Striped Pig Distillery

Welcome to Whiskey Lore's Whiskey Flights, your weekly home for discovering great craft distillery experiences around the globe. Brought to you this week by my friends at Burnt Church Distillery of Bluffton South Carolina, a distillery loaded with authentic Low Country South Carolina Spirits.

I’m Drew Hannush, best-selling author of Experiencing Kentucky Bourbon and Experiencing Irish Whiskey and today I’ll be your travel guide as we drive to the northern town limits of Charleston along I-26, past High Wire Distilling, and up to see Charleston’s first legal distillery since prohibition. Its name is The Striped Pig, and if you think that name is curious for a distillery, by the end of our visit, you’ll have a good idea why it is the perfect name for this family run distillery. 

But we’ve got a couple of minutes before we meet our host and guide Remy Ekvall, and I promised during our last visit that I’d give you a feel for some of the things I like to do around Charleston, so let’s do it. 

Now, I mentioned last time that the Charleston Visitor’s Center is always a good place to start your visit and that there are shuttles that will take you downtown. That was good for my first couple of trips, but I’m pretty much tuned into the city now. And I love to walk, so I usually park downtown in the French Quarter and sometimes I’ll walk up Meeting Street all the way to the Visitor’s Center and then make my way back down King Street. This is a great way to do some window shopping, get a feel for the city, and maybe grab a coffee or iced beverage to sip while experiencing the shops, parks, or scouting out what restaurant you might want to revisit later. 

One of the more popular areas in town is around the City Market. Open daily from 9:30 to 5, the market is a vibrant and historic marketplace that dates back to the early 19th century. It spans four city blocks and is home to a diverse array of vendors offering unique, locally-made goods, including sweetgrass baskets, artisanal crafts, and Southern delicacies. The market's southern charm and rich history make it a great starting point, offering a glimpse into Charleston's cultural and commercial heritage.

Another way to get a feel for the city is to find one of the local carriage rides. One company I’ve used is Old South which is just a block north of the City Market. Your tour guide will introduce you to the streets of Charleston, give you a feel for history and the Charleston vibe, and help you see the areas you would like to revisit on foot. Make sure to use the GPS on your phone to mark your favorite spots.

If you love taking in architecture and want to get a feel for the history of what the locals call Chucktown, Queen Street, Legare (LUH-gree), Tradd, and Church Street are all great walking areas. And with all the church steeples, it won’t take long for you to realize why they call this the Holy City. 

Another great spot where I love to walk is in the French Quarter, right around my favorite parking garage. Its cobblestone streets will take you to another era. Then walk to the Pineapple fountain to let the kids splash around, and step out on the Waterfront Pier at sunset, then take in one of the great restaurants and see a play at the old Dock Street Theatre and Charleston Stage.  The next morning, sunrise is always a treat when the rays stretch across the homes on Battery and Murray Streets, then walk to the White Point Garden, then up Bay Street to see the colorful houses along Rainbow Row. 

As someone who loves history and architecture, I can tell you, walking down the streets and smelling that wonderful Confederate jasmine never gets old. And, when I’ve got enough money to splurge - its always nice to add in a meal at Hank’s Seafood, one of my favorite restaurants in the city - and conveniently located just above the City Market. Hope I gave you enough food for thought.

Because we have arrived at the Striped Pig, so it's time to step inside, meet our guide Remy and get a sense of what this distillery is all about. As we sit down and begin our conversation, I wanted Remy to introduce you to the distillery’s curious name.

The Interview

Remy (01:52.696)
Yeah, so there's actually, there's not too much on it when you look it up. I mean, there's a few articles and there's a book about it and there's a lot of things that sort of direct you towards the name, but doesn't go too fully into explanation. So yeah, like you said, the temperance movement in the early 1800s, so 1830, it was mostly a religious push. There was capitalist as well.

You know, they didn't want their workers drinking or hungover to be more productive. And on the religious side, it was a social movement along with health and concerns. People don't realize back in 1830, there was no drinking age. So people were drinking quite young and quite a lot. And it's kind of crazy. The stats I've seen of the average person would drink something like 7 .2 gallons.

Drew Hannush (02:38.539)
Hmm.

