Free Republic

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, a local brew produced at a quaint brewery in downtown Lexington, is enjoying surging sales and developing plans for national distribution. This is the success the ale and Alltech's Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co. has enjoyed in the past 12 months: â–  In late 2011, Alltech began selling Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale in China, where it introduced the brew to the Beijing Horse Association. "Dxcel Distribution is the leading importer of American craft beer in China," said Matt Cordle, general manager and national sales manager of Lexington Brewing and Distilling. "The owner, Dean Lim, told us...

Kentucky bourbon makers fear hangover from Obama's corporate tax overhaulBy Erik Wasson - 02/25/12 07:49 AM ET Kentucky bourbon makers say President Obama’s corporate tax overhaul could hobble their industry and cause major economic hardship in the Bluegrass State. The makers of Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniels and Evan Williams are worried about the elimination of an accounting method that allows companies to lower their tax burdens by boosting the costs associated with inventory held for a long period. Obama’s Treasury Department sees the “last in, first out” (LIFO) accounting rule as a loophole. By eliminating it and other tax provisions,...

I've always been a big fan of pickling and canning, and one of my favorite things to make at home is prepared mustard. We use it for a variety of purposes, and not just on hotdogs. Mustard can be the basis for some outstanding tomato-less BBQ finishing sauce, as a glaze for salmon, the basis for vinaigrettes and other salad dressings and even marinades. Potato salad made with just a spoonful of either one of these recipes is a revelation.... There are many ways to make mustard and I am presenting 2 of my favorite recipes along with the technique...

It's the time of year when we push the boat out and when it comes to that Christmas spirit a good whisky is hard to beat. Whether it's Scotch or Bourbon, Japanese or Irish, the world of the water of life is complex and varied - and it can be daunting for the novice tippler. But help is at hand in the form of a book published by whisky expert Ian Buxton. 101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die is a distillation of years of his research into the spirit, and Buxton was in Canary Wharf recently to dispense his...

Kentucky settlers brought with them the craft of making whiskey, substituting corn for other grain ingredients. Raw whiskey distilled from corn mash has a good deal of, shall we say, character, and some distillers decided to take the time to make a mellower product. Early Kentucky distillers used new oak casks which had been charred on the inside, aging the whiskey from two to six years before decanting into jugs for sale. This resulted in a superior product which eventually became the hard liquor of choice for Americans. We know it as "Bourbon."

A judge faces a decision on whether a gambler must repay $75,000 in loans from a southern Indiana casino where he claims workers kept serving him bourbon drinks while he was drunk. A lawyer for Jimmy L. Vance of Corbin, Ky., said that the key issue in the case is whether Indiana law allows a casino to enter into a legal contract with a patron who is drunk.

What type of bourbon do you like to drink? Me? Ancient Age over the rocks.

As the economy continues to recede, are cutting back on their liquor — with the exception of whiskey. Sales of bourbons such as Jack Daniels and Maker’s Mark are bucking a slump in sales of distilled spirits that set in during the final months of last year, according to industry officials. It’s not clear whether in hard economic times drinkers are looking for comfort in the bottom of a glass of Wild Turkey, or whether Americans long enamored with vodka, rum and tequila have rediscovered one of the nation’s oldest spirits. George Washington had a working still at Mount Vernon....

Piracy is common off Nigeria and often linked to militants Pirates have seized a ship owned by a French company off the Nigerian coast, taking nine crew members hostage. The company - Bourbon - said the captain had assured them that all crew members were unharmed. Bourbon - which provides specialist boats for the oil and gas industry - said it was working to free the crew. The hostages are from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Indonesia. Piracy is common in Nigerian waters, often linked to militants targeting oil companies. Militants attack vessels and strip them of valuables, taking hostages for...

To Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell, the piercing sounds of a warehouse rising in the Kentucky countryside are the sounds of prosperity. "As long as you see work going on — and the construction, and increasing your size — you know your business is doing well," said Russell, who started working for the bourbon maker in 1954. Distillers are expanding their bourbon production and storage and dispatching sales teams around the world, bullish for a traditionally Southern beverage gaining popularity worldwide. Surging exports, the weak U.S. dollar and rising popularity among younger Americans are driving the boom. "It's an...

I am sort of an odd man out over at the FREE REPUBLIC (largest current events forum on the Web) because I haven't joined in with the general FredFrenzy going on there at the moment. FredFrenzy can be defined as projecting on former Senator Fred Thompson all the hopes and qualities you want to see in a conservative candidate. The strange thing is that few folks actually took much note one way or another of Fred Thompson when he was in the Senate. Something similar happened to Senator George Allen. He was the subject of GeorgeFrenzy in which conservatives...

