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Originally Posted by Bilbo1967
That reminds me of Iain Banks' book "Raw Spirit". I guess you've probably read it, but it's a journal of his travels around Scotland tasting various single malt. A lot, if not every chapter starts with one of his friends calling him and asking him if he needs help  |
As it happens, it's queued in my To Read set. The recently read books on that topic are a history of bourbon whiskey, and the story of Templeton Rye.
Templeton Rye took its name from the town of Templeton, Iowa, where it originated. It was a product of Prohibition, and the brainstorm of Joe Irlbeck, the son of a Bavarian immigrant that farmed in the area. He got the entire town of Templeton, population 428, involved, including the Monsignor of the local church and the head of the local bank. He wanted to make rye whiskey so good it would be asked for by name, and succeeded.
Local farmers had stills on their land. The deal was that they got fifty cents a gallon for spirits distilled (
very good money in the 1920's, and often needed by struggling local farms), and if they got raided, they took the fall and didn't implicate Joe. At one point, a still got raided while Joe happened to be present, and the government was sure they had him dead to rights. The grand jury hearing where it would be determined whether there was enough evidence to prosecute was a preliminary hearing, and Joe was not allowed to attend. So he parked his Model T under an open window and listened. The farmer took the fall and swore Joe was not connected with the still. The head of the bank testified Joe was a good customer, and certainly not a bootlegger. The government's case collapsed, and Joe cranked up his Model T to drive back to Templeton and say "Okay, folks. Business as usual."
It's a fascinating picture of a time when an entire town would conspire to break the law and distill and bottle liquor, and why a politician of the time called Prohibition "legalizing the manufacture of intoxicating liquor without taxation".
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Dennis