Spirits of French Lick

Most people already know the story of Kentucky bourbon. The fertile soil that is great for growing corn, the limestone filtered water and the legendary families that have been making whiskey for generations. It’s a story that has been told time and time again by historians, journalists and marketing teams to the extent that most people still think that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky. A notion that has never been true. As well known as the distilling narrative is in Kentucky, the heritage of one of their closest neighbors has long been forgotten. Southern Indiana and Kentucky have the same minerals and pH in their water and their cultures are very similar. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Southern Indiana was heavily populated by immigrants from the Black Forest region of Germany who brought with them a rich culture of distilling. By the late 19th century, there were 155 distilleries in a 6 county region along the Ohio River and Southern Indiana had become the apple brandy epicenter of the country, making more apple brandy than all of France. In addition to brandy, they also became well known for their rye whiskey and wheated bourbons. Unfortunately, the temperance movement was strong in Indiana and they actually experienced two prohibitions. The first was statewide between 1850 and 1853, and the second was the national prohibition from 1920-1933. In and around those two events, the Knights of the Golden Circle, a predecessor of the KKK and a temperance minded group who felt that alcohol was corrupting the white race, ingrained itself in local government and through a combination of legislation and scare tactics made distilling so unattractive in the state that Indiana has never been able to bounce back. Spirits of French Lick in southern Indiana, is looking to reclaim these long lost traditions and to write the long awaited next chapter for this "bastion of Americana". The story that is unfolding is a genre bending historical non fiction/coming of age story starring an engineering alchemist and a family farm. With a rich history and a blank page, their head distiller, Alan Bishop is defining a renewed spirit of Southern Indiana.

Kim Doty’s family has owned and operated their homestead farm in Martin County, Indiana since 1888. It has been passed down from woman to woman, generation after generation. When Kim married John Doty in 1978, John took over managing the farm while Kim worked for the U.S. Postal Service. In 1995, they opened the French Lick Winery and continued to grow that business like a healthy vine of grapes over the next several decades. Around 2013, after years of debate, it was rumored that Indiana was going to pass a new farm distillers license. Similar to the political sentiments of the late 19th and early 20th century, there were still plenty of legislators in local government who were against making it easier for distillers to obtain a license in the state. They felt concerned that if it was too easy then everyone would get one and that would lead to wild drunken antics. As a compromise, the farm distiller’s license passed with the caveat that in order to be eligible for it, you had to have had an active brewery or winery license for three years or more. The Doty’s were nearing retirement age and hoping to leave a slightly larger company for their kids to inherit. In their minds, adding a distillery to their portfolio could be a nice additional cash flow for the business. They were closely connected with a few of the legislators that were helping craft the new law, so once the bill passed, they were quick to seize the opportunity to get a distilling license. They were at the front of the pack, but while they felt well versed in farming and wine, they didn’t have the slightest notion of how to make spirits. Rather than take a risk attempting to learn and do it themselves, they decided to bring someone in who knew what they were doing. 

Alan Bishop comes from a family of distillers, mostly moonshiners. As a three or four year old kid, Alan thought nothing of walking by a still. It was as normal and commonplace as a toaster. Moonshining was a side hustle for his family. An enterprise that helped pay the property taxes and put gifts under the tree at Christmas. When Alan was 15 years old, he became tangentially interested in distilling, which is really to say that, like most kids that age, he became interested in drinking. To either his father and grandfather’s credit (or discredit), they built him a 10 gallon still out of an antique coffee dispenser. In their minds, if he was going to get into it, better that he do it at home where they could keep an eye on him. They gave Alan two rules. Don’t blow yourself up and bring us something when it’s worth drinking. 

“They wouldn’t tell me how to do anything. I knew all the things that they had done because I had helped them and seen them do it before, but if there was a problem they weren’t going to tell me anything. The whole thing was, ‘you need to figure it out yourself.’ And I’m really glad that they did that because I spent a lot of years doing that, and I probably figured out about 3,000 ways not to make whiskey and maybe 3 or 4 ways that work. I don’t know if they’re the right ways or not, but they work.”- Alan Bishop, Head Distiller Spirits of French Lick. 