Remy (02:51.608)
of liquor a year, hard liquor, not diluted down. And if you break it down, it's not so much if you divide it by an eight hour day, but then you got to consider all the people that didn't drink to kind of put it in perspective. I think last year we were at US was at about two gallons, a little over two. So big difference. But anyways, so the temperance laws in 1830,

Drew Hannush (02:55.499)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (03:10.475)
Mm.

Yes.

Remy (03:19.128)
is 1838 to be exact is when the 15 gallon act was stated in that of Massachusetts. So with this 15 gallon act stated that consumers of alcohol, you couldn't purchase unless you were buying quantities of 15 gallons. So of course, the wealthy could still afford to drink, but that was pretty much it. So all the speakeasies were shutting down. And as the story goes, there was a rum seller who decided,

Drew Hannush (03:35.147)
Mm.

Remy (03:48.92)
to go home and stripe his pig with paint. And he would get a license to advertise and to sell tickets to come see his striped pig, this great curiosity. So on the parade grounds where the militia and the local and state militaries would come to practice their drills, there'd be all these vendors set up. And one of these vendors was the rum seller selling his tickets to see the striped pig.

So we had a big tent with a picture of a striped pig and people would walk by and for the most part, no one would go in because they didn't want to pay to see this striped pig with a picture of it right up front. So eventually one or two walked in there and after about an hour came out, not looking so silly anymore, smacked their lips, winking, having a good old time. And the whispers went around and people started getting it.

Drew Hannush (04:37.087)
Yeah.

Remy (04:44.344)
getting the idea of what was really going on in there. So people would pay to come see this, this rum sellers pig and he'd greet them with a grog of their choice. So it was mostly rum, but they were coming in and they were drinking rum and back when it was prohibited to have a good old time. And that's kind of where the name came from. So.

Drew Hannush (05:05.195)
It's funny because when I read that story a while ago when I was doing some research, I was thinking to see it in South Carolina kind of threw me because I was like, that happened in Massachusetts. And so I didn't connect the dots between that story and you guys immediately until I looked at the website and then I saw the picture of the tents and the striped pig and all of that. How did you guys come about that story?

Remy (05:33.432)
So that was actually, so the Stripe Pig, it was originally when it was opened in 2013. It wasn't my family that opened it. So we had, there was the original three owners was Johnny Peeper, James Craig and Todd Wise. And the story, it's just kind of blended with us. My family's from New England. Not that that matters so much, but when we came down,

Drew Hannush (05:41.963)
Remy (06:00.536)
The strike pig was already in business for a couple of years. So we were in the liquor industry already. My mother, Pixie Paula, she started another company up the road. Her background was finance. So she worked for American Express for over 20 years and she was doing real estate development. She also had her own financial advisory practice. And she came across this gentleman, Ty Tyler, who's...

passed away now, but he invented a rapid maturation. I can't talk too much about it because that's a little over my head. But yeah, so that's how she got into the industry. And they were doing a lot of white label and private label. And she just fell in love with it. And I shortly moved down and I started on that bottling line. And we were doing, like I said, private label, white label, and basically creating brands for other people.

Drew Hannush (06:37.931)
Hahaha.

Drew Hannush (06:56.811)
Mm -hmm.

Remy (06:58.168)
And then back then there wasn't so many celebrity brands, but there was liquor companies selling for big, big money. And she wanted a part of owning the brands instead of just supplying and making the juice and putting their label on it. So that's how she started getting into the actual brand development and started her own brand and started some partnership brands. And we kind of just navigated the industry and learned all the compliance and all the different state laws because there's

Drew Hannush (07:13.515)
Mm -hmm.

Remy (07:27.64)
There's a lot that goes into this that most people don't realize. So we learned all that and we were kind of operated as an incubator to get to market more affordably and quicker and used our partners for the sort of the marketing side of things. So that company grew, I don't want to talk too much about it, but that company kept growing and investors came on and then the board of directors was all changing and she...

She had her dream where she wanted to bring our family back together. And she's like, I'm just gonna go out and start my own distillery. So as we were all on board and we started looking into it and we found the strike pig, which we fell in love with the guys and the story and what they were doing. And it was just a perfect partnership because that's what they were lacking was the finances and that background. And -

the branding and stuff because it's a very capital intensive industry. And we've done all of this from the beginning off of cashflow and what Paula's great at is leveraging her assets. So like I said, she's been investing in bourbon for 20 years now. A lot of it she'll never even see. And there's more and more companies that you see popping up. I get ads every day for it to now that it's becoming a bigger in

Drew Hannush (08:26.507)
Mm.

