Feature & Review Series - Part 4 | 50% & 47% ABV

To See the Future of American Single Malt, We Need to Understand its Past - Part 4

Ever since November of 2023, I’ve been driven to uncover answers to several fundamentally important questions about the history and evolution of American whiskey.

I sought to determine if Hollywood’s trope-like depictions of reckless heavy drinking in the 1800’s was accurate. If so, where did all that whiskey come from and what exactly were people drinking?

In Parts One & Two of this multi-part, deep-dive into the history of American Whiskey (emphasis on Single Malt) - we explored the rise and spread of the primary spirits of the 1600s and 1700s - brandy, rum and rye. Part Three delved into the era of Bourbon and the enduring influence on modern American whiskey, including Single Malts.

Here in Part Four, we continue our journey westward across time and space, arriving at the edge of the American frontier in 1800s Missouri.

1821: Westward, the Course of Whiskey Makes Its Way

Let’s go back in time a wee bit to this past December, 2024. It’s the week of the Christmas Holiday break and my wife and I embarked on a massive road trip across the “Great American Desert” of the United States to Missouri so that we could turn right-around again to retrace the original, historic Santa Fe Trail. We planned to follow the Trail from its very start in Franklin, MO all the way back west through Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Our goal was to research some whiskey history in person, for ourselves, first-hand.

Our first morning in Missouri dawned cold, wet, and foggy as we stood on a small concrete slab surrounded by historical interpretive signs. We absorbed the significance of each panel at this unassuming trailhead in central Missouri - the original “jumping off point” for thousands of fortune-seeking adventurers two centuries earlier. Standing there that morning, a profound sense of awe struck me – knowing that legends like Merriweather Lewis, William Clark, Willian Becknell and Kit Carson all once stood here, preparing their wagons for the westward journey – just as we were on that cold December morning. I lingered for quite a while in quiet reflection, moved by the significance of that place.

Franklin, MO - Santa Fe, Lewis and Clark, and California, Mormon and Oregon Trailhead.

Missouri Enters the Chat

Missouri’s importance can be attributed to many things, but maybe the most important was the area’s serendipitous positioning at the confluence of three major North American river systems: the Ohio to the northeast, the Mississippi along its eastern edge, and its namesake river bisecting the territory east/west before turning northwest into Nebraska. Together, these river systems connected early Missourians to Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and to the vast Rocky Mountain interior. These rivers were like the super-highways of commerce for their day.

By United States National Park Service-Map, Robert McGinnis-illustration - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/national_parks/santa_fe_trail94.jpg, Public Domain

By the mid-1700s, whiskey, rum, and brandy were already familiar commodities to the area and were considered prized possessions by French fur trappers and Native Americans alike. In all cases though, distilled spirits were hard to come by and expensive to import from beyond.

Then came 1803.

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 instantly changed the cultural and political landscape of Missouri and the North American interior. It opened an enormous amount of land to the United States and its rapidly growing population of European immigrants. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory put the USA in direct contact with large stretches of Spanish Mexico’s northeastern border, then called the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Spain responded by instituting strict regulations against the USA prohibiting any interaction between the nations – whether that came from military contact, commercial trade, or just incidental contact between civilians. New Spain would remain sealed off from the US for another 20 years.

It would take the Guerra de Independencia de México, or the Mexican War of Independence, in September of 1821 to change this isolationist policy. Within weeks, the first commercial trading routes opened-up connecting Missouri to Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. The first to capitalize on the potential commercial opportunity was William Becknell and several of his entrepreneurial pioneers. Together, they set out across the open prairie to establish an overland route that would later become known as the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail would quickly be adopted as the primary commercial link for Americans of the east to do business with the Mexican Empire – reaching as far south as Mexico City and as far west as Los Angeles.

And as it would turn out, there was MUCH business to do...

