
‘Craft’ Whiskey Is Probably From a Factory Distillery in Indiana - ceejayoz
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/28/your-craft-whiskey-is-probably-from-a-factory-distillery-in-indiana.html
======
JasonCEC
My company[1] works in this space, building tools for artisan brewers,
distillers, and coffee roasters. I know this market quite well!

This is a known practice, and one that a lot of people are unhappy about. We
suspect that the TTB will be cracking down quite harshly on this in the near
future; forcing a named distiller statement on the label.

That said... not all of the whiskey, rye, or bourbon that MGP produces is bad
- some of its aged production is quite good, and companies like Angels Envy
which further age it (basically double oak or quarter casking) can produce a
unique and high quality product.

My problem with this is from the deception; imagine if it turned out that
Dogfish Head and Stone brewing were actually buying their beer from
MillerCoors! This is an unfair practice that puts actual craft distillers
(some of my clients!) at a huge disadvantage. A named distillery requirement
would go a long way to correcting this.

[1] www.Gastrograph.com

~~~
batbomb
I posted almost this same exact comment on my friends facebook post for this
article, even mentioning Angel's Envy. This happens in Wine and coffee too.
The reality is many "distillers" are curators and finishers, and sometimes
battlers (sometimes not, whoever bottles or makes the Templeton Rye-like
bottle must bottle half of the craft market). In wine, this smaller places
will buy grapes or wines from the larger vineyards, and often make blends as
well. For coffee, most businesses in the Bay Area hit up Royal Coffee in
Oakland for their green coffee. Definitely everybody from Peet's and Starbucks
to Blue Bottle and Philz have used them, according to my girlfriends father
who has used them for 25 years. or tea leaves. even then, a lot of people hit
up roasters to supply them roasts or blends.

So, the modern beverage industry is largely an industry based on curation,
blends, and added value. And that's fine. I'm not so sure why people care so
much, but it must be because people have this romantic view that their
beverages should live up to some farm-to-table ideal.

~~~
arh68
It seems like the labeling restrictions are what matter here. I can buy a wine
from France and see it was grown and bottled _on the estate_. Or I can see it
was bottled by a negociant/middleman. I really have no strong preference
either way, as long as they're labeled correctly. (Louis Jadot, anyone?)

This bourbon thing, though, I guess Americans don't care what's printed on the
label. Hell, it was France that gave Andre flak for their "California
Champagne". (Champagne comes from France, nowhere else) Anything goes here, I
guess. Bourbon should be labeled similarly: either it's distilled, aged &
bottled _on the estate_ or it's bottled by a reseller. It's rather funny to
think about champagne now, because I think "bourbon" is an American trademark
like "champagne" is a French one. _Naming things_ , harder than it seems.

~~~
miahi
The EU has quite strong laws regarding the naming and labeling of wines. A
Champagne bottle is not only a sparkling wine coming from France, but from the
specific Champagne region, from a limited types of grapes grown in that region
and obtained using a specific fermentation process. There is also a limit on
the cultivated surface and the number of bottles produced each year. As the
"champagne" name is renowned, this keeps the prices very high for the whole
process. As I remember, only the right to cultivate a couple of acres of
vineyard in the Champagne region can cost up to $1M - not including the actual
land and vines. (in the EU the vineyards are regulated, you cannot just plant
100 acres of vineyard wherever you want, you have to obtain a kind of license
to be able to cultivate wine grapes, and this license is given only for
specific types of grapes depending on the region).

------
onion2k
If someone tells you something is _amazing_ and gives you the notion that
it'll be better than a competitor's 'factory made' product then you'll enjoy
it more. Not in the sense that you simply believe it's nicer, but in the
cognitive brain chemistry sense that you will _actually_ enjoy it more -
different parts of your brain will light up on an MRI scan. Even if it's an
identical product. Just telling someone that one bottle is better than another
is enough to change how they'll react to it. It's a cognitive bias called
expectation bias - what you expect to happen affects the result you get. It's
one of the reasons why we do double-blind studies.

Of course, whether or not you consider that 'adding value' enough to sell to
people or being fraudulent is a matter of opinion.

~~~
Retric
It's still fraudulent even if it adds value.

~~~
theklub
Isn't this just re-branding?

