History

James A. Miller, the original founder of the Chicken Cock Whiskey brand, began his journey as a farmer and distiller in the late 1830’s (meaning we can tie our brand’s roots back almost 200 years!). His exceptional whiskey, hailing from Bourbon County, became widely known for its high quality and great flavor throughout this early stage of bourbon history in America. The whiskey he produced was known as “Miller’s Old Bourbon” during this time.

James A. Miller purchases what was then an incomplete distillery in Paris, KY (what eventually became the Chicken Cock Distillery) in 1855, and completes construction at a rumored cost of $75,000 in 1856. Situated off E. Main Street in Paris, the county seat of Bourbon County, Miller’s operation was synonymous with the acclaimed whiskey it produced.

With J.A. Miller’s famed whiskey experiencing large success, acclaim, and distribution in the US, things were off to a great start for the brand. However, just 4 years after opening his new distillery in Paris, KY, Miller dies at the young age of 42. This left the distillery and brand’s future in jeopardy. George G. White, a former clerk to Miller, purchases the rights to the brand and operation to carry on Miller’s legacy.

Prior to opening the distillery in 1856, James Miller called his bourbon brand “Miller’s Old Bourbon”. It’s not until his passing and new ownership that they we see the first public advertisement for “JA Miller’s Chicken Cock Whiskey”. Given Miller’s farming roots, roosters being symbols of defiance and pride, and the more common phrase for a rooster being a “chicken cock” for that era, our unforgettable name was born, and our crow-worthy whiskey became legendary.

Success inspires imitation, and Chicken Cock Whiskey was no exception to this rule. In 1889 George G. White discovered a Boston-based whiskey brand called “Miller’s Gamecock" who had been making subpar whiskey, all while using roosters in their advertisements and having an all-too-resembling name to J.A. Miller’s Chicken Cock. In an effort to maintain their high-reputation name and the legacy of the brand, George G. White took Miller’s Gamecock to court for trademark infringement, and handily won the case in Boston.

While distillery fires can still occur today, they were far too commonplace early on. In 1890, a doubler exploded at the distillery causing whiskey to cover a majority of the surrounding buildings. This fire caused $30,000 in damages to the distillery, or over $1 million in today’s money, causing George G. White to look at his options to sell off the brand.

A large monopoly of the day called the Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co. purchased the rights to the Chicken Cock Whiskey brand and all of its assets. They dismantled the existing equipment from the Paris distillery and moved it to their larger plant in Kentucky, where they continued producing Chicken Cock until Prohibition was enacted in the United States.

Throughout the Roaring Twenties whiskey was a staple of Prohibition-era speakeasies (e.g., Harlem’s The Cotton Club). It was the time when Chicken Cock was smuggled across the Canadian border in tin cans, which is why it was called "the whiskey in a tin can". Sadly, as quality standards lessened many old bourbon brands like Chicken Cock lost their luster by the 1950s, causing the once-beloved brand to remain out of its existence until its glorious revival in 2012.

Post-Prohibition, producers began filling the market with as much whiskey as they could produce. This meant that quality standards had dropped, and as such so did Chicken Cock’s. The days of finely-made Kentucky Whiskey that had catapulted the brand into the limelight were now over, and the whiskey that commanded $10-14 per pint in the decade prior now sold for $1.06 per pint through National Distillers.

With quality declining due to mass-production standards of most whiskeys in the market, an over-saturation of product, and the counter-culture desiring spirits outside of whiskey, the popularity and sales of once thriving brands began to decline. Chicken Cock Whiskey had been around for nearly 100 years by this time, however National Distillers decided to discontinue the brand this year. The Chicken Cock Whiskey brand would sit in the shadows for another 61 years, which caused it to be unknown to generations until its revival.

Our founder of Grain and Barrel Spirits, Matti Anttila, re-discovered the Chicken Cock Whiskey brand while visiting the Oscar Getz Museum in Bardstown, KY. With the idea of reviving a historic brand from the ashes, Matti decided he wanted to revive the brand with the goal of returning it to its Kentucky-made high-quality reputation it once had.

With the ultimate goal of bringing The Famous Old Brand back to its home state of Kentucky and resurrecting it's high-quality reputation, Grain and Barrel struck a collaborative distillation program with Bardstown Bourbon Company, where Chicken Cock is produced, aged, and blended at to this day.

With Chicken Cock Whiskey’s meteoric rise in popularity and demand in recent years, Grain and Barrel Spirits decided to create the brand’s first experiential home base in nearly 130 years. Situated at the historic Harrison-Smith house in the heart of the Bourbon Trail, Chicken Cock Whiskey’s new home base in downtown Bardstown, KY will host the millions who flock to the Bourbon Trail annually to sip our award-winning whiskey and learn about the brand’s long and rich past.