Let it Snow

It feels like it might snow today. The big storm that is sweeping across the country from NW to SE is giving us a slight lashing with its tail. Here at Thumb Butte we are practicing proofing whiskey to the correct point on the scale. Not as simple as it sounds. You have to use two long tables provided by the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. We are up to our elbows in decimal places.

We are ordering barrels that are charred to our specifications and placing our bottle orders. Our web site is like a newborn baby and as we add content we hope it will be taking its first steps soon. We are also sourcing our specialty corn for next year. We are working with several individuals on the Navajo Nation to get corn directly from the farmer to use in our whiskey. Not only will this corn come form Arizona but it will be linked genetically to the first corn that came North in little seed pots from Central and South America. This is tough corn to have survived this climate for millennia. We will be making whiskey for individuals who are also from tough stock or at least aspire to the image of the tough westerner.

Apparently Rye is the toughest of the grains that we will be grinding and it is the whiskey that has the longest Western heritage. That seems appropriate. When we make the Rye we will be listening to Tom Waits gettin behind the mule and getting the job done.

I’m reading a book called “The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier” by Elliott West. These guys in the photos were tough enough for our rye and anybody else’s for that matter. The saloon owners were 98.7% male with a median age of 34.2 years. The saloon owners were single by a 12% margin. These numbers are based upon available census data collected in 1870 and 1880.