Distillery Number One

Hopkinsville Kentucky

One of the reasons we chose Kentucky as a destination was to visit distilleries along the bourbon trail. Our first one was the Casey Jones Distillery near Hopkinsville. The owner’s grandfather was a moonshiner who operated in what was then called the Land Between the Rivers during Prohibition.

Jones built the first square pot still (usually they are round). This design decreased the distillation time from 12 hours to 6 by increasing the surface area. Time matters when this is the riskiest part of being a moonshiner. There was the risk of explosion but also this was when being caught by the revenuers resulted in the stiffest prison sentence. Jones did spend one year in the penitentiary in West Virginia which was apparently full of other moonshiners.

If you remember how in an earlier newsletter I mentioned how resistant those that lived between the rivers were to the government taking their land by eminent domain, you can see how those emotions were built on the foundation laid down during Prohibition.

I have been reading a book called, Bourbon Empire by Fred Minnick that lays out a lot of great background stories to accompany us on this trip. The book reminded me that NASCAR came out of the moonshine runners who needed fast cars to outrun the feds when delivering their product. Junior Johnson of NASCAR fame was a bootlegging celebrity. They tinkered with their Fords to increase their speed. Ironically, Henry Ford was part of the moralizing minority who were in favor of Prohibition.

One has to wonder how the powerful whiskey industry let Prohibition happen. One answer is that they were disorganized with a lot of internal bickering since the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. And the Prohibitionist were masters of propaganda, tying the consumption of whiskey to immigrants and feeding off the anti-immigrant fervor that targeted particularly immigrants from Eastern Europe.

I have a lot more bourbon history to sprinkle in a we continues out distillery visits so stay tuned. So to return back to Casey Jones, his grandson founded this distillery. He obtained the original square still from the state of Kentucky that had been in display at the Land Between the Lakes Visitor Center and it now hangs over the bar. He uses a newer one that he had built according to family specifications.

The distillery was very dog friendly. They really catered to Kismet which was nice. The whisky tasting gave us a chance to sample 10 and I liked nearly all of them. We walked away with two small 375 ml bottles, knowing there were more tastings ahead of us.