Like most kids who grow up on a farm, Alan’s first instinct when reaching adulthood was to leave. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he worked as a semi-professional musician for a couple of years. Eventually realizing that touring around playing music was not for him, he moved back to his family’s farm and began researching market gardening and organic plant breeding. Alan describes himself as autodidactic. When he becomes interested in a subject he needs to learn everything about it. When it came to plant breeding, he became fascinated with the evolution of corn. Corn has a very complex genome, larger than the human genome. He studied the works of old “corn doctors” who would take diverse varieties of corn and let them cross breed in both controlled and uncontrolled environments and track the results to identify strains with the best agronomic qualities. Through a combination of research and practical applications, he was able to develop his own variety of corn which he named “Amanda Palmer,” after the lead singer from one of his favorite bands, The Dresden Dolls. 

Alan found it difficult to sell his strange plant creations in a state where almost everyone has their own garden, so he took the next logical step when you have excess crops and decided to distill them. Initially just a hobby, Alan’s moonshine quickly became more profitable than anything else he was doing. He upgraded his set up to a 150 gallon still and became something of a local legend. His notoriety around town started to exceed his comfort level, and more importantly the comfort level of his wife, when they would go to parties and strangers would come up to Alan asking him to sign their bottles. Alan’s wife gave him an ultimatum to find a legal way to distill or he was out. Alan sent out his resume to every craft producer in Kentucky, since craft distilling still wasn’t legal in Indiana, and in 2014 he began working at Copper & Kings in Louisville, Kentucky. 

A couple years later, the Dotys had been given Alan’s name by a couple of respected industry professionals, Lisa Wicker (Widow Jane) and Steve Beam (Limestone Branch). Alan was excited to return to Indiana, but if he was going to take the job he wanted to be able to do things his way. For starters, the Dotys were interested in making liqueurs. Alan told them that if that is the direction they wanted to go in then he was not their guy. He had a few lines in the sand. He wanted to be in charge of the mash bills. He wanted to use pot stills and he wanted to be in charge of making the cuts. He wanted to use only 53 gallon barrels with toasted heads and a #2 char, and he wasn’t going to do any chill filtering. He threw a lot of curveballs at them up front. After their meeting, the Dotys either trusted that Alan really knew what he was doing or they didn’t have anyone else they thought could do it better. In 2015, Alan started to help them with the construction of the distillery and in April of 2016 they started distilling using Alan’s very specific methods. 

Spirits of French Lick’s tagline is “respect the grains.” If you don’t have grains then you don’t have whiskey. For that reason, their aim is to make products that show off the positive attributes of the grains, and their methodology is largely based around creating and maintaining those flavors. A lot of those grains come from the Doty’s farm. If not, then they try to source as locally as they can, but the most important thing is the quality of the grain itself. 

They temperature control their fermentations and use a variety of different yeasts in their process. The first is a proprietary yeast they cultivated themselves from the distillery, something Alan believes all distilleries should do. Their fermenters are 1200 gallons and their mash cooker is 600 gallons, so it takes two cooks to fill one fermenter. On the first mashing day they will pitch their house yeast and let it go to work overnight. The next day they will mash again, but this time they will pitch one of three different brandy yeasts strains depending on what they are making. 

The brandy yeast is basically a killer yeast. Once that cook is put into the original cook in the fermenter, it will actually take over as the predominant yeast. The reason we’re doing that is that the house yeast is very good at pulling out the grain profiles. What you essentially think of as the corn, the oats, the wheat, the rye, etc. The brandy yeast on the other hand is very good at pulling out those fruitier esters. For example, on the rye whiskey you might get a little bit of banana overtone or banana nut bread, persimmon pudding, those sorts of things. That’s the rationale for using two different yeasts for each single batch. You’re going for two different profiles in one fermentation.”