Drew Hannush (08:44.843)
Ha ha.

Remy (08:51.832)
more available thing for people to do to kind of diversify their portfolio and invest in bourbon without even owning a distillery. So it's really cool to see where things have come in just the last 10, 15 years in the industry.

Drew Hannush (09:06.251)
She's, she strikes me as a, as a big personality because, I get asked, when I mentioned that I was going to talk to Stripe pig from other people in South Carolina, Pixie, you know. and so it's like, she's, she's. Seemed to have come down from new England into an area where I can tell you when I went down to Charleston and I'd take one of those, mule carriage rides around.

Remy (09:10.712)
Yeah.

Remy (09:18.584)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (09:33.547)
they'd hear, they'd hear my accent and they would call me a Yankee right off the bat, which is that is a culture that is alive and strong in Charleston. It's kind of poking fun a little bit, but, yeah, it's a, how has it been for you kind of, integrating into the.

Remy (09:33.848)
Right.

Remy (09:38.232)
Yeah, yeah.

Remy (09:43.704)
For sure. Yeah.

Remy (09:49.688)
honestly not. I haven't had any bad experiences. I mean, the Southern hospitality is a, is a real thing and people have been nothing but friendly since I've been, I've been living here for about 15 years now. and you get, you, you hear that a lot, but, it's mostly joking and, and, I mean, Charleston has become a lot more, people from all over. So it's, it's, I still know a lot of people born and raised here, but it's few and far between now. So, yeah.

Drew Hannush (10:17.899)
Yeah. You at one time had a mascot named Jackson. Is he still around?

Remy (10:23.832)
Jackson, right? No, we like to say he's retired on a farm upstate in South Carolina living out his dreams. But it is a funny story. So Jim, Jim originally, he went to this this hog farm. I can't I can't remember the name of it. But he asked them to basically borrow a pig for for the weekends to kind of bring around and and use as a mascot. And he was about 20 pounds at the time.

Drew Hannush (10:33.483)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (10:46.955)
Mm -hmm.

Remy (10:54.264)
And it seemed like every day he was growing by the pound. I think the last they weighed him, he was about 520 pounds. And Jim had this special bond with Jackson. And he would sit and play dead and he would listen to his commands. And he would run around the distillery, eat all the grains. It was a good old time. It was a lot of fun having him around. He scared a lot of people too. But one cool thing that they do here in Charleston is called Second Sunday.

Drew Hannush (11:01.003)
Mmm.

Remy (11:23.928)
So downtown on King Street, it's about a half a mile stretch. It's the busiest street in Charleston. They shut it down for traffic. So it'll be all vendors. And it's just, I think it's like noon to five or something like that where everyone could just walk King Street right in the middle and not have to worry about the busy traffic. And it's a lot of fun. And he would take Jackson out there on a leash and walk him around and take pictures with the kids and bring them on sales meetings. But.

As he got bigger, he couldn't really jump into the gym's truck anymore. And he thought at that size, he'd have a better life living on the farm with the rest of the pigs. So his pictures are up and videos, and we got them all over here.

Drew Hannush (12:04.427)
Drew Hannush (12:10.283)
nice. Well, it seems like having a name like Stripe Pig just opens you up to all sorts of little fun things that you can do around the distillery.

Remy (12:19.08)
yeah, yeah, we're trying to start. We have so many, it's very, I can't say that word, but there's a lot of cool little artifacts that are kind of geared towards pigs here. And we're trying to start a collection of like rare and unique piggy banks. So it's a lot of fun.

Drew Hannush (12:40.235)
Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about the spirits that you make there, but before we do actually, I was also noticing that a lot of your equipment, you know, people would go to Vendome copper or wherever, but it sounds like you guys actually kind of built your own, equipment way back when.

Remy (12:59.928)
Yeah, so that was James as well. He's a unique character. He's a great guy. And he built these stills. They're continuous column stills. He also built all the cannons for all the Civil War reenactments they do in downtown. So he's got like live cannons. It's pretty wild. I don't want to call him out too much. And he's a beekeeper as well. But yeah, he built these stills. And we still use them.

Drew Hannush (13:16.331)
wow.

Ha ha ha.

Remy (13:28.536)
Now with the purchase of the brewery, we're starting to look into finally upgrading to larger size stills and tanks and everything. But again, that's not cheap.

