Elijah Craig is a premium brand of bourbon whiskey produced in Kentucky by Heaven Hill Distillery. The brand is named after legend, Reverend Elijah Craig who was born in Orange County, near Spotsylvania, Virginia on 15 November 1738 until his death in March 1808.
He was an educator, an entrepreneur, a Baptist preacher and a distiller who built the first paper and wool mills in Georgetown, Kentucky. But for all his industries, it was his gift as a distiller and an innovator that brought him his greatest acclaim. In 1789, Reverend Elijah Craig purportedly became the first distiller to age his whiskey in new charred oak barrels. Some claim that an accidental fire charred his barrels and changed the whiskey inside. Others say he stored his whiskey in former sugar barrels and was impressed with how charring improved the flavour.
Today, some 250 years later, he is still known as the ‘Father of Bourbon’ with Heaven Hill crafting their liquid using the same time-honoured methods from days gone by.