Making Bourbon (eBook)

A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky

Karl Raitz (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
656 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-7877-6 (ISBN)

Infos

"e;Raitz examines the rich story of distilling in its Kentucky heartland and traces its maturation from a local craft to an enduring industry."e; -William Wyckoff, author of How to Read the American WestWhile other industries chase after the new and improved, bourbon makers celebrate traditions that hearken back to an authentic frontier craft. Distillers enshrine local history in their branding and time-tested recipes, and rightfully so. Kentucky's unique geography shaped the whiskeys its settlers produced, and for more than two centuries, distilling bourbon fundamentally altered every aspect of Kentucky's landscape and culture. Making Bourbon: A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky illuminates how the specific geography, culture, and ecology of the Bluegrass converged and gave birth to Kentucky's favorite barrel-aged whiskey. Expanding on his fall 2019 release Bourbon's Backroads, Karl Raitz delivers a more nuanced discussion of bourbon's evolution by contrasting the fates of two distilleries in Scott and Nelson Counties. In the nineteenth century, distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry. The resulting infrastructure farms, mills, turnpikes, railroads, steamboats, lumberyards, and cooperage shops left its permanent mark on the land and traditions of the commonwealth. Today, multinational brands emphasize and even construct this local heritage. This unique interdisciplinary study uncovers the complex history poured into every glass of bourbon. "e;A gem. The depth of Raitz's research and the breadth of his analysis have produced a masterful telling of the shift from craft to industrial distilling. And in telling us the story of bourbon, Raitz also makes a terrific contribution to our understanding of America's nineteenth-century economy."e; David E. Hamilton, author of From New Day to New Deal

Autor

Karl Raitz is professor emeritus of geography at the University of Kentucky and author of Bourbon's Backroads: A Journey through Kentucky's Distilling Landscape. He is coeditor of The Great Valley Road of Virginia: Shenandoah Landscapes from Prehistory to the Present and coauthor of Rock Fences of the Bluegrass.

Inhalt

Introduction: Kentucky Bourbon in Time and Space
1. Heritage and Process
2. Kentucky Distilling: Craft to Commercial Enterprise
3. Kentucky's Distilling Environment
4. Distilling Grain, Feeding Livestock
5. Distillery Configurations
6. Technology's Tools
7. Complementary Industries
8. Signatures of Risk
9. Byproducts
10. Connections
11. Making it Work
12. External Control and Landscape
13. Temperance Troubles
14. Making Whiskey at the Henry McKenna Distillery: 1855-1868
15. McKenna's Family Distillers: Marketing, Medicine, and Temperance: 1869-1919
16. Building James Stone's Elkhorn Distillery: 1868-1869
17. Marketing Whiskey, Managing Money, and Elkhorn Distillery's Demise: 1869-1871
18. Naming
19. A Reconstructed Past Lives in the Present
20. Making Bourbon, Making Landscape: An Epilogue

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.6.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 25 b&w halftones, 33 maps, 8 graphs, 13 figures, 30 tables
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 180 x 180 mm
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Essen / Trinken ► Getränke
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Agriculture • Bourbon • bourbon barrels • cooperage • Distilleries • Distilling • elkhorn distillery • farm stills • Grain • henry mckenna distillery • Heritage • Historical Ecology • internal revenue law • Kentucky • Landscape • livestock • Marketing • Mechanization • Mills • Railroads • Risk • river transport • river transportation • spent grains • temperance movement • Transportation • Wheat
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-7877-0 / 0813178770
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-7877-6 / 9780813178776