Whisky Tom and the Tales of Dewars and GlenDronach

In a world where branding has become paramount in the promotion of people and products, certain brands have slipped from our vernacular, or have taken on new roles.

Long ago, the saloon was much more than just the domain of cowboys and gunfighters in the Old West. But for some reason, the name disappeared. It's time to delve into the history of the concept and find out...whatever happened to the old time saloon?

For more Whiskey Lore Stories, check out the new book The Lost History of Tennessee Whiskey by Drew Hannush. It's available at your favorite online bookseller or at Whiskey-Lore.com/audio

Think you know the story behind the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897? Well, if you listened to the episode in Season 1 or have read any modern literature on it, prepare to be shocked.

During my research for my new book The Lost History of Tennessee Whiskey, I bumped into an obscure piece of information from 1895 that turns the entire narrative around Colonel E.H. Taylor and the Bottled-in-Bond Act on its head.

In this episode, things will start as they did when I created this episode in 2019, along with some subtle changes. Then, the episode will take a wild turn and you'll hear a story hasn't been told in over 125 years. Prepare to "re-learn" history.

It's hard to imagine what the whiskey industry would look like today, if a certain excise man had succumbed to the wounds he received in Donegal in 1810. The early 19th century was a critical time for Irish whiskey. The Acts of Union had united the country with an empire and new markets were open for spirits.

But growing pains were the rule of the day. Large distillers and the Parliament were crushing small distillers and becoming jealous of those who were making higher profits off of their illicit poitín. A war was brewing out west and something was going to give.

Also in this episode, we'll rejoin Alfred Barnard as he travels from Galway to Limerick and I'll be stopping off at the Old Bushmills Distillery in Northern Ireland.

It seems appropriate that an episode featuring me taking a walking tour of Belfast with McConnell's Sarah Kennedy would sync up with the story of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was a pivital time in Irish history, when a last ditch effort was made to separate from the control of Great Britain. Its an event that would echo down through Irish history - especially in Belfast and Northern Ireland.

Hear the story of one of the rebellion's central figures and how one of the United Irishmen's own came to haunt one of Ireland's most historic distilleries.

And enjoy a cruise around Belfast, where - dare I say, I tasted the greatest beer I've ever tasted.

Cheers and Slainte mhaith!

For distillers in the 18th Century, the challenge was not getting crushed by tax revenuers because of a lack of quality devices or understanding of what makes a gallon, something that changed often over the centuries.

Listen as I dig into the history of proof and measuring volume, while we get visits from Alfred Barnard, John Quincy Adams, and I continue my historic journey to all of Ireland and Northern Ireland's active distilleries (save Cooley) and reach the home of Shortcross Gin and Irish Whiskey.

No one likes to pay taxes, especially distillers. And in the early days, when the government first started reaching into the pockets of farmer-distillers in Ireland, they put a serious face on tax avoidance. Yet distillers found creative ways to avoid these taxes.

It's time to take a deep dive into how Ireland ended up with whiskey taxes and the growing pains and wars that led to more and more government intrusion into the still house.

History is fascinating. It becomes even more interesting when you look at it through more than one lens. That is what I'll be doing this week - as I look at a complicated man whose first two potential victories in the North Channel were apparently snatched away by drink. His reputation on one side was as a pirate and the other as a patriot. We'll jump into that story.

And then I'll do a tasting of a gin named in his honor at Copeland Distillery. I hear what you're saying "Drew drinking gin?" Well, let's just say, this one has a nice whiskey twist.