The Book of Classic American Whiskeys

If you are passionate about whiskey then this is the book for you. It gives a fascinating history of the drink and its major distillers. It also provides helpful taste test results, which will have you running to the liquor store.

This book, written by two philosophy professors on a crusade to understand whiskey and relay their findings, gives a good encapsulated history of Bourbon and an understandable explanation of its processes. Then they give tasting notes on vitually every Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey available (or soon to be) in 1995. This book gave me a deeper appreciation of Kentucky's home-grown art, several very enjoyable nights of reading (with a selected Bourbon at my side), and an enthusiasm to try (lots) of new whiskeys. I've given several copies away. Never had more fun learning!

This is an excellent book on American whiskey which is the only spirit developed in the U.S. It demonstrates how the history of the United States is tied with the history of its whiskey. The author makes a case for the fact that the loss of grain purchases to produce alcohol greatly hurt the economy before the Great Depression as did the loss of jobs in the distilling industry. The loss of alcohol tax revenues hurt the government. Whiskey then was an important part of American history. The book also describes the distilling and aging process. It covers all of the major American distillers and their whiskeys. The anecdotes about the people who craft the whiskeys really give you an inside view of the industry. Most whiskeys have tasting notes and it concludes with a selection of recipes and the method for conducting a tasting. This book is my guidebook to explore our only native spirit.