The Oldest Whiskey Brand In America Is Still On Shelves Today

When it comes to whiskey, there are a lot of questions that may have different answers, depending on who you ask. For example: Do you prefer bourbon or Scotch? Do you spell it "whiskey" or "whisky"? And what are the proper ways to tell good whiskeys from bad? But there are also whiskey-related questions that do have straight answers, like: What's the oldest brand of American whiskey? The answer is Old Overholt, a rye whiskey which has been made continuously in America since 1810.

Old Overholt was initially distilled by the Overholt family in the village of West Overton, Pennsylvania in the first decades of the 19th century. Founder Abe Overholt turned the family business into a wider-reaching operation, which became increasingly popular across the East Coast. The Overholt brand later found a national audience thanks in part to Abe's grandson, Henry Clay Frick, who partnered with business tycoon Andrew Mellon to expand the Old Overholt operation.

A venerable brand, even one with a lifespan as long as Old Overholt, can't survive without changing — it has to grow and move with the times. Due in part to the Overholt family's smart business sense and their partnership with Andrew Mellon (who would later become the longest-running U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, serving from 1921 to 1932), Old Overholt was able to survive one of the biggest challenges to the liquor business in American history — Prohibition. Thanks to Mellon, Old Overholt was granted a license to produce "medicinal whiskey," and the company could continue production.

In the second half of the 20th century, Old Overholt expanded its market outside the United States, and celebrated its history with the launch of 1810 Sour Mash whiskey in 1970. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Old Overholt became a part of the Beam Inc. family of brands, along with other heritage whiskeys (including Devil's Cut, a cheap whiskey that's surprisingly tasty and Old Crow, a bourbon that may have been President Ulysses S. Grant's favorite). Today, it remains under the Beam umbrella, and has also established, as of 2023, a partnership with West Overton Village to offer brand experiences in the town, including history exhibits that celebrate the whiskey's long and storied history.