Later this year, an Evansville man hopes Kentucky's finest amber export will win gold for him at national film festivals. Tom Fischer says his documentary film on bourbon is nearly finished and he hopes to enter it in a number of film festivals this summer and fall around the country. His travels for the film centered on the bourbon distilleries and festivals of central and western Kentucky. "We joked that we did this just to get free samples." Fischer says he originally went to Bardstown, Kentucky to do a podcast for his site, Tripodder.com, but soon found what he calls...

Balthazar Napoleon de Bourbon, a man with a distinct 'Soorma Bhopali' accent being touted as the lost descendent of France's Bourbon kings, says he will be happy making a stake for the title but is not too keen to give up his Indian citizenship. Balthazar, a 48-year-old lawyer and part-time farmer who lives in Jehangirabad in Bhopal, will soon travel to France and Greece at the invitation of his distant cousin, Prince Michael. In his historical novel Le Rajah de Bourbon , Michael has claimed that Balthazar is the long-lost descendent of the Bourbon kings who ruled France from the...

Balthazar Napolean de Bourbon, a jovial Indian lawyer and part-time farmer settled in Bhopal, has been told that he is the first in line to the lost French throne. According to media reports, "Bourbon may soon make his first trip to Paris, after he was visited by a relative of Prince Philip, who told him that he is the first in line to the lost French throne." This Indian father of three is being feted as the long-lost descendant of the Bourbon kings who ruled France from the 16th century to the French revolution. A distant cousin of Louis XVI...

Whiskey co.'s Bravest effort BY RICHARD WEIR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER In 212 years, not much has changed on the label of a Jim Beam bottle - except the occasional addition of a new name to a list of distillers that spans seven generations. But the Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey has a new label in New York that pays tribute to the legacy of a fallen firefighter. Replacing the time-honored red seal and Jim Beam family crest is a red firefighter's helmet emblazoned with "343" - the number of firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Next to the helmet,...

Julien Jourdes for The New York Times Ali Shawn and the selection of whiskeys at Bemelman's Bar in the Carlyle in New York. LYNCHBURG, Tenn. COULD this possibly be the place where the nation's — and soon, perhaps, the world's — best-selling whiskey is distilled? This cluster of anonymous, uninspiring buildings, not in Kentucky or in Scotland but in a remote, silent valley in Moore County, Tenn.? Yes, indeed. As it has been since 1866, every single drop of Jack Daniel's, seven million cases a year, is made here in Cave Spring Hollow, amid the gentle hills about 75 miles...

<p>SAN JOSE -- This time around, Assembly Member Nicole Parra is leaving nothing to chance.</p> <p>The Hanford Democrat is determined to leave this weekend's state Democratic Party convention with an official party blessing for her re-election bid this coming November against Bakersfield Republican Dean Gardner.</p>

France said a formerly terrorist-free Iraq has seen as "explosion" of terrorism since the war, as the United States rallied support for a rejigged UN resolution to bolster reconstruction efforts. And while Iraq's interim government was to take a major bow on the international stage at the United Nations, the diplomatic flurry made little or no impression on the ground in Iraq where and Americans and Iraqis continue to die on a daily basis. Three US soldiers were killed in a span of hours Wednesday as the Americans pressed their drive to root out resistance to their nearly six-month-old occupation....

Henri d'Orleans, count of Paris and rival pretender to the throne of France, is banned from using the ancient royal name of Bourbon because it was abandoned by his family in the 17th century, France's high court of appeal ruled. The decision scuppered Orleanist hopes of reclaiming the dynastic title, which will now remain with the senior branch of the royal house -- represented by Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, duke of Anjou and the other contender for the throne. The Cour de Cassation confirmed a lower court answer to a plea lodged by the 70 year-old count of Paris shortly...

Second Thoughts By: William W. Lawrence 08/12/2003American Enterprise magazine recently invited six authors, including syndicated columnist Mona Charen and National Review Washington Editor Kate O'Beirne, to talk about the condition of the male species. The favorite question was: "Why are there so many wimpy male journalists?" Ms. Charen answered, "Because they're liberals. Not to say there aren't some conservative wimps. But conservatives never really bought into the notion of androgyny or into feminism, and so conservative men never felt the need to abandon their manliness. Liberal men, on the other hand, thought that was being enlightened. So, since most journalists...