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• History of distillery
  • Alberta Distillers Limited
  • Started in 1946 by Frank Mchahon and Max bell
    • Ranch hands deserve great whisky at a great price
    • Frank Mchahon
      • Oilman.  First to go into western canada to look for oil and discover it.
      • He was also a race horse owner and owned Majestic prince, winner of the Kentucky derby and Preakness in 1969
      • He seems to have been the money man
    • Max Bell
      • Married Franks Brothers wifes sister
      • Was a newspaper magnate and oilman
      • Inherited his dads paper that was riddled with debt, was able to get it out of debt, buy more papers, and then get into the oil game 
      • Also owned race horses
        • Won the irish derby with Meadow court
        • ⅓ owner with Frank Mchahon and… bing crosby (Frank went to college with Bing at Gonzaga
    • George Conrad Reifel
      • Brought on shortly after
      • Brewer and distiller who worked in Japan to start the anglo japanese brewing company
    • The Why is not stated, but there is a distillation process that goes into oil as well, so that may have been part of the connection
    • Built outside of calgary on 23 acres
    • By 1957 had 3 heat controlled warehouses and 100,000 aging barrels on 28 acres
  • After alberta Distillers Limited
    • 1967 purchased by National distillers and chemical corp
      • Expanded to 600,000 barrels on 42 acres 
      • One of few warehouses in canada that can age both rack and pallet style 
      • Has 2 rail spurs and can ship out and receive in tankers 
      • They decided to sell when standard and poors gave a negative outlook for whiskey
    • 1986 purchased by american brands
      • Renamed to fortune brands in 1997
      • Split in 2011 to fortune brands home and security and Beam Inc
    • Beam purchased by Suntory
• The juice
  • 100% prairie rye whiskey (unmalted)
  • Ground into a flour at the distillery using a hammer mill
  • Distilled using continuous distillation then a pot still
  • 3 years old
  • Ex-bourbon barrels

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