~~~
dllthomas
When you're saying "Our stuff is different than that factory stuff because we
don't make it in a factory" and it's actually made in the same factory as
everyone else's stuff, it's not "just re-branding".

~~~
randyrand
When the term "craft" doesn't have a strict definition, they can say whatever
they want as long as they aren't outright lying.

If you're a consumer that doesn't realize that there are no restrictions on
the "craft" denotation, (similar to the organic denotation), then I would
argue you are a for taking it on faith that there's a difference.

Is it disingenuous? Sure. Is it illegal? No. Should it be? Not unless you have
a legal definition for the terms.

~~~
Karellen
What possible definition of "craft", as understood by a reasonable person,
could possible make "small batch heirloom spirits handcrafted in New Mexico."
_not_ outright lying when the spirits were not created in a small batch, or in
New Mexico?

Ditto “ultra small batch bourbon” not being part of a small batch, or “first
bourbon produced in Southern California since Prohibition.” where the bourbon
is not produced in Southern California?

Ditto "They brag that they focus their “complete attention on executing each
step of the distillation process.”", when they themselves don't pay any actual
attention to any steps of the distilling process.

But hey, if you're fine with companies misleading as many people who read the
common usage of English words into the English words they read, as much as
they like, providing their wording _can_ possibly be read, if you squint hard
enough, in one very precise way that isn't quite lying, well, I suppose you'll
get the companies and the advertising that you deserve.

As for me, I'm glad that over here we have the ASA.[0]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_Standards_Authorit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_Standards_Authority_\(United_Kingdom\))
(See "noteworthy rulings" for some sweet wins for sanity.)

~~~
randyrand
I agree with all your specific examples. "Lying" is hard to define in gray
areas (your examples arent very gray =P ) but someone has to do it. I'm glad
we have those institutions as well.

------
acheron
My favorite local/"craft" rye whiskey gets a mention in the article as one
that actually makes their own: Catoctin Creek, here in northern Virginia. [1]

Anyway, there are a couple issues with the labeling. One is that some may feel
the TTB's requirements aren't strict enough. The second issue is that the TTB
is swamped and violations of the existing requirements get through all the
time until someone gets around to filing a complaint.

Chuck Cowdery is quoted in the article, his blog [2] touches on these issues a
lot, both with MGP rye and similar problems with bourbon.

[1] [http://catoctincreekdistilling.com/](http://catoctincreekdistilling.com/)

[2] [http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/](http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/)

~~~
swasheck
I live in Colorado and the closest retailer of Caotctin Creek is in Wyoming.
Thinking about picking some up the next time I drive through Cheyenne. Do you
think it's worth it to make a special stop?

~~~
georgebrabazon
Honestly, no, Caotctin does some interesting things, but they are a bit hit
and miss and I wouldn't go hugely out of my way for them.

~~~
tptacek
People bring up Stranahans a lot in discussions like these, and I have the
same thought. It's interesting and impressive what they've done, but the end
result is inferior to major label bourbon.

If you're in SFBA and you want unique, independent rye, Old Potrero (an Anchor
product) is a pretty good bet.

~~~
ahh
Also excellent are the Sonoma County Rye and the 1512 Spirts Aged Rye (their
white rye is also good, but hardly what most people expect from rye; don't
miss their wheat whiskey either.)

By far my favorite rye though is Goldrun:
[http://oldworldspirits.com/rye.html](http://oldworldspirits.com/rye.html)
It's got some rare flavor notes, bready and yeasty almost--I like to say it
has a "cheerios" note?--while still having some spice.

That said: I also love pretty much every bottle of High West I own (something
like eight at this point.) They're all from the one source. Oh no. They're
still well selected, blended, and aged. They make great drinks. Who cares if
they're from the mainstream sources? I'm into drinking, not being a hipster.

------
js2
Here's a family tree of American Whiskeys:

[http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-
tr...](http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tree)

If you're interested in American Whiskey production, I recommend the book from
whicn the article above is excerpted.

~~~
tptacek
"Status" whiskey drinkers are often surprised at how many of their favorite
brands roll up to giant beverage conglomerates. The best whiskeys in the world
almost to a one are traceable to giant corporations.