William Becknell and his merry band of merchant explorers headed west in September of 1821 from Franklin, MO with the initial hopes of selling goods to the neighboring tribes of Kansas (aka “Indian Territory”), but were intercepted by a troop of Mexican soldiers who encouraged William and his group to go all the way to New Mexico instead. After 2 months on the Trail, they arrived in Santa Fe, where William managed to sell $300 worth of goods for $6,000 profit. His success instantly catapulted the commercial importance of the territories west of Missouri into the consciousness of thousands of Americans. Similarly, America’s whiskey makers suddenly found themselves with an entirely new market to explore and develop, and it would not take long for the first wave of that precious cargo to be brought west - likely it seems with William Becknell on his second trip to Santa Fe in early 1822.

“William Becknell on the Santa Fe Trail,”1822 & “End of the Santa Fe Trail”: Gerald Cassidy, 1910

In many ways, the “New Mexicans” of northern Spanish Mexico had long lived a semi-isolated life, both from their own southern countrymen thanks to the large distances between cities, and from their eastern neighbours thanks to Spanish geopolitical policies. Once they gained their independence however, the Santa Fe’ans were eager to establish reliable commercial ties with the Americans. New Mexicans needed many things, but chief among them were woollen goods and sheep from the east whereas Americans were eager to obtain Spanish silver, horses and mules from California. The towns of Santa Fe and Taos would remain the commercial nexus for all of that international economic trade for decades to come.

#1 Map of the Old Santa Fe Trail from Independence, MO To Santa Fe, N.Mex. Author unknown, #2 Modern day map of the two primary Santa Fe Trail routes and points of interest. Map image courtesy National Park Service. & #3 Our overland route and back - late December 2024. Google Maps image.

The opening of Nuevo de Mexico was only the beginning however and with each passing decade of the 1800s, more economic milestones would pass that would continue to build momentum for America’s westward expansion. By the 1840s, the term Manifest Destiny entered the nation’s lexicon and became the guiding mantra for thousands. As people explored the west for either furs, farms, or gold, they brought whiskey with them. As a result, whiskey’s popularity exploded and producers had to get “creative” as they struggled to meet the booming populations’ demands.

American Progress By John Gast - from the United States Library of Congress's digital ID ppmsca.09855. Public Domain

Rectification and Whiskey’s Wild West

Alright, with all that backstory out of the way, let's get back to some whiskey.

The first several years after the Santa Fe Trail’s opening would see the transport and sale of whiskeys made from Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and elsewhere. However, these were in relatively short supply thanks to the logistical complications and large distances. When these were left unaltered by intermediary brokers and salesmen, they were prized for their quality and flavour. However, the 1820s+ also saw the rise of a new kind of “whiskey maker,” the Rectifier.

The term, “rectify” comes from the Latin rectificare, or "to make right,” initially implying refinement or correction. In the whiskey trade of the 1800s, Rectifiers were middlemen buying whiskey from distillers and then altering it to either stretch profits, meet market demand, or to enhance the flavour (and maybe all three). Think of them as the Independent Bottlers or commercial blending houses of today. The more legitimate operators would buy whiskeys from small, rural distilleries and blend them to make something better than the sum of their parts. Sounds familiar enough…

However, other less scrupulous Rectifiers were in the business of exploiting the population boom out west by making cheap, highly adulterated beverages that they could turn-around quickly to maximize profits. Some of these unscrupulous Rectifiers would dilute authentic whiskeys with water or neutral grain spirits (think cheap vodka) to stretch them out. Others would boost these altered whiskeys with flavour additives to simulate their better made counterparts. Common additives were sugar, prune juice, tobacco juice, molasses, coffee grounds, strychnine, sulphuric acid, turpentine, or worse. Sometimes these rectified products were given semi-official names for recognizability, like Old Bourbon, Tarantula Juice, Old Snake Head, and Taos Lightning.

Where did these sometimes sane, sometimes absurd, and sometimes dangerous techniques for making fanciful liquors come from? Well, oftentimes they would just follow the commonly accessible recipe-books of the day, made “expressly for the trade”. Take for example, Pierre Lacour’s 1863 book, “The Manufacture of Liquors, Wines and Cordials Without the Aid of Distillation”.

