Do not replace one unsupported “first” with another; the Stitzel attribution also requires underlying company and advertising records. Wheat in whiskey does not prove corn-majority wheated bourbon. The 1912ad is a counterexample to unchanged-brand-recipe assumptions; Stitzel chronology remains attributed and is not a new first-inventor claim.
The chapter separates grain history, recipe lineage, corporate succession, and retrospective brand claims.
Wheat appeared in American whiskey before W. L. Weller, who operated as a merchant and rectifier; an early Old W. L. Weller advertisement even specified substantial rye. Hannush traces the wheated recipe more securely to Stitzel-family production and dates explicit Weller “original wheated bourbon” marketing to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
PDF sheet 261
PDF sheet 247
Chapter 20 — First Wheated Bourbon
Text and page images verified during the complete 374-sheet review on 2026-08-27. September30 fresh full374-sheet reading audit: source text checked at physical PDF247–261. Physical sheets and named sections are the reliable locators; no fixed displayed-page offset is asserted. This verifies the source attribution, not all underlying archives.
Verified paraphrase from Whiskey Lore: Volume One.
Evidence
Wheat appeared in American whiskey before W. L. Weller, who operated as a merchant and rectifier; an early Old W. L. Weller advertisement even specified substantial rye. Hannush traces the wheated recipe more securely to Stitzel-family production and dates explicit Weller “original wheated bourbon” marketing to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Location and context
- Section: Chapter 20 — First Wheated Bourbon
- Locator: PDF sheets 247–261
The chapter separates grain history, recipe lineage, corporate succession, and retrospective brand claims.
Annotation
Do not replace one unsupported “first” with another; the Stitzel attribution also requires underlying company and advertising records. Wheat in whiskey does not prove corn-majority wheated bourbon. The 1912ad is a counterexample to unchanged-brand-recipe assumptions; Stitzel chronology remains attributed and is not a new first-inventor claim.
Related synthesis: whole-book Literature Note.