The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-01-14
STATE TO GET
PRIZE LIQUOR
IF BAN LIFTS
Best Whisky in U. S. His
tory Stored in Kentucky
for Medicinal Sale.
SOME Is 22 YEARS OLD
Price Will Be SIS a Pint for
Top Grading Down to
$3.50, Check Shows.
BIZ Times SDcciaI


LOUISVILLE, Jan. Kentucky
distilleries, which contain in their
warehouses some 5000 900 gallons of
prewar whisky, are making extern
sive shipments to Washington and
Oregon, which repealed the laws
against the sale of medicinal liquor
at the November election.
The also are prepared to supply
the wholesale druggists Of Indiana
with their quota of shat potent
liquid, IN the event that the present
session of the Indiana legislature
repeats he Wright law.
The oldest whisky held in appre-
ciable Quantity is a portion of the
crop Of 1911, now twenty-five years
old. The youngest which would be
put on the market is that of 1917,
after which year wartime prohibit
ton stopped distilling.
Distilling in limited quantities
was resumed in 1929, but though this
whisky will be eligible for bottling
in bond next autumn, it will not be
drawn upon until the older liquor
is exhausted
Must Be Four Years Old
The pharmacopoeia requires whis-
ky to be four years old for me-
dicinal use, and the federal regula-
tions call for that age for bottled
in-bond specification, which is the
only legal way in which the liquor
can now be sold.
Indiana purchasers of whisky, in
the event of modification of the law
may expect to pay SIS pint as top
price for the whisky of twenty years
age, and from $250 to 81 for the
younger whisky, this including the
state tax of so cents pint, if that
be levied. Should Indiana omit
the state tax, the liquor will be half
a dollar pint cheaper
1t is estimated that the me-
dicinai requirements for Indiana
would be about $4,000 gallons year,
a little more than the amount dis
pensed in Kentucky. The depres-
sion in business has resulted in a
considerable falling off in the de-
mand for whisky.
When the prohibition department
first issued books to the doctors, the
average charge for a whisky pre-
Scription was from 50 to So, but re-
Gently in Kentucky it has been from
81 to 81. Present federal regula-
tions permit each doctor to have
400 prescriptions annually.
Four DistiIIeries Operating
There are four distilleries in Ken
lucky now manufacturing whisky
under United States permits, all OF
which make Bourbon, or corn,
liquor. There is another diStillery
at Baltimore which turns out rye
whisky.
Five-sixths of the pre-war whisky
remaining in bonded warehouses of
the United States is concentrated in
Kentucky, most of it in Louisville.
At present prices, this liquor is
worth about $120,000,000 at retail.
and is being withdrawn at the rate
OF about 100000 gallons a year.
Whisky is stored in charred kegs
in the warehouses, which are
guarded closely by government Off
Gals. This liquor loses in volume
by evaporation as time goes on, and
what remains is considerably above
the 100 proof required for bottled
in bond.
When it is bottled, this excess is
reduced by the addition of pure
distilled water and every barrel
which goes to the bottling depart
ment has to pass the government
gauger at 100 proof.
Assured of Best Whisky
One thing is certain. If Indiana
does get medicinal liquor law, its
people are assured of a supply of
whisky which is the best ever sold
in the United States. After the pre-
war liquor is sold, the present gener-
alton never will see that quality of
whisky again.
What will happen if the United
States repeats the eighteenth amend
ment is a problem too deep for the
average whisky manufacturer All
that the Kentucky distillers say is
that they are prepared to manu-
facture according to the time
honored formulas. many of which
have been in use for more than a
century
One family here, the Wathens,
chief owners of the American Medi-
cinal Spirits Corporation, Louisville S
most extensive distillery. has been
making Bourbon whisky in Ken
lucky since 1888. They are proud
of the fact that they always have
made the best.
Col. Ohio H. Wathen, vice presi-
dent and general manager of the
corporation, lives in JefferSonville,
Ind. He formerly owned the Louis
vile Baseball club.