The Manufacture of Liquors, Wines and Cordials Without the Aid of Distillation, 1863

Flipping through the pages of this book is like stepping through an Oddities & Horror Show of the beverage world. Inside you’ll find recipes for all kinds of falsified spirits, like "Old Bourbon Whiskey" for instance...

…mix together neutral spirits, sugar syrup, tea, oil of wintergreen, cochineal (for red colour), and burnt sugar.

For something a little closer to our Single Malt interests, how about an 1860s approach to imitating “Irish and Scotch malt whiskeys”...

OIL OF TAR, OR CREOSOTE, Is used for flavoring malt whiskey, or well cleaned corn whiskey, in imitation of Irish or Scotch whiskeys; from sixty to eighty drops to one hundred gallons. Some contend that the addition of from thirty to fifty drops of cedar oil, first dissolving it in alcohol, perfects the imitation; the number that use cedar oil are in the minority, as the most extensive dealers and importers use creosote alone. It is not an unusual occurrence to find a large portion of this whiskey made from common corn whiskey, with the grain oil concealed by the powerful odor of the creosote. Persons not familiar with the odor of fusel oil or corn oil can detect it by the use of nitrate of silver.

And we thought E150a was a problem. Old Snake Head’s recipe was arguably worse yet…

…mix one gallon of alcohol, one pound of plug or black twist tobacco (used for color), one pound of blackstrap molasses for flavor, one handful of red Spanish peppers, and two rattlesnake heads per barrel. Dilute with five gallons of pure settled river water.

The book even explains how Rectifiers could deceptively age brand-new barrels, perhaps to give them the appearance of having an appealing patina…

For giving age to new barrels, keep them in a damp, dark cellar, and dash water on them occasionally, or wash them several times, daily, until the desired appearance is obtained, with a solution composed of two gallons of water, three pounds of sulphuric acid, and one pound of sulphate of iron.

Somewhere mid-century though, the definition of the term Rectifier began to evolve. Thanks in part to the invention of the Continuous Column still, patented in Ireland by Aeneas Coffey in 1830, the cost of distilling dropped dramatically and allowed many Rectifiers to make whiskeys for themselves. The invention and proliferation of the Column Still also helped push whiskey production in the States away from independent farmers & distillers and towards the more modern, industrialized production methods we see today.

So what was this Rectified Whiskey really like? I think it's time we find out…

Review 1/2

West Bottoms Kansas City Whiskey, Pre-prohibition rectified blend, American whiskey, 47% ABV
US$37.99 paid (£30) available only in certain states

As my wife and I were traveling back along the Santa Fe Trail in Missouri, we stopped by a couple of distilleries in Kansas City. The two that caught our eye were J. Reiger and West Bottoms. Both featured a revivalist style of “Kansas City Whiskey” - something that before this trip I had never heard of.

We got lucky while at J. Reiger and caught the head distiller, Nathan Perry, just before he wrapped up his work day. During our quick conversation together, he mentioned the uniqueness of Missouri's style of Pre-Prohibition, Rectified Whiskey - something that the J. Rieger Distillery has been instrumental in reviving. He also mentioned that there’s a movement underfoot from within the Missouri Distiller’s Guild to submit the classification of “Kansas City Whiskey” to the US TTB so that it can be given a proper denomination of origin… just like Bourbon or more recently, American Single Malt.

Once we concluded a small tasting and tour of their amazing, “whisky history museum”, we drove over to the west side of Kansas City and met up with Alex Lindsey at West Bottoms Whiskey Co. If J. Rieger is the big kid on the Missouri whiskey block, then Alex’s distillery embodies the very definition of “craft.” We spent quite a bit of time with Alex going over the full range of their whiskeys as well as a guided tour of his enterprise.

The name “West Bottoms” is not only the name of Alex’s distillery, but also the name of Kansas City’s historically important industrial district. It’s geographically situated in the low river bottom where the Kansas River meets the Missouri River. West Bottoms was a major commercial hub for much of the latter half of the 1800s and it was the place where nearly all the cattle from Texas would meet the railyards for onward eastern transport. West Bottoms was at one time the largest stockyard in the United States and if you were eating a T-Bone in Manhattan in the 1880s, there was a very high likelihood that your steak had traveled right past where we sat with Alex that day in December.