Drew Hannush (13:42.956)
Good. Yeah. It's a good way to get started. That's for sure. You'll build some revenue and then build it the way you want it after that. Yeah. So let's talk about what, what will you consider to be your flagship spirit that you sell?

Remy (13:46.136)
Yeah, absolutely.

Mm -hmm.

Remy (13:58.52)
Well, that's hard to say. I mean, when we first started, we had a vodka, our gin, which is Juniper Lavender Orange Peel, and Spiced Rum, which is out of this world. We still make those three products the same way today as they did day one, and they're still our top sellers in distribution. But since coming over with our background from...

creating all these recipes. We had over 100 recipes and we brought over our partnership brands as well. We don't make 100 products, but it's almost 20 now it seems. And we got some really good flavored stuff. We're starting to get into the aged bourbons and our bourbons are coming along and catching up to those, the gin and spice rum. Along with our espresso vodka, which is probably my best seller when I'm doing tastings here at the distillery.

Drew Hannush (14:37.099)
Mm.

Remy (14:55.32)
and that's espresso bean buttercream and vanilla.

Drew Hannush (14:58.183)
I noticed that the description on your, it said on the website, I was talking about your everyday, one year aged bourbon and it was giving me flavors like strawberry, cedar, honey, fresh corn. That's a lot of flavors coming through on something that is so new. What do you think the, the secret is to getting all of those great flavors into a whiskey that young?

Remy (15:26.36)
fortunately, that would be a question for my brother. I'm not really I have too much on my plate to get into that. And I'm trying to learn that the brewery side, too. But I do think, you know, Charleston with the high heat and humidity does does give I don't want to say. Like it matures faster, but it kind of does. I mean, our bourbon, our everyday bourbon is two years, not one. I don't know if there is.

Drew Hannush (15:30.347)
Ha ha ha.

Drew Hannush (15:54.251)
Mm -hmm.

Remy (15:56.472)
a typo or something like that, but it's a little over two years and everything here is, it's kind of hard. The bourbon space is, you know, trying to be consistent and stuff like that. We've been doing everything so small batch that it's like almost every barrel is single barrel or double barrel. So there's not a whole lot of blending of our whiskies and you know how every barrel is different. Especially here, we're not temperature controlled. So we're just...

Drew Hannush (16:14.923)
Yeah.

Remy (16:25.656)
constantly tasting and, and, you know, switching out where the bourbon is stored and stuff to try to keep from, from over, you know, don't want to get it like too oaky and too many tannins and whatnot. but yeah, it's, it's pretty, pretty darn good for two years.

Drew Hannush (16:44.107)
Yeah. You almost need to talk to the guys in Houston and see what the heck they're doing over there. The humidity and the heat. Yeah. Cause it's, it's really interesting to think that, you know, the humidity is probably saving it from evaporating as quickly as it might. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a special problem.

Remy (16:48.92)
Yeah, probably.

Remy (16:57.784)
Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, I mean, we do we notice from having, you know, like I said, we're coming from owning all this bourbon in Kentucky before even having our stills operational. It's like we've we've noticed a lot of barrels we've been emptying lately have been a little little less full than than the ones down in Kentucky. So.

Drew Hannush (17:20.111)
Yeah. So absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you have a couple of different, bourbons that interested me when I looked at the first is the smore flavored bourbon. Is it okay? And what's interesting about that is that a lot of, people will use moonshine for flavors or they'll just use a straight.

Remy (17:23.416)
It's all learning curve.

Remy (17:35.48)
Yeah, so that was a seasonal one. Yep.

Drew Hannush (17:47.467)
whiskey, not a or use a whiskey rather than a bourbon. Is that more because you're I'm trying to think because it's really the difference in the barrel that you're aging the whiskey in, you know, is there a reason why you would go with the with the bourbon rather than just making a whiskey like a lot of other people do?

Remy (18:03.032)
Right.

Remy (18:12.28)
Well, you know, it's it's been so small. It's like small craft and stuff. It's it's like we're a little bit more flexible. Like we're not in a high demand for it. We need, you know, 100 barrels a year to of our straight bourbon. So it's it's we basically we were producing. We're not even bottling until usually when an order comes in. So just to save space.