------
fiatmoney
Whisky is a fundamentally industrial product; fetishizing the "small batch
artisinal" etc aspects ignores all the hard work that goes into making a
replicable product, especially over the course of a decade-plus production
cycle.

Beer has a similar problem; "small batch artisinal" tends to result in
inconsistent product, so the easiest thing to do is to cover up
inconsistencies with a lot of malt and hops. It's actually significantly
harder to make a nice light pilsner than it is to make a heavyweight IPA.

If you want a "craft" product, you should really make it yourself.

~~~
protonfish
Only if you see inconsistency as bad (if you do, then McDonald's makes the
best hamburgers.) Inconsistency is the key selling point of small batches.

Agreed, IPA is a no-brainer beer without subtlety. If you put enough hops in
sewer water it'll taste like an IPA but that doesn't mean making a pilsner is
rocket surgery.

And as long as I am ranting on IPA, I can't wait for the current craze for
them to be over. A few years ago when I would ask the waitress what beers they
have on tap she'd rattle off 8 wheat beers. (Seriously, one wheat beer in the
summer is plenty and Bell's Oberon is a pleasantly inconsistent choice.) Now
it's half a dozen IPAs. I have a suggestion to the bars and brewers for the
next beer fad: an old world artisinal classic - lager.

~~~
jessaustin
Is lager really hard to find?

~~~
protonfish
On tap at a bar in my area? Yes, absolutely. I see nothing but wheat beer, IPA
and maybe a stout or porter. If I want a lager I usually end up with Sam
Adams, which is OK, but it'd be nice if another brewery could make a lager
too.

~~~
jessaustin
Perhaps this is my "Midwestern privilege" rearing its ugly head, but I suspect
that most of the USA has a different sort of bar scene.

"Oh yeah we got lots of stuff on tap. We got Bud, Bud Light, Miller, Miller
Lite, Busch, Busch Light, Michelob, Michelob Light... oh I forgot: Coors
Light, too!"

Frankly I'm always ready for an IPA the recipe for which is "sewer water +
hops".

------
dfxm12
It's _hard_ to figure out where your American whiskey is coming from. There
are a handful of bottles I like, and strangely enough, they all happen to be
"brands" managed by a company called Kentucky Bourbon Distillers[0] who only
recently got into distilling their own stuff.

On the one hand, if you find a product you like, who cares about the story
behind it?

On the other hand, when some brands are charging an arm and a leg (like Pappy
Van Winkle) as other, less expensive, brands made by the same people with the
same equipment (like Buffalo Trace), then it might be worth it see what the
difference is between the "high end" and "lower end" brands.

I did a blind taste test and found I liked the mid range whiskey the best.

0 -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Bourbon_Distillers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Bourbon_Distillers)

~~~
JasonCEC
Side-by-side comparisons are often misleading in hedonic sensory evaluation.
Even trained individuals have a tendency to select the sweeter and stronger
flavored (intense) product.

Bitter and woody notes are important balances in higher quality bourbons, but
are often perceived as negatives when doing comparative evaluation.

This is likely from your description, as the higher end bourbons tend to be
wheated and lighter, but with a more prominent woody body from their longer
barrel ageing.

~~~
mynewwork
Adding to JasonCEC's comment, a semi-famous example of this phenomenon
appeared in the blind taste-test challenge Pepsi marketed vs Coke.

Pepsi, being slightly sweeter, was preferred when participants took a single
small sip for a taste test. However, when drinking an entire can, people were
more likely to prefer the less-sweet Coke.

~~~
LanceH
I've never understood this one. To me Pepsi always tasted like a diet product.
Sure it is sweeter, but never the right kind of sweet. And I can't comprehend
the people who can't tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke.

~~~
yellowapple
I think the canned varieties of both taste pretty metallic, but _especially_
Pepsi.

I've taken to opting for the glass-bottle varieties of both; whether it's the
lack of aluminium traces in the soda, the use of sugar instead of high-
fructose corn syrup, or me having opportunities to collect bottle caps as if
I'm trying to make a living in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, I've
found that to be much more enjoyable for whatever reason.

That all said, RC Cola is the superior beverage. ;)

------
Bud
Let's be honest: did anyone actually think that a brand like Bulleit, which is
available by the hundreds of gallons at every Costco and liquor store around,
was a "craft" brand in the way that's commonly understood? Is this news a
shock to anyone who's paying attention?

