I am just now watching Wagon Train on Youtube, of course in a bar scene they are drinking whisky. Any idea just what brands of the firewater would have been sold back then?

local home made, panther piss comes to mind

Red Eye! Seriously, a lot of the whisky back then was rye whisky. Prohibition killed off a lot of the old brands.

And a lot of it was contaminated with lead, arsenic, and other nasty stuff. Blind drunk was not a euphemism. Nor was dead drunk. Much of it wasn't barrel aged. Just a mix of raw alcohol (ethanol and even the deadly methanol) plus some kind of coloring and flavoring. True rot gut, because it did.

The type of whiskey produced is largely geographical and the cheapest or most plentiful grain in the region or that which could be shipped to same.

You could have just typed Scotch.

I like this, definitely not modern bourbon.
Mello corn

Turn of the century. (J Reiger), (Alantic& Pacfic), (Old Quaker Club, Rye Rosenham bros), were national labels. Most was shipped in barrels and then had private labels of local sellers. GW

That was funny. I don't care who you are.

Anyone besides me and Kaywoodie ever see Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan in "The Westener"? Brennan plays Judge Roy Bean. There is a great but very quick shot of spilled local whiskey eating away at the bar surface.

Old Crow has been around a long time.

I've seen it, but it was years ago.

Old Crow. also, Kessler from Leadville Colorado.

Damn, Scott! I liked good Scotch! Probably still would. Poor Scotch come under the panther piss label.

I've never liked Bourbon of any sort.

I love my scotch but that was damn funny

They did not have too many delivery trucks back then. They did have a few wagons usually from with in the state. Whisky was brewed local and then distributed to who buy it. Then the whisky was watered down to make a larger profit. That is why they always wanted the good stuff not the stuff served to Indians.

Scotch knows..

A couple of things, the whiskey tasted so bad sweet fruity drinks were invented. Read a recipe for whisky where they dropped a couple chunks of plug chew in to give it color and flavor.

Good whiskey isn't any harder to make than good bread.
Back in the day there was some very good bakers--same with distillers.
If it weren't for govt intervention good whiskey wouldn't cost anymore than a loaf of bread

First you have to determine if you are talking about "whisky" or "whiskey". I'm not being insulting but the difference is an important one especially pertaining to the question.

Whatever the Saloon Keeper made in the back room

Yep, that Steelhead sure has a rye sense of humor when it comes to alcoholic beverages...

John

Tip o' the hat, steelhead. It was indeed funny and clever. Wrong, but funny and clever.

"Rub of the Brush"

( whiskey is a very intergral part of my daily regimen these times)

Getting thin looking from watering it down? Throw in a plug of tobacco. Adds the "kick" back too, a little nicotine overdose.

Delighted to see you posting again, kaywoodie!

I've really missed your posts!

I hope you and your wife are doing well.

Cheers from a friend in Sweden you have never met,
John

I had an American history professor in college who claimed that the fire water of the time did indeed include tobacco, Missouri River water, pepper and black powder.
He'd mix up a batch and invite some of us over. A little bit went a long way.

I hear tell Buffalo Hunters drank this



This is my preference

I've found there can be a noticeable barrel to barrel taste change with Blanton's.

I do really enjoy bottles from the "money" barrels.

Probably locally made stuff with the tobacco, water and who knows what. As said a lot of brands probably went toes up. OTH, by the time of railraods there was some really fine stuff brought in.

Anyone remember a thread about a riverboat being dug out? Have to look it up and see if whisky was found.

in my younger years.........

Old Crow predates the civil war. The recipe is no longer the same. Today it is just less aged Jim Beam.

Wasn't Old Crow the favorite of General Grant?

Just looked it up and the distiller says it was.

Could you explain the difference?

George Washington was a major Distiller and his Recipe has been brought back.
Into each cask or hogshead, throw nine gallons of water heated to ninety degrees of Farenheit’s thermometer, to which add forty pounds of Indian corn meal; agitate the mass briskly, and let it stand two hours, that it may open and prepare the grain for dissolution; now twelve gallons of boiling water are added, and briskly worked with the oar, then suffered to stand fifteen minutes – on the top of this, four gallons of luke-warm water are gently poured, and ten pounds of malt gently worked on the top, so as not to intermix with the corn meal, which is in that state suffered to stand thirty minutes, then fourteen gallons more of boiling water are added to the mass, and worked as before: this in that state is suffered to stand sixty minutes, then forty pounds of rye meal are now added, and worked well, and just as before the whole mass is suffered to stand from two to four hours, in proportion to the state of the weather: the calculation is, when cold water filled to within six inches of the top of the cask, will bring down the whole mass to seventy-five degrees. It is now yeasted … covered … and left until fit for the still."
Blanton's works well for me.

Not sure about that, but I recall a story about the disruption of Old Crow distribution being a real war time consideration. As in, let's get this over with, I cain't get no Ol' Crow. Woulda been fun to taste the original recipe, given the devotion it garnered.

Ben Holladay sold a few bottles of whishey,
interesting read.


http://www.fohbc.org/PDF_Files/Sullivan_Holladay.pdf

While in college in Colorado some of the guys decided they wanted to emulate the wild bunch by drinking Old Crow. Typical scene at one of the local bars after school found them drinking Coors and chasing it with shots of Old Crow, saw some of them get really drunk. I would have a shot or two to be sociable but declined any more than two shots of the stuff.

From what I've read it was not an uncommon way to make Indian trade whisky. Indians didn't know any better, mainly wanted to get the drunk feeling and a little nicotine poisoning supplemented with a little alcohol of one sort or another will surely give you that! Hangovers must have been epic.

HEY!! Watch it there Bub! That resembles me!!

There is one key difference.

The spelling.

The Scots spell it whisky and the Irish spell it whiskey. This difference in the spelling comes from the translations of the word from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic forms. Whiskey with the extra 'e' is also used when referring to American whiskies.

Small edit.

Hence the 'key' and hence my first reply in this thread

Trying to help out those who haven't figured out google, or that only learn when bottle fed.

Old Overholt Rye Whiskey was said to be a favorite of Doc Holliday

Looked it up and it dates back to 1810.

It's like the difference between "color" and "colour." They mean the same thing, but the first is 'Merican, while the latter is metric.