Drew Hannush (18:37.995)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Remy (18:39.96)
But the same with our whiskeys like that, that s'mores, it was such a small batch anyway, that we were okay with using our younger bourbon and just playing around with it. Because there's different, I don't know the right words for this, but we have our aged bourbon, we have our ryes, but we also, our flavored stuff, we don't want it to be taken too seriously. We have so many people that come in here that do not like.

Drew Hannush (18:45.003)
Mm -hmm.

Remy (19:08.472)
dark liquor, they do not like whiskeys, they do not like bourbons and they end up leaving with three, four bottles of bourbon. So it's, you know, the flavor stuff that it's a young product and we try not to over flavor it. We use all natural extracts and it's, and we, for the most part, like our black cherry, which is my favorite, it's still 90 proof and it's not, you know, diluted down and it's just subtle.

Drew Hannush (19:14.507)
Nice.

Remy (19:36.056)
on some of the flavorings and some of them are meant to be sweeter and less proof and really hit you. So we kind of got the full range.

Drew Hannush (19:43.371)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (19:47.595)
So you do tours there, you yourself actually have guided tours. Well, when you're letting somebody sample the Southern Pecan, Pecan, how do you say it?

Remy (19:51.992)
Absolutely, yep, every day.

Remy (20:02.232)
Yeah, so I say it both ways now because when I moved here, I always said Pican and then I was told down in the South that Pican is what you keep on the end of your bed. But then lately, a lot of Southerners have been telling me, no, that's not true. We say Pican. I mean, we say Pican. So I'm like, I don't know what's right anymore. So I just say it. They correct me. I say how they want to hear it. Yeah.

Drew Hannush (20:04.267)
Hehehehe

Drew Hannush (20:14.411)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Drew Hannush (20:24.139)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's funny because you don't know that until you move. And I was going to ask that question of you, because I thought maybe you were from Charleston. So I wanted to hear how you'd say it, but interesting mix to know that you're coming from New England and then really having to adapt to. And I'm sure that if you say it one way or the other, somebody is going to tell you that you're not saying it.

Remy (20:51.096)
that is pretty much every day. It's like the one person said it this way, the next is, you know, so it's, it's.

Drew Hannush (20:58.347)
Nice. So, what do you try to achieve when you're doing a tasting with people? Are you trying to give them kind of a spectrum or are you trying to get them into how to taste? What is kind of your technique?

Remy (21:13.912)
It depends on the guest. It's a little bit of both. Our tours are very educational, but they're also very intimate and there's a lot of one -on -one time. And even if I'm not doing the tours, it's one of my siblings. So you're getting someone who's passionate about it and has ownership aspect as well. So I kind of feed off the guest's energy. And if they want to learn more about...

how to taste and we can go into that and the other ones just here to have fun and try some good spirits and joke around. And so it's a little bit of both when it comes to that. But we just want everyone to be comfortable and not feel any pressure or feeling any judgment if they don't know what makes bourbon bourbon or how to taste this or how to taste that.

And I just, that's what I always tell people. If you don't like it, you're not gonna offend me. I'm sure out of these 20 products, I'm fine. Something you like. But yeah, it's, you know, everyone's palette's different and you don't have to listen to some expert to tell you what you like. It's what makes you happy and what tastes good to you.

Drew Hannush (22:18.443)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (22:31.467)
Well, I'm going to make a New England reference here. Whenever you buy a pack of Boston, of Samuel Adams beer, they always put Boston lager in there. And I asked at one point, why do you always put Boston lager in there? And they said, cause that's our first, first beer. And so we want everybody to always have that. And, and so I wonder with your tours and how you do them, do you give people a choice?

Is there something that you feel like everybody should try when they're there? How do you go about that?

Remy (23:05.624)
Yeah, pretty much. It's for the most part, you know, like on a slow day, you can kind of pretty much get a little tiny sample of everything. We go down the line to start with the clears and work into the into the bourbons. People are pretty good about telling you like, yeah, I want to I want to go on the darker, darker spirit side. I'll try all the flavored bourbons, skip the vodka, yada, yada. But there are select few like this time of year, you know, we even import and flavor tequila. So I have tequila as well.

So we got our CRT and our NOM so we could still call it a tequila even though it's bottled here. But yeah, so we so lime tequila right now or watermelon vodka is very popular. But I always encourage people to try that espresso vodka because people are pretty blown away by it. And then I usually end with the southern pecan. I'm trying to say both ways at once.

Drew Hannush (24:01.483)
Mix it up.

