Supports a bundled regional-style model and cautions against reducing Old Lincoln to one technique. Historical meanings of sour mash and rectification differ from current usage.
Hannush reconstructs Old Lincoln’s historical selling points across sour-mash practice, log stills, and leaching, then notes that charcoal mellowing was used across Tennessee.
There were several selling points Lincoln County used to distinguish themselves from their competition. One of the biggest was its use of the sour mash process. … Another commonality between Lincoln County distillers was the use of a log still. … The third technique was leaching. While the technique was promoted in the 19th century by distillers of Old Lincoln, it wasn’t a differentiating factor against their Tennessee competition.
PDF sheet 119; displayed ebook page 104
PDF sheet 118; displayed ebook page 103
The Lincoln County Process?
Fresh text comparison2026-09-28: PDF sheets118–119; extracted on-screen ebook labels103–104. Physical PDF-sheet locator is canonical. Full457-sheet visual layout survey completed; contact sheets are not fine-detail proof. Capture lacks endnotes, bibliography and index; this verifies representation of a secondary source, not its primary evidence.
Operational annotation
Old Lincoln is best represented as a period-specific bundle: sour-mash claims, log stills, leaching, traditional practice, and competitive identity. Leaching was important but not unique within Tennessee.
Limitation
Individual producers did not necessarily use every element, and historical process meanings shifted.
Verified locator
PDF sheets 118–119; displayed ebook pages 103–104. Visually verified on 2026-08-24.