So what makes Kansas City Whiskey so unique? If you guessed Rectification, you guessed right… though without the creosote, oil of tar, or strychnine. In the States, these are technically classified simply as “American Whiskeys.”

For today’s review I’m going to highlight West Bottoms’ Kansas City variant. Made from a blend of American Rye, Bourbon, and 2.5% of directly injected Sherry to give it that true “Rectified” je ne sais quoi. Similar to the Rectifiers of yore, West Bottoms sources the liquids for its Kansas City Whiskey from outside suppliers, and then blends and barrel ages it onsite themselves.

Score: 6/10

**Good stuff.**
***TL;DR***
*A pre-prohibition style rectified blend that makes for a tasty dram*

Nose

When taken by itself, this rye, bourbon, and sherry blend is impressively well rounded. With each inhalation, you can tease out elements of its constituents - the corn from the bourbon, the rye spice, and the sherry are all there for you to explore. Despite the injection of sherry directly into the blend, this does not come off as a sherry-bomb. It's far more subtle than that. The spice of the rye is quiet and the bourbon influence emphasizes sweetness over char. Together they set a pleasant stage for the sherry.

When taken side by side with something more malty for comparison, the rye and corn emerge much more recognizably. I used a Glenmorangie LaSanta as a milder sherried scotch single malt whisky for contrast.

As I spend more time with it, a sweeter, honeyed vanilla steps up more prominently followed closely by the supporting acts, which depending on the nosing can lean either towards the rye or sherry. Those familiar grain notes are mellowed out and play nicely with the others. Depending on the pour and the pass by my nose, sometimes I get some malty-like notes that are evocative of malt whiskeys - but it's fleeting. Occasional brown sugar and syrup notes intertwine with whispers of baking spice. This is a pleasing and mildly layered whiskey with all the sharp elbows sanded smooth.

Palate

Like the nose, there’s a sweet bourbon-esque start that folds in all the rye spice and sherry goodness like a layer-cake of flavour. Each sip presents these individual components with subtlety, without any single one overpowering any other. The back of the palate is all rye and mild baking spices perhaps from those classic sherry notes. It's a cool combination. At 47% it leans into the flavour without overpowering the experience. Easy to enjoy. Part of what I think I like so much about this whiskey is the way it softens the stereotypical bourbon and rye flavours. Everything is there, just presented more agreeably.

The Dregs

I don’t have many blended whiskeys in my collection, favouring Single Malts more than anything else. This West Bottoms Kansas City Whiskey though, has taught me the value that a good blend can represent. This modern-day throwback to a pre-prohibition style of rectified whisky completely nails the role of “casual sipper” with the added benefit of bringing some intriguing history along with it.

Obtaining this whiskey will likely be difficult for many of our readers, but paying West Bottoms a visit is well worth the experience if you’re in the area. The 1880’s industrial ambiance is raw and authentic. You can sense the faded echoes of the old train cars that once occupied the space where the bar and lounge are today - rails still intact and embedded down into the asphaltene floor.

Kansas City Whiskey, be it from J.Reiger, West Bottoms, or someone else, is a spirit and a story well worth exploring. The unique history sets the stage for a rare though pleasing and unusual experience.

Score: 6/10

Review 2/2

West Bottoms Distiller’s Cut, American Single Malt Whiskey, 50% ABV
US$70 paid (£54) available only in certain states

If West Bottoms’ Kansas City Whiskey is their throwback to a nostalgic time of pre-prohibition sourced & blended whiskeys with a little extra sherry added for flavour, then this American Single Malt represents Alex’s more personal approach to where he’s taking the future of West Bottoms. Alex considers this his most premium made whiskey, with the size, distribution and price emphasizing that bit of rarity. Distilled, matured, and sold only on-site, this Distiller’s Cut Single Malt is bottled in a 375 ml size and retails for $70 USD. Alex mentioned how this whiskey doesn’t get much attention since the distribution and price make it approachable only to a very niche audience. As such, he only produces about 5-10 gallons of it a month.

