Old Farmers Distillery

[nysquire]

I am looking for info on "old Farmers Distillery". They made
a great 12 year 100 proof bourben that they bottled in 1964.
I am trying to find out more about this distillery if anybody has info. Are they still around (under another name?)where were they located in kentucky? They bottled private label bourben.

[OneCubeOnly]

I don't know if this will help you or not, but I got one hit on Google which lists their incorporation as being in Delaware.

[nysquire]

On the bottle it says: Old Farmers Distillery
Reg. Dist. No 20, Dist. of Kentucky

Straight Bourbon Whisky - 100 proof - Distilled in Kentucky

[OneCubeOnly]

Maybe Chuck or one of the historians can shed more light for you. Would a Kentucky distillery incorporate in another state (maybe for tax purposes!?)

[dgonano]

Gary,

Yes many large national corporations incorporate in Delaware since the annual franchise and other taxes are less. There are other benefits also.

That is why many corporate attorneys are found in Wilmington, De

[bobbyc]

DSP 20 was Cummins Collins Distillery which is a few miles from BettyeJo's house and the remaining buildings are being used for a cooperage. There is also 2 references to DSP30 in Sam Cecils book, DSP30 General Distillers of Kentucky , that was connected to The Mellwood Distillery. DSP30 in Bourbon County, The Millersburg distillery and WM Davis &Co. It is listed as a failed venture in 1882.

BettyeJo made a nice post about the Atherton distillery some time ago. A search should turn it up.

He clearly states that General Distillers of Ky did bottle for Old Farmers. Seagrams was involved at some point. I would think that that is now a dead label or collecting dust in the cat and dog bin.

[cowdery]

I don't know the Cummins Collins name, but the Atherton Distillery became Seagram's probably during WWII and they operated it until it was largely destroyed by fire in 1972. It never reopened as a distillery.

[bobbyc]

It appears that the Atherton site was home to 5 or 6 distilleries or owners over the years. Cummins -Collins rebuilt there after prohibition and sold to Seagrams in 1946. He also says they alternately ran Atherton and H McKenna at Fairfield.

[nysquire]

Thanks everybody for the info. Was that standard practice for a distillery to make bourbon and have someone else bottle it.I have to say I have drank a lot of different kinds of bourbons over the years, the boubon in this bottle is just outstanding.It sat in a cool dark area for 40 years and i am amazed.Really smooth, brown sugery/vanilla impact. I have ord'd cecil's book hopin to learn a little more.

[Gillman]

Interesting, this is very close to how I recall the taste of Benchmark Bourbon in the 1970's, i.e., not long after its launch by Seagram. Probably every generation or so bourbons will (broadly speaking) resemble each other, and then they will change together through an evolutionary process that is hardly noticeable and too subtle to analyse with precision. Thus, when I did my mini-tasting recently of WT 101, Elmer Lee, Woodford Reserve and ORVW Lot B 12 years old, I was struck by how similar they were again in a general way. Probably this results from:

(i) the few makers extant of charred barrels;

(ii) the uniformity of much of the dry yeast, corn and malting barley available and of current designs of continuous stills;

(iii) converging production methods such as the slow but steady abandonment of cypress vessels in favour of stainless steel; and

(iv) probably numerous other, interracting, factors which together create the "zeitgeist" of bourbon today. In other words, people (or the current makers rather) expect straight whiskey to taste a certain way but this is also affected by slow changes over which they have no real control; inevitably, the collective result differs from the taste profile of yesteryear. Also, increasing consolidation in the industry tends to result in a greater uniformity of palate, in my opinion. Not that the current products don't differ but I am speaking "broad brush" again.

Gary