I don't buy Bulleit expecting hand-crafted small-batch stuff; I buy it because
it's a good product that's worth the price.

~~~
tptacek
Bulleit rye, like most American rye, is an MGP product. But Bulleit bourbon is
Four Roses spirit, and Four Roses is no slouch.

~~~
OrwellianChild
Do you happen to know whether Bulleit Bourbon is the Four Roses basic or Small
Batch? Would love to cross-shop on price...

~~~
tptacek
My understanding was that all of the Bulleit Bourbon is Four Roses juice.

 _But, later: I may be totally wrong about this!_

~~~
OrwellianChild
I think you're right:

"Four Roses only recently began bringing their Bourbon back to the US. Aside
from the Four Roses label, the distillery makes Bulleit Bourbon for Diageo."
[1]

Four Roses has a standard Bourbon, Small Batch Bourbon, Single Barrel, and
possibly one more. I was just wondering which one it was (Bulleit brags about
"small batch" so it may be that one, in which case BevMo sells the Four Roses
for more than the Bulleit re-brand).

[1] [http://recenteats.blogspot.com/p/the-complete-list-of-
americ...](http://recenteats.blogspot.com/p/the-complete-list-of-american-
whiskey.html#KY)

~~~
dnr
It's almost certainly none of those exactly. There's many many ways for a
bottled spirit to taste different even if it came from the same distillery.

Four Roses uses two different mash bills (i.e. proportion of grains) and five
types of yeast to create ten different new make spirits, which they combine in
different proportions for each of their products. Bulleit is probably a
distinct combination. It may also be aged in a different warehouse or a
different part of the same warehouse (which can have a surprisingly large
effect). It may be aged in casks with more or less char than the casks used
for the Four Roses products. It may be bottled at a different age. The blender
also gets to taste all the mature casks and pick and choose which ones get
combined to make the final product, and can create a different flavor profile
just with that choice.

So rest assured, it's not just a "re-brand", even if it came from the same
stills.

------
Theodores
I doubt that the alcohol out of the big factory with the big industrial
process has anything wrong with it whereas I am not sure I really would want
to drink that 'prohibition era' recipe stuff made in small batches. Who knows
what polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, methanol and whatever other hangover
inducing chemicals get made by the 'twee' process alluded too?

Sounds to me that these faux whiskeys are a great product with a plausible
legend (that beats a white label saying industrial alcohol) and, scratch
beneath the surface, but isn't fake really part of what America is?

------
flyinghamster
MGP has been an open secret in the whiskey business for a while now - but it's
good that the story is finally getting some press. I've had a couple of known
MGP ryes (Bulleit and Dickel) and they're good - but they're not craft
products. I think a distiller statement would go a long way to ending the
deception.

I'm surprised MGP hasn't created its own brands or bought some existing ones,
since their rye is a good product in its own right. They're missing an
opportunity, though maybe they feel it's too much trouble to go into the
retail side.

~~~
jessaustin
_They 're missing an opportunity..._

During the gold rush, sell picks and shovels. Lots of tech companies have the
same model. With that model, MGP have production personnel and a few account
managers. They don't have to pay for any marketing themselves, while they
benefit from the full range of creative output of the American liquor
industry. Some people want to buy whiskey that was made in New Mexico by
hipsters like "Simeon Turley" and "Thomas Tate Tobin", while others want to
buy whiskey made in Iowa by "small townsfolk".

~~~
sitkack
I'd buy whiskey made by robots in the old Detroit Cadillac plant. Artisanal
Crafted Robots programmed in core.logic.

~~~
yellowapple
Only if it's aged in rusty oil barrels covered in graffiti.

~~~
sitkack
And bathed in a constant stream of Detroit Techno, Electric Six and Dirtbombs.

------
swasheck
Leopold Bros. is a great local (to me) distiller. I'd highly recommend any of
their spirits if you can get your hands on them. Their "American Small Batch
Gin" is my favorite, but their rye whiskey is also quite nice.

~~~
dllthomas
I remember Leopold from when they were out in A2. Good times.

------
rlvesco7
'Bernasconi says that purchasing whiskey from MGP and bottling it is “a means
to develop a brand and help fund the next step” of actually distilling a
unique product.'

