Fueling the Industry, MGP of Indiana

As the engines begin to roar in Indianapolis for this year’s Indianapolis 500, all eyes will be on the little town of Speedway, Indiana. 33 drivers will compete for a chance to drink milk in the victory lane after a grueling marathon of high speed open wheel racing, and etching their name into the history of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. In the bourbon industry, there is another town in Indiana that fuels many of the brands that you find on the shelf.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana is home to Midwest Grain Product (MGP) of Indiana which is a source for many of the “craft” distilleries in the bourbon industry. If you see “Distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana”, you can be sure this is MGP juice. While it may seem like this odd for a popular distillery that can be found in so many bourbons to be in Indiana, this distillery is just on the other side of the Ohio River and has proven to be a very reliable source for companies to use, while they concentrate on the finishing process, the packaging, the distribution, and all of the other things that go into getting a bourbon onto your shelf.

Some of the brands you might know of, and might be surprised that use MGP for its production are Belle Meade Bourbon, Smooth Ambler Old Scout, George Remus Bourbon, Joseph Magnus Bourbon, High West, Big Ass Bourbon, Copper City Straight Bourbon. Here is the bigger secret, MGP is an expert in rye whiskey and most of those rye whiskeys you see with the big names on them, like Angel’s Envy Rye, Bulleit Rye, Templeton Rye, Whistlepig Old World Rye we’re distilled by MGP. These names are only a fraction of the bottles you will find that originate from this distillery in the Hoosier state.

In the Indy 500, there will be 33 teams that ultimately source very similar chassis, engines, aero kits. Each team makes the allowed adjustments to the setup to gain an edge over the competition. This is exactly what is being done in the bourbon industry in regards to bourbons being sourced from MGP. Each one is being tweaked and crafted into its own version of the original, becoming distinct enough to hopefully be different and possibly better than the original. MGP is a very important component to the overall picture in the exciting bourbon boom.

This Memorial Day weekend, when the latest Indy 500 winner is being celebrated with a nice cold bottle of milk in Speedway, Indiana, toast them with a glass of bourbon distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Cheers, Y’all!