What Is MGP Ingredients? Diving Into the History of the Indiana Whiskey Goliath
(Sipa via AP Images)
By now many in the whiskey game (both bourbon and rye) have heard of MGP — aka Midwest Grain Producers. A bourbon person “in the know” will look at the back of a bottle, see distilled in Indiana, smirk and go “I know this was distilled by MGP.” A lot of bourbon and a truly tremendous amount of rye over the past decade has been sourced from the MGP distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The history of that distillery and its origin is fairly convoluted and interesting. Today, many of us are thankful for the quality output from them. Now, let’s find out what led us here.
The Pre-MGP Annals of History
What we know as MGP today has gone by a number of other names and been a number of entities in the past, and we can’t begin discussing MGP without first talking about Seagram(‘s). Seagram’s traces its roots back to Waterloo Distillery in 1857. Since this isn’t a history of Seagram’s, which deserves its own writeup in the annals of American Whiskey history (despite being Canadian, it had a massive impact on American Whiskey), we’ll skip ahead to its public incorporation in 1928. At this point, we’re at the height of Prohibition, where Seagram’s had been cleaning up. It was legally importing spirits to the U.S. directly and circuitously. We’ll circle back to this, but just know that Seagram’s owned what is now the MGPi distillery for a huge portion of the 20th century. And at this point in history, Seagram’s was a powerhouse.
Now, we’re taking the way-back machine — as we often do in my pieces — to the year 1802. Lawrenceburg appears along the banks of the Ohio River (I’ve swam in there. Don’t do that; it’s gross. I love it, but it’s gross). At this point in history, Kentucky was taking over the reins from Pennsylvania and Maryland as the king of distilling in the United States. The Louisiana Purchase (flashbacks of grade school, anyone?) occured a year later in 1803, allowing for the shipping of whiskey to the West and South via steamboat. Access to the Ohio gave Lawrenceburg a huge leg up when it came to the ability to move whiskey.
Now, the MGP of today talks about distilling two barrels a day as far back as 1809. This is one of those whiskey marketing pieces. It is very likely a number of small, farm-operated stills existed in 1809, distilling a barrel here and there from excess grain to make a profit. Between the Whiskey Rebellion and the fleeing of distillers to Kentucky, Lawrenceburg was actually poised to take over as the rye distilling capital of the U.S.
MGP’s Origins as Rossville, aka Ross and Squibb
1847 is where we truly begin the journey to what is today’s MGPi distillery. George Ross is believed to have established a distillery in Lawrenceburg and named it the Rossville distillery (despite no town of that name existing anywhere near), otherwise known as Ross and Squibb.
There is some debate as to Ross’ role in the founding and running of the distillery, but what is sure is that by 1875, he was no longer a part of it. In 1875, James Walsh & Co., a Cincinnati rectifier, purchased the distillery. James Walsh & Co. already owned several distilleries in the area and was a large operation. Despite based out of Cincinnati, its largest operation was its rectification plant in Covington, Kentucky. James Walsh’s partner was Peter O’Shaughnessy, who took over when Welsh retired in 1888.
O’Shaughnessy’s three sons took over operations in 1912. During prohibition, they operated Rossville as a medicinal whiskey distillery. Despite being one of the few distilleries to successfully operate during prohibition, they sold it when prohibition ended in 1933 to Joseph E. Seagrams and Sons (also known as Seagram’s). At this point, Seagram’s made Rossville the premier distillery for its U.S. operations. Seagram’s purchased a nearby grain silo in Aurora to supply the operations. While the O’Shaughnessy trio built another distillery and named it Walsh, it did not last long. Seagram’s, meanwhile, expanded and updated operations to produce Seagram’s Seven Crown Blended Whiskey (yuck) and Seagram’s Gin. These were two of Seagram’s largest brands.
Earlier I mentioned the name Ross and Squibb. We’ve established the Ross part, now let’s get to the Squibb, which comes from W.P. and G.W. Squibb, two brothers who bought a distillery in Lawrenceburg in 1866 called Dunn and Ludlow. Prohibition would close the Squibb Distillery (the Squibbs renamed it in 1885) only for it to be bought by Schenley Industries, a New York-based liquor company.
Seagram’s owned and operated the distillery for 70 years, the longest in its tenure thus far. Starting in 1942, every bit of distillate was made for the war effort. Seagram’s was one of the few distilleries that converted completely over to make war alcohol. During this time, Seagram’s actually acquired 23 other distilleries and got itself in a bit of hot water with the Department of Justice for having “invaded the American Market.”
I’d love to say there are some interesting stories from this time, but there really aren’t. Seagram’s (along with Schenley) continued to help build Lawrenceburg up as a whiskey city and continued to build and improve the distillery.
MGP in the 21st Century
That period of calm takes us all the way up to 2000, when Schenley was sold off and dissolved. The beverage divisions went to Pernod Ricard and Diageo. The Lawrenceburg facility went to Pernod, which thankfully sold it 2007 to CL Financial after mismanaging it and threatening to close it in 2006.
CL Financial operated the distillery as Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) but didn’t hold onto it long. In December 2011, MGP Ingredients (we’ll get to that soon) purchased the distillery. Now, at this time in whiskey, LDI was a bit of a mystery. It supplied for Redemption Rye, Templeton Rye and Bulleit Rye, as well as a number of others (though Diageo was its biggest client at the time of the sale). Little was truly known about the distillery at this point. It had been distilling light whiskey, bourbon and just vast amounts of rye. Remember that the rebirth of rye had only really recently started around 2008 due in part to cocktail culture. The bourbon boom was just kicking off in 2011.
So, we’re in 2012, and MGP now owns LDI. Let’s jump to 2016, when the hype for MGP products really gets going. Smooth Ambler was winning awards with sourced bourbon from MGP. NDPs (Non-Distilling Producers) have popped up all over the place. MGP decides it needs its own line, and it names it George Remus, for a bootlegger who sold fake medicinal whiskey during Prohibition.
This was an interesting decision, as George Remus was a criminal, a crook in the truest sense, and a murderer who killed his wife. He was caught and imprisoned. His name is associated with the brand due to Lawrenceburg and his bootlegging. MGP also put out its own rye under the Rossville brand, which seems like a much better name to use.
What Was the Original MGP Ingredients — Before It Purchased the Famous Distillery?
Let’s take another step back as to who MGP is. MGP is a public company that is tightly controlled by the founding Cray family. Cloud Cray started it in 1941. In that year, he bought a small distillery that he enlarged to make war alcohol, calling it Midwest Grain Producers. After the war, it continued to produce industrial ethanol, proteins and starches. MGP has been one of the largest producers in the U.S. of Grain Neutral Spirits (GNS) for some time. In 2011, it decided to get into commodity whiskey. If you’re looking to buy contract or bulk whiskey or even GNS, MGP is still the go-to.
In January 2021, it was announced that MGP was purchasing Luxco, a 63-year old whiskey company with strong connections dating back to Stitzel-Weller. Later that year, it was announced that Luxco would rename the Seagram’s/LDI/MGP distillery to Ross & Squibb. Digging into the history, it’s honestly a better and more relevant name than I gave it credit for. It provides a name that points to the history of Lawrenceburg as a whiskey city with both Seagram and Schenley without ever stepping on anyone’s toes.
That said, I feel like it’s a rebrand lost on the vast, vast majority. Most folks still think of and refer to it as MGP. More confusing is the fact that MGP still produces whiskey out of the facility under the MGP brand.
Hopefully this bit of history provides some insight into one of the largest distillers in the U.S. that few still fully understand!
