our industry today, and how will they impact the building industry moving forward?
Amy Bunszel:These technology disrupters are enabling products to be built today that could not have even been envisioned or executed 15 to 20 years ago. Whether it's incredible form-making with complex structural engineering, to prefabrication of building elements and more efficient processes, to even point cloud and reality capture—the industry is undergoing transformation and technology is the heart of this. The good news is all this 'disruption' is creating more opportunities for collaboration, cost savings throughout the project and building operation and sustainable design.
GlobeSt.com: What do you think is the greatest technological advancement we've seen in the commercial building space in recent years? How will this impact the industry moving forward?
Bunszel: Whether there is a 'greatest' advancement is debatable. The evolution of BIM has certainly been one of the most transformative advancements in the building industry. Both the technology and process changes that are part of BIM are improving a historically inefficient and problem-laden Building and Construction industry. With the advent of mobile devices and cloud computing the role of BIM is expanding even further.
GlobeSt.com: We know that the role of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is changing. What are the biggest changes you've seen in BIM?
Bunszel: There have been several changes to BIM over the past decade. It's gone from being led by AEC service firms to being driven by Building and Infrastructure Owners (including Governments) with BIM mandates and specifications. It's evolved from better design and documentation practices to a true emphasis on the 'I' in BIM and the value the information can bring to all stakeholders across the lifecycle—including the Owner in the operations phase. BIM's reach is also expanding to even more stakeholders with the opportunity that mobile, social and cloud technologies afford.
Check back with GlobeSt.com in a day or so for part 2 of this exclusive Q&A, where Bunszel chats about mobile devices and their impact on the commercial real estate industry as well as how technology is affecting the management of building performance.
The CREW California conference will take place on April 24 – 26 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco. During the conference, various speakers will identify the latest trends in the technology sector, helping attendees to better understand how this sector is changing the commercial real estate industry. For more information about this event or to register, visit www.crewca.org.
The full line-up of featured speakers will include:
- Congresswoman Jackie Speier
- Eric Paulson, Executive Vice President and General Manager – Commercial Division, Auction.com
- Leah McMurtry, Vice President, LoopNet, Inc.
- Chris Coleman, Office Team, Dropbox
- Roy Abrams, CEO and Founder, Real Connex
- Jilliene Helman, CEO and Co-founder, RealtyMogul.com
- Adam Hooper, President and CEO, Real Crowd, Inc.
- Nancy Lundeen, Partner, Allen Matkins, President, CREW San Francisco
- Judith Nitsch, Engineer, Entrepreneur, CREW Network 2014 President; Founding Principal and Chairman, Nitsch Engineering, Inc.
- Amy Bunszel, Vice President, Autodesk
- Elaine Andersson, CEO, Bricta and Publisher, The Commercial Real Estate Diversity Report
- Jenny Haeg, Founder and CEO, Custom Spaces Inc.
- Mirjam Link, Project Manager –Development, Boston Properties
- Darcy Mackay, Moderator, Executive Managing Director, Global Head of Transaction Management, CBRE
- Primo Orpilla, Co-Founder, Studio O+A
- Debbi Quick, Associate, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Cindy Wu, SF Planning Commission

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Steve Jobs tribute comic now available on... Android
A comic book dedicated to the life Steve Jobs has now been released digitally, and is available on Android as well as iOS devices. The Bluewater Productions publication, Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple, can be downloaded through Comixology's Comics application for both operating systems and is a 32-page look at the man's many achievements in biographical form.
However, while quaint, don't really be expected to find out anything that's not already on Wikipedia. And be prepared for a few laughs along the way - not intentionally, mind. It's as if it appears, at times, to have been poorly translated from another language: "He lived a happily childhood," for example.
And, we suspect, it was written before the announcement of Jobs' passing with a small paragraph hastily added before publication as most of his achievements in the latter days are written in present tense ("Steve currently holds..."), and there's a paragraph about how he came out on top in his battle with pancreatic cancer.
But the art by Chris Schmidt is good (CW Cooke is listed as the author), and a portion of the proceeds from all versions of the comic book will go to The American Cancer Society, so we can't be too harsh...
The digital comic book is available for £2.49 ($3.99) as an in-app purchase through the Comics app on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Android.
A graphic novel version of the book is also available, as are Kindle and Nook ebooks, co-published with Paperless Publishing.
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- First look of a Nintendo NX game: Watch the Rise - Race the Future teaser
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