They use a combination of three copper pot stills ranging from 350 gallons to 1200 gallons, built by Minnetonka Brewing and Equipment Company in Minnesota. Pot stills are less efficient than the traditional column stills used by the big names in Kentucky and they produce a more volatile spirit, but for Spirits of French Lick, that’s the point. Creating flavors and aromas in whiskey is all about breaking down long chain fatty acids to create esters and phenols. Part of the process occurs in fermentation, but distillation helps to draw them out further. With distillation, this breakdown is all about how long these fatty acids spend under heat. In a column still, they’re in contact with heat for only a couple of minutes. At Spirits of French Lick, in their 1200 gallon stripping still, nicknamed “Lillith”, those fatty acids will cook for 12 hours, creating a lot more flavor potential. Since they make other spirits outside of whiskey, their stills are equipped with hybrid dephlegmators/columns, but in making their bourbons they bypass those features to avoid too much reflux. They have a lot of control over vapor paths to help shape flavor and texture depending on what they are making. Their Lee W. Sinclair Bourbon, a 60% corn, 17% wheat, 13% oats and 10% malted barley mash bill that Alan created when he was a teenager, is a lighter and fruitier bourbon. To achieve that experience, on the second distillation run through their 650 gallon pot still, nicknamed “Innana”, they reroute the vapor into a gin basket filled with copper. The vapor goes up the still, comes over and has to drop down into the gin basket. It then has to work back through all the copper to rise again and get to the condenser. This creates more natural reflux and keeps the vapor in contact with copper for longer to create a more refined and lighter spirit. In contrast, their Mattie Gladden Bottled in Bond Bourbon (55% corn, 35% rye, 10% victory malt)  has a bigger, bolder profile so they run that one hot, fast and directly to the condenser to create a heavier spirit.

Alan makes very narrow heart cuts, which means that their white spirit is already very clean, and pure. All of the color, aroma and flavor that comes from the barrels is from the caramelized wood sugars in the oak. They go into their barrels at a low entry proof of 105 to dissolve more of the water soluble wood sugars. Since their base spirit is so pure to begin with, they would prefer their barrels have a greater surface area of wood sugars than a heavy char in order to once again maximize flavor, so they use a #2 char on their barrels from Kelvin Cooperage in Kentucky. They age their whiskeys in two different warehouses. The first is a brandy style chai cellar. 

“Some of these odd grains, things like oats or buckwheat, they’re more volatile. The same way that brandy is volatile. In other words, the majority of their flavor is made up by their aroma, because about 90% of what you taste is actually what you smell, as opposed to what you actually taste. So if you take brandy for an example, and you throw it in a warehouse that goes to 130 degrees then you’re going to blow off all that volatility and you’re not gonna taste anything but the wood. The same thing is absolutely true of those grains that are volatile.”

Their chai cellar ranges in temperatures from the mid 40s to the mid 80s. It is not actively heated or cooled but is impacted by the passive heating and cooling of the building itself. This allows for more consistent swings in temperature throughout the year that will keep pushing the whiskey in and out of the staves, rather than the barrels going basically dormant during the winter months. The dynamic aging process is coupled with high humidity that leads to around 7% angel’s share every year, driving off more of the water in the barrel and leaving behind the more flavorful wood sugars and alcohol esters/phenols. This unique aging process is how they are able to release some products at two years old that can rival or surpass the maturity level of some four year old Kentucky bourbons from non climate controlled warehouses. 

Their other barrel room is a bit more traditional, getting as hot as 115 degrees in the summer and as cold as it naturally gets in the winter. This warehouse is reserved for mash bills with a higher percentage of corn and/or rye, grains which are also volatile but do better by driving some of that volatility off than by trying to maintain it.