This sounds similar to how Reddit grew. It created a bunch of fake accounts
until it didn't need to no more. Though there has been little outcry about
that practice around here.

motherboard.vice.com/read/how-reddit-got-huge-tons-of-fake-accounts--2

------
dllthomas
I don't condone the mislabeling, where that's occurring, but I'm actually
somewhat sympathetic to the outsourcing of the actual distillation process.
It's basically chemistry, well suited to industrial process control, and
heavily regulated for tax reasons. It sounds like MGP is typically doing quite
a bit more than that, though.

------
GauntletWizard
The whiskey club I belong to (Single Cask Nation) just bottled a cask of their
stuff. Specifically, what's called an American Light Whiskey; Distilled almost
to the point of vodka before being casked. Surprisingly delicious;
unsurprisingly interesting, as its usually used as an ingredient in a blend,
never bottled on its own.﻿

------
k2enemy
I was hoping that the article would tell which of the re-branded ryes from MGP
is the best value. If a bunch of "distilleries" are just packaging up the same
stuff, which is the cheapest?

~~~
dfxm12
It's not the same (tasting) stuff in each bottle; everyone adds their little
touch to it - a different mash bill, different wood for aging, different types
of woods, different blends, etc.

There is some labor & R&D here that can't strictly be - _ahem_ \- distilled to
dollars and cents.

~~~
tptacek
I'm not sure MGP resellers control the mash bill; rather, MGP sells a variety
of different whiskeys, so they presumably get to pick from a menu.

The aging process however makes a _huge_ difference; it accounts for probably
_most_ of the flavor of the whiskey. So there's definitely potential for
bottlers to add value. Unfortunately, most of them probably don't, because the
things that add value --- sourcing quality large barrels instead of small
casks, aging carefully for a long time --- add cost and delay time to market.

~~~
kasey_junk
Don't forget blending. Most "famous" names in whiskey are there because they
know which barrels to blend together. MGP sells quality distillates in a wide
variety of mash bills. There is no reason a good reseller couldn't create
great whiskey blending and aging their product. Do any of their current
resellers? Hard to say, but contract distilling is not new or rare so I'm not
sure what the fuss is about.

~~~
tptacek
Certainly, the "just buy the cheapest MGPI rye" meme that is springing up
around this story seems like the wrong take-away. Angel's Envy != Templeton.

------
kasey_junk
I am much less worried about contract distilling at MGP than I am about the
recent trend of obscuring the age statement on previously well aged products.
Both VOB and Ancient Ancient Age have recently removed their age statements.
In the case of VOB those cheeky bastards left the big "6" on the bottle label,
but removed the words "aged" and "years". Pretty skeezy bait and switch.

We can all just hope that whiskey gets less popular and the prices come back
down to sane levels.

------
yock
I wonder if this is the market reacting to a difficult regulatory environment.
When you consider the laws pertaining to production, distribution, and sales
of spirits, It seems like it would be darn near impossible to bootstrap such a
business without significant outside investment. And who would invest in a
company that has no intention to take a single dollar of revenue for years to
come?

~~~
tptacek
You might think that, but practically the entire Scotch whiskey industry also
rolls up into Diageo, Bacardi, and Pernod, and it might be hard to argue that
the regulatory environment in Scotland disfavors distilleries.

~~~
mturmon
Some sample Pernod-Ricard Scotch brands:

Aberlour, Chivas, Glenlivet, Longmorn, Royal Salute (Chivas premium), Scapa,
Ballantines, Laphroaig, Teachers.

~~~
tptacek
To be clear, most of these (Aberlour, Glenlivet, Longmorn, Laphroig, &c) are
totally separate distilleries run in some cases by people who were involved in
the process since before Chivas bought them out. There are also several
distilleries operated by Pernod that don't sell direct to the public, but
instead contribute to Chivas blends (the Craigellachie distillery grounds were
literally our backyard on vacation a few weeks ago, and despite it being
essentially an industrial distillery, you wouldn't really have been able to
tell it apart from Benromach by the exterior).

So this is a situation _not at all like_ the MGP product situation. Aberlour
and Longmorn aren't selling the same distillate (although they probably source
the same malt).

~~~
mturmon
Thanks for the clarification. That's an important distinction.