Remy (24:03.064)
But yeah, that's more of our sweeter dessert bourbon. So that's usually what I end with.

Drew Hannush (24:08.203)
Very nice. So when you're, do you feel like you're more of a local place or is, you see a lot of tourists from all over.

Remy (24:17.464)
it's a good mix, but it's mostly it's been mostly tourists. but with this, you know, last year we actually purchased a building, which we were renting for a decade. so now we're, we're putting money into fixing it up and with the new laws and, and getting the kitchen set up so we can start doing cocktails and all of that, we're, we're gearing towards the more event side and being open as a bar more, more often and later.

Drew Hannush (24:29.035)
Mm.

Remy (24:45.56)
So we're getting a lot more locals now that we're throwing all these unique events. Right now we're in a little bit of a transition period with bringing the brewery over. We're trying to become a hybrid brewery distiller event center all under one roof. So that's the goal. And it's pretty unique being a woman -owned. I think, I don't know if I mentioned already, but when we opened there was about 200 craft.

stillers in the United States and now there's about 3 ,000 and less than 8 % of that are women -owned. So it's kind of crazy and I don't know how many are women -owned brewery slash distillery hybrids, but we're pretty proud of Pixie Paula for that. So yeah, that's what we're gearing towards and our events, they range from everything. We've already thrown, I got a wrestling ring coming in.

on next month to do a wrestling show. We've done, you know, of course, music, comedy, fashion shows. We had a basketball court in there for a little while. Just a whole lot of cool, unique events.

Drew Hannush (25:43.883)
What?

Drew Hannush (25:57.931)
Very cool. So whereabouts are you located? If somebody is coming to the area, where are they going to find you?

Remy (26:05.336)
Yeah, so Charleston is basically a peninsula. Everything, everyone always says that everything is 20 minutes away. It's getting worse with traffic, but we're pretty much like dead center where we're technically North Charleston. But we're like, where if you had to draw a line from all the places you're going to visit in Charleston, we're like dead in the middle. So we're, we're right off King Street extension. So if you take a left outer parking lot, you're going to end up in the heart of downtown in about 10 minutes.

Drew Hannush (26:12.299)
Hahaha.

Remy (26:31.64)
Park Circle, which is up and coming place. There's a lot going on there. They claim to have the world's largest park playground, which is really cool. It's brand new and there's a ton of restaurants. There's breweries and other distilleries over there and a lot to do. And then Mount Pleasant, we're right off the highway. So if you go visit Chum Creek or Mount Pleasant or beyond the water, it's a quick drive. So we're really close to everything. I mean,

It's funny because we are industrial and everybody that comes here is like, I had no idea you were here or like you don't come, you know, there's not a lot of drive by traffic. It's like, you got to know you're coming here to really come by it. But it's still so centrally located. It's great. Right now we are Tuesday through Saturday and that, and it's 12 to six. Even this Saturday we have our probably our biggest event of the year.

Drew Hannush (27:09.899)
Yeah.

Drew Hannush (27:18.603)
And what days do you do your tours?

Drew Hannush (27:24.331)
Very nice.

Remy (27:29.24)
And I'll be doing tours on the hour every hour throughout that event. So it'll be interesting. Yeah.

Drew Hannush (27:37.179)
Well, fantastic, Remy. Well, thank you so much for sharing the information about the distillery and your background and welcome to the South. Cheers.

Sponsor Burnt Church Distillery

Next week on the podcast, we are finally going to get a chance to head down to the Hilton Head area and a visit with my friend Chris Crowe, general manager at the Burnt Church Distillery and I can’t wait to find out all that is new with the distillery. During my first visit, the spirits were new. Now their spirits are being noticed by the industry, including Fred Minnick, who awarded three of their spirits platinum and double platinum ASCOT awards. If you’ve got vacation plans in Hilton Head or Savannah, then, no matter the day of the week, stop into Burnt Church Distillery in Bluffton to enjoy some Lowcountry history, spirits and hospitality.  

Prepare, by heading to burntchurchdistillery.com, where you can pre-book your tour. Then plan to arrive early to enjoy the history they’ve collected in The Study, step over to the bar to enjoy a cocktail, then join your tour to get yourself immersed immersed in the history of the region and see how Burnt Church creates their award winning whiskies. Then enjoy the in-depth tasting presentation while choosing the spirits you’d like to focus on. 