In spite of their efforts to be unique and different in how they approach making whiskey, they are still subject to a lot of assumptions about who they are or what they are doing based on where they are located. Being so close to Kentucky, people tend to assume that they are just trying to copy what Kentucky is doing. Being in Indiana people tend to assume that they just bottle juice that’s being made by the Indiana mega distillery MGP (Midwest Grain Products), which supplies spirits to countless non distiller brands. These days, consumers are so inundated with MGP products that for most, the words “distilled in Indiana” and MGP mean the same thing. And that’s because the history of distilling in Indiana has been forgotten.  

“In Kentucky you have a whole group of guys who write books about the history of distilling in Kentucky, whether it be Mike Veach, Fred Minnick or any of those guys. In Indiana there’s nobody. As far as I know, I’m the only distilling historian in the state of Indiana … We purposely set out, and I purposely set out, to not reproduce what Kentucky was doing… Instead of necessarily starting from scratch and building whatever background you could off of that, if I’m going to make bourbon, I’m going to make apple brandy, I’m going to make rye whiskey, I want to tie that into the history to an extent. I want to use some of the methodology that made farm distilled Indiana whiskeys and brandys interesting back in the 1800s.”

Alan sees his role to be that of equal parts distiller and historian. Making the whiskey and how they make the whiskey is an extension of his larger goal to reclaim the heritage of distilling in southern Indiana. In addition to the yeast that they cultivated from their own distillery, Alan has also cultivated yeast strains from multiple historic distilleries in the region. He has yeast that he captured from an old 120 gallon hogshead fermenter from the old Daisy Spring Distillery, now Spring Mill State Park. He has yeast from the original timbers of the old McCoy Distillery in Orange County, and an apple tree near the Old Cliffy Apple Brandy distillery in Cave River Valley. Towards the end of the distilling season when they are doing their last few runs of all their whiskeys, instead of using their traditional house yeast and brandy yeast combinations to ferment, they will use these historical yeasts to create experimental expressions. 

All of their whiskeys are named after famous historical figures from southern Indiana. Their flagship four grain bourbon is named for Lee W. Sinclair, a prominent local businessman who helped put West Baden and French Lick on the map with his hotel and casino. Their distillery is even located on Sinclair Street. Their Mattie Gladden Bottled in Bond Bourbon is named for a larger than life, infamous brothel madame from Salem, Indiana. Their wheated bourbon, currently named The Wheater is being renamed William Dalton, honoring the longest tenured distiller in Indiana history, who was the head distiller at the Daisy Spring Distillery for 55 years. Their soon to be released rye whiskey is named for Solomon Scott, a former distillery owner turned bootlegger who delivered rye moonshine to people suffering from the Spanish Flu when the doctors refused to visit them. As Alan puts it, “it’s not just the spirits in the bottle, it’s the spirits of the local place.”

“They’re not just stories. Everything you read on our bottles is legitimate. It’s all the truth as far as we can prove it or as far as we know it. Being a historian … I could write 20 pages on Lee Sinclair and 5 people in Indiana are going to read it. But if I put Lee Sinclair’s blurb on the back of a bottle and it’s a badass label with some texture to it and he looks distinguished and it goes into multiple states … Nobody in New Orleans knew who Lee Sinclair was a couple years ago and now a whole bunch of them know who he is. They know his story and they’re interested in it. It gives you some sense of involvement. It helps build up some of the Hoosier history, both distilling related and non distilling related, and it gives you a sense of the character of the whiskey that’s in the bottle I think.”

Their bottles are purposefully designed to be tall, so they cannot be put on the bottom shelf, and they have a weighted bottom so they feel sturdy and make a solid sound when you set them down. Over the last few years, the whiskeys at Spirits of French Lick have been undergoing a rebranding. As previously mentioned, The Wheater is getting a new name, but they are also all getting a new look. 

