Sunny Brook

[rob]

Greetings all,

A week ago I ordered a bottle of this. I thought it was a straight bourbon but it turns out it's a blended whiskey. Blended and bottled in Frankfort, KY by the Old Sunny Brook Distillery CO. 80 proof.

Anyone tried it? The only other blended American whiskey I've tried (except Seven Crown) is McCormick's. None impressed me.

/Rob

[Rughi]

"The Miracle of Mildness," Sunny Brook has been a cat and dog for Beam since the National Distillers buyout in 1987. Prior to that, it had been distilled at probably ND's Grand Dad or Crow distilleries during the 70s and 80s. It was its own distillery in Louisville at 28th and Broadway 1892 until sometime prior to 1975, when that distillery was razed (it's fun to pull out Sam Cecil's book, that's where all this info came from).

As far as the flavor, I have found bottles from the ND-Frankfort era to be full-bodied yet quite mild, with a low level of spiciness. This befits the market positioning from pre-depression on into the 60s which seems to have always stressed that it was a wholesome, reliable product, with a slogan in the early days "the Pure Food Whiskey", including the medallion of it's Grand Prize Award at the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 on bottles well into the 1980s, and the uniformed "Guardian of Quality for Generations."

As for the Beam-era (which you most likely have) blended flavor,you take the lead. It's possible it is just filled with Beam's vatting of the hour, but I've been impressed lately with some Beam products. Maybe you'll have luck.

Attached is a photo of a Louisville bottle from the early 60s, a straight bottle from Frankfort, and a blended from Cincinnati (where the blending and bottling took place), both from the early 80s.

Roger

[rob]

Howdy Roger,

Many thanks for your detailed answer, 'preciate it!

BTW, my bottle looks like the one on the right. It has a print on the glass (not label) which reads 19803324. I have no idea what that means tho'...

/Rob