This American Single Malt is made by Alex himself with his own 211 gallon copper alembic pot still. To make it, he combines two malt varieties: 50% unpeated and 50% peated (imported from Scotland). His Distiller’s Cut Single Malt is matured for 1 year in new five gallon #4 charred white oak barrels.

When asked about what aging whiskey in Kansas City is like, Alex responded with,

“I learned pretty quickly that the evaporation was very, very real.”

He went on to say,

“...when you get all these different temperature changes, it can go from 32 degrees to 60 degrees in a day in Kansas City. And when it gets hot like that, especially if the barrel is charred, the distillate is getting further and further into the grain and when it contracts overnight it's pulling vanillins, caramel and oaky notes right out of the wood.”

Score: 7/10

**Very good indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*The West Highlands of Scotland by way of Kansas City, MO*

Nose

An absolutely lovely combination of punchy, smoked nougat and caramel. Every once in a while I get strong aromas of something like honey glazed pears or stone fruit compotes cooked over an open fire. Delectable malty syrup. Some very distant and infrequent seared red meat notes mixed with cooked vegetables. A pleasing combination of mentholated notes with light black pepper. An absolute pleasure on the nose. This is one I could sit with for an entire night to explore over and over. Immediate Ardnamurchan flashbacks.

Palate

Malty sweetness wrapped in a delicious and a slightly rugged amount of peat. The oaky notes of a young-aged whiskey are definitely present and are lockstep with each sip, providing a bit of tannic mouthfeel and grip with it. This feels like what you get if you had a new, virgin American oak Ardnamurchan or Ardnahoe. The ABV is perfect despite being higher up on the scale at 50%. The peat helps to bring the distillate’s own character to the fore - though it’s offset by oaken reminders of the barrel aging. Oily mouthfeel. Tannic finish.

The Dregs

Given the imported mashbill, it's no surprise that this whiskey reminds me of a Highland Single Malt - but there are differences. Gone are Ardnamurchan’s characteristic salinity or an Islay’s TCP, replaced by the sweet youthfulness of New American Oak - emblematic of many ASMWs today.

Among many of the American Single Malts I've tried thus far, this young whisky aged in small barrels is a surprising stand-out. Despite its youth, this Distiller’s Cut makes a compelling challenge against my own personal assumptions about what I can expect from (very) young aged whiskeys. I must admit though, I am a sucker for that highland peat… This would make for a fun lineup against a McCarthy’s from Oregon (also imported Scottish barley), an Ardnamurchan and maybe something like a Port Charlotte.

So let’s quickly talk about cost. This is not a cheap whiskey. At $70USD for a 375ml bottle, the Distiller’s Cut also challenges my wallet’s elasticity. But this is not an issue that West Bottoms deals with alone. Many of America’s Single Malt producers grapple with what dollar to price their wares at. In this bottle’s case, the limited production and hand-crafted individual bottlings means that there is far more labour being paid for per bottle than what we’re used to from our everyday Scottish Single Malt distillers. It comes down to a personal decision made upon your own wallet’s elasticity, but what I can say is that this expression from a little distiller on America’s once-frontier, is actually pretty good and something I’ll be enjoying for several months to come.

Four chapters and thousands of miles later, I think I am finally able to answer a few of the original questions that inspired my dive into the history of American Single Malt Whisk(e)y. Cowboys, settlers, pioneers, gold miners, and fur traders of the 1800’s were all drinking a range of liquids, sometimes they had access to authentically made bourbons and ryes, but most often they were much more likely to be drinking whiskeys made for the frontier. Rectified whiskies were easy to make and even easier to sell. They were oftentimes awful and sometimes dangerous, but the more palatable and delicious revivalist styles of today bring a new and interesting chapter in the American Whiskey’s story.

In Chapter 5 I plan to go into the rest of the 1800’s and how we wound up at Prohibition’s doorstep at the dawn of the 20th Century.

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EMc

Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.