“We view these products and our labels as a true tribute to these local legends and I wanted to match the bottle design to the high quality product Alan was producing. When it became obvious that many of these people and places either had no photographs in existence or only ones of poor quality, I decided to hire an illustrator that would be able to illustrate our figures/places. That automatically lended itself to a black and white/pen drawing feel. We went through several variations before we landed on what we wanted. Having said that, each bottle's look and illustration will slightly vary. With Mattie, we used a silhouette because there is no photo of her... Lee Sinclair was given a more pen and ink quality ... Our Kasha Bourbon (releasing in May) has a pencil drawing on it, softening up the image which is contrasted by the purple foil on the flower and vines that are on the label. I also wanted the bottles to stand out on the shelf by themselves but also flow as a set when grouped together. I wanted each product to be recognizable as a Spirits of French Lick product regardless of which product it is, and I wanted to do that in a few different ways, not just by changing the color of the label.” - Jolee Kasprzak, Marketing Director Spirits of French Lick

Indiana’s deeply rooted connection to distilling may have once been forgotten and eclipsed by Kentucky bourbon, but through their dedication to Hoosier history, uncompromising and time-tested process, and relentless pursuit of knowledge, Spirits of French Lick is shining a bright light on Indiana craft distilling for the whole world to see. And while the distilling history of Kentucky and southern Indiana are intrinsically intertwined, Spirits of French Lick is purposefully making bourbon that is definitively not like Kentucky almost every step of the way. Their mash bills are unique, both in proportions and the kind of grains they’re using. They use combinations of yeast, historical and proprietary. They don’t just push a button and watch a column still do all the work for them. They use pot stills of different shapes and sizes with different vapor paths and they are fastidious about their cuts. They approach maturation from the standpoint that the barrel should be building on and adding to their flavors, not simply a device to stash away in the hopes that over time it fixes problems in the distillate. All of that with the hope that the end result will be something greater than what’s in the glass, and it seems like they are succeeding. Fred Minnick is one of the most respected palates in American whiskey and this is what he recently had to say. “The Lee Sinclair 4-Grain Bottled-in-Bond may be the best use of oats in contemporary distillation. Oats, once commonly used in American whiskey, can throw off a fermenter and come out distilled tasting like mold. Bishop’s understanding of grains is why his whiskey continues to climb up in whiskey geek circles.” With praise like this, it makes you wonder what people will be talking about 200 years from now, and perhaps more importantly, what they will be drinking.

Tasting Notes:

Lee W. Sinclair Four Grain Bourbon: Iconoclast Series (53.95% ABV)

Nose: Ripe Banana, Red Plum, Lemon Poppyseed Muffin, Herdez Salsa Verde

Palate: The mouthfeel is velvety with sweet notes of brown sugar and honeydew melon up front. Mild spice creeps into the mid palate mixed with stone fruits and honey. The sweetness fades, giving way to tobacco, black pepper and slight oak on a medium finish with good heat.

This bourbon has great body and character to it. It’s clear from the jump that it was made on a pot still. It’s very well balanced and the heat builds beautifully without going too far into the burn.

Mattie Gladden Bottled in Bond (50% ABV)

Nose: Cherry/Apricot Cold Pressed Fruit Bars, Licorice, Vanilla, Dusty Books

Palate: The mouthfeel is more prickly up front with sharp wood sugars and grassy notes. Mild spice persists across the palate leading to a softer finish with hints of  juicy grapes, licorice and banana nut muffins.

This bourbon doesn’t fit into the traditional mold of a high rye bourbon. The spice is subtle and the spirit is overall delicate and refreshing. It’s a fitting tribute to the woman it is named after. 

Old Cliffy Hoosier Apple Brandy (45% ABV)

Nose: Crisp Sweet Apples, Vanilla Custard, White Chocolate and Raspberry Sorbet

Palate: The mouthfeel is incredibly soft and creamy with maple syrup up front, raspberry and white chocolate drizzle in the mid palate and green apple jolly rancher on the finish. 

There is nothing about this brandy that isn’t smooth. From start to finish it is delectable and delicious. You’ll want more and more of it.