FALL 2019
whiskeywereaddedin 1906 withtheenact-
mentofthePureFoodandDrugAct.
SowhatweretheydrinkingintheOld
West?Mostof thewhiskeysof theeraare
nolongeravailable.Andyouprobably
wouldn’twantto drinkthosewhiskeys
anyway,judgingfromthepopularwhiskey
nicknamesof theperiod—rotgut,strych-
nineandcoffinvarnish,to namebuta
fe w.However,all is notlost formodern-
daycowboyswantingto drinkwhiskeys
like theirforebears.Let’slookat fivedif-
ferentwhiskeybrandsthatarepopular
to dayandwereavailablebackthen.
Kessler
KesslerAmericanBlendedWhiskey
is exactlywhatthenameimplies—an
Americanblendedwhiskey.Thislabel
meansithasatleast 20 percentofsome
kindofstraightwhiskeyblendedwith
grainneutralspirits.Itcanalsoinclude
additionalcolorsandflavors.
KesslerAmericanBlendedWhiskeywas
or iginatedby HungarianimmigrantJulius
Kesslerin1888.He startedsellingwhiskey
inLeadville,Colorado,duringthesilver
boomof thelate1870saftertransportingit
fr omDenverusingpackmules.He soldhis
boozefromsaloonto saloon,andhis com-
panyquicklybecameveryprofitabledue
to the high prices the whiskey fetched in
remote areas. Kessler retired from the busi-
ness in 1921 and moved to Vienna, Austria.
He passed away in 1940 at the age of 85.
Now the brand is owned by Beam Suntory,
which still uses the “Smooth as silk” slogan.
According to Beam Suntory, it’s the second-
best-selling American blended whiskey.
Old Crow
Old Crow is a lower-priced brand of
Kentucky-made straight bourbon whiskey.
It is one of Kentucky’s earliest bourbons.
It got its start in the 1830s, when James
C. Crow, a Scottish immigrant, began dis-
tilling what would become Old Crowin
Frankfort, Kentucky. He was reportedly a
very skilled distiller and made whiskey for
various employers that was sold as “Crow”
or, as it aged, “Old Crow.” Many consider
him to be the true father of bourbon.He
died in 1856. The current Old Crow is also
distilled by Beam Suntory.
The original formula died with itscre-
ator, although the name was kept. Today’s
Old Crow uses the same mash bill as Jim
Beam but is aged for a shorter period of
time and mixed to less demanding stan-
dards before bottling. Old Crow is aged in
barrels for a minimum of three years and is
80 proof in the United States. The slightly
higher-quality Old Crow Reserve is aged for
a minimum of four years and is 86 proof.
Old Grand-Dad
Old Grand-Dad is a brand of bourbon
whiskey that was created by Raymond B.
Hayden and named after his grandfather,
Meredith Basil Hayden Sr., who was a well-
known distiller in his lifetime. A portrait
of Hayden Sr. is depicted on the front of
each bottle. Old Grand-Dad is now a Beam
Suntory brand and is distilled at the Jim
Beam plant in Clermont, Kentucky.
The Hayden family built their first com-
mercial distillery in 1840. The whiskey
has been in production since that time.
In 1899, Old Grand-Dad was sold to the
Wathen family, whose widespread interests
in distilling later provided the foundation
WHISKEYS THAT WON THE WEST
76 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
Whiskey peddlers traveled far and wide to
sell their wares to places like Wyatt Earp’s
Northern Saloon in Nevada (above right).