And while booking your tour at burntchurchdistillery.com check out their mixology classes, and weekend live music at the distillery. And don’t worry about grabbing food before your visit, Burnt Church offers a full-service tasting room where they serve freshly prepared food for you to enjoy with your flight. 

Whether you’re a whisky connoisseur or just looking for a unique way to spend an afternoon, make sure to plan a visit to Burnt Church Distillery to grab a taste of the Lowcountry. Book your experience today at burntchurchdistillery.com.

Closing Details

I hope you enjoyed this virtual flight to the The Striped Pig Distillery. If I piqued your interest in traveling to Charleston and the distillery, make sure to head to whiskey-lore.com/southcarolina where you can view the profile of The Striped Pig, High Wire, Charleston Distilling Company and 9 other South Carolina whisky making distilleries. Then, use the convenient Wish List feature to add this and other distilleries to your member dashboard, where you see a list of your favorite distilleries and get maps, tours booking links, and get access to hundreds of other distillery profiles from Scotland, Ireland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and now South Carolina. Start your journey at whiskey-lore.com/southcarolina

Now, stay tuned because I’ll have some closing details if you plan on visiting The Striped Pig, but first, it’s time for This Week in Whiskey Lore.

This Week in Whiskey Lore

It was 150 years ago, this week, on June 22, 1874, that a bold advertisement appeared in the Manchester Guardian, placed by the renowned Big Four distillers of Dublin. These distillers – John Jameson & Son, George Roe & Co., William Jameson & Co., and John Power & Son – had a clear message for whisky lovers. They warned against the influx of "large quantities of inferior Scotch Patent-still silent Spirit" being blended with country-made whisky in government warehouses in Dublin and Belfast. Their advice was simple: if you want "Pure Dublin whiskey," look for the brand marks on the barrels J.J. & S, G.R. & Co, J in a diamond, and P in a diamond.

These ads were more than just a marketing campaign. They were a stand against what these distillers called fraudulent traders who trafficked in "silent spirit" – a term for grain alcohol produced in a column still – they said was disguised as whisky. Just a few years later, these same distillers would release a book titled "Truths About Whisky." In it, they passionately defended the traditional use of malted barley, unmalted barley, and oats in a traditional pot still, rather than cheaper grains run through a column still. This was a direct attack on both the Coffey continuous running still and the Scottish blenders, who combined grain alcohol with malt whiskies to create higher profit margin products.

There is little doubt, blended whisky was cutting into the Big Four’s profits. And it wasn't just the big four feeling the heat. Around the same time, another Irish whisky brand, Falkner's, launched their own campaign using phrases like "real malt whiskey" and "genuine old Irish whisky," emphasizing their long-aged products.

This battle over whisky quality and production methods raged for decades, finally reaching a climax in 1909 when a Royal Commission ruled that not only were column still spirits whisky, but they were also the most popular form of whisky at the time. This decision marked a significant moment in the history of whisky, shaping the industry as we know it today.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Truths_about_Whisky/KixEAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=119

The London Standard Mon, Jun 22, 1874 ·Page 7

https://www.newspapers.com/image/400935300

Closing and Three Things

As we prepare to leave The Striped Pig Distillery and Charleston for points south, I wanted to give you my three reasons why I have this distillery on my Whiskey Lore Wish List. 

• My first reason is the opportunity for flavored spirits fans to try some innovative flavors: including their espresso flavored vodka, Southern Pecan Bourbon, and tequila infused with cinnamon, plus an array of distillery exclusives. 
• Second, if you are a fan of supporting family run distilleries or women owned distilleries, Pixie Paula is an incredible entrepreneur, running multiple companies, including The Striped Pig and she and her family’s efforts have helped the distillery get voted in as South Carolina Distillery of the Year. 
• If you’re a fan of beer, keep your eyes out for when The Striped Pig introduces their new brewery into the equasion. 

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. It’s time to hit the road and make our way to our last South Carolina destination for a while. We’re on our way south to meet up with my friend and a sponsor of the show Chris Crowe, to learn first hand all about Burnt Church Distillery, Bluffton SC and the Hilton Head area.Make sure to subscribe to the Whiskey Lore podcast, so don’t miss any of the great Whiskey Flights to come. Until we meet again, cheers and Slainte mhath. 

For transcripts and travel information including maps, distillery planning information and more, head to whiskey-lore.com/flights