------
TwiztidK
I had a feeling this was going on after looking into starting a liquor company
with some friends. There are several large manufacturers producing all types
of alcohol (whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.) and selling in bulk to bottlers. This
is likely how some of the lower end alcohol producers operate, but I'm sure
there are plenty who use fancier packaging to upsell their product.

~~~
fl0wenol
A good half of your vodka brands are just repackaging ADM or the local
equivalent farm waste ethanol with water local to the bottling location (and
maybe extra distillation or filtering passes if you're lucky).

It's the bottled water business model, but swankier.

Even Hangar One, a favorite of mine, is at least half neutral grain spirit
from industrial farms. Thankfully they re-distill it with pot-distilled grape
vodka, which rounds it out (no rubbing alcohol flavor).

~~~
tptacek
Dave Arnold on Cooking Issues tells a story from when he ran the tech program
at the French Culinary about buying pure potable lab ethanol and diluting it
down himself for "perfect" vodka at a tiny fraction of the price.

Vodka sucks, is the moral of that story.

------
teuobk
Whiskey is not alone in this. A good chunk of American vodka is apparently
actually made from ethanol purchased from Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the
same company that distills ethanol for use as a motor fuel.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18360315](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18360315)

~~~
Zigurd
Someone should go the other way in marketing and sell an ADM-labelled vodka,
with the tag line: "If it's good for driving, it's good for drinking!"

~~~
fl0wenol
I've been looking and hoping someone takes up this mantle. A "vodka" in a
plastic or metla motor oil-like bottle, dressed up to look like a fuel
additive and labeled NGS or something vaguely technical. Made straight from
ADM (or an equivalent) farm waste and distilled an extra time or two to remove
the nastier volatiles.

Priced cheap, maybe at 80 and 160 proof options (normal and hi-test). Filtered
tap water added at the bottling plant, and proud of it!

Something like that; I'd sure as heck buy it.

~~~
PeterisP
Something like this
[http://www.vitvodka.by/catalog/49_142.html](http://www.vitvodka.by/catalog/49_142.html)
\- vodka in 1 liter canisters?

Someone might make a business in importing or making such products to USA :)

------
bsharitt
I've know that Bullit Rye comes from and Indiana factory for some time now,
but I still drinking because it's good and not too pricey. As long as they
don't try to charge a "craft" price for it, I don't mind as long as the end
product is good.

~~~
kasey_junk
Well given that it's distillery location is on the label I'm a little confused
about what the story is.

------
tomblomfield
If you're in NYC, check out King's County distillery, just over the manhattan
bridge in Brooklyn.

The proprietor gives tours every Saturday. It's a really interesting little
place

------
jccalhoun
I knew this would be about Lawrenceburg. Back in the day Lawrenceburg and
Aurora (twin towns that basically run together) used to stink terribly from
the old Seagrams factory.

------
jamessun
Is this all that different than what you see in canned vegetables or cereal --
Del Monte/Kellogg's vs. generic/supermarket brands?

~~~
ceejayoz
Are you buying "artisan, small-batch" canned veggies that purport to be
locally produced?

~~~
jamessun
From the Green Giant website, "Premium Le Sueur® brand vegetables come from
the birthplace of the Green Giant® brand—Le Sueur, Minnesota—where they’re
grown in the rich, fertile soil of the Minnesota River Valley."

So, is Green Giant doing the same thing if the same farmer/field/canning
facility supplies peas to generic/supermarket brands?

~~~
ceejayoz
What MGP/Green Giant are doing is just fine. I've no objection to that. The
issue is the "craft distillers" passing off MGP's stuff as their own, claiming
it's done with their own proprietary yeast blends and family recipes and
whatnot.

Look, for example, at [http://templetonrye.com/wp-content/themes/Templeton-
Rye/docs...](http://templetonrye.com/wp-content/themes/Templeton-
Rye/docs/Website-FactSheet-Download.pdf) which is linked in the article.

> At Templeton Rye, we’re proud to say we use our own proprietary yeast
> culture propagated in-house and developed exclusively for whiskey
> production.

That's entirely deceptive. It's as if Whole Foods resold Green Giant products
saying "grown with our family's heirloom seeds!"

------
chrisgd
Seems duplicitous to say the least.

------
randyrand
Ignorance is bliss.

