Old Grand Dad is a brand created by descendants of Basil Hayden—who is depicted on the label—in tribute to their ancestor. Despite Prohibition, whiskey continued to be bottled for medical purposes under the supervision of Otto Wathen’‘s American Medicinal Spirits Co, one of the six companies authorized to do so. The company made the most of this authorization to buy up a large number of other distilleries that had been closed for the same reason. The Old Grand Dad distillery, however, remained closed after Prohibition ended. The new owner, National Distiller, bought the Old Grand Dad Frankfort distillery in 1933. The entire facility came into Jim Beam’‘s hands in 1987, who turned the distillery into a bottling plant.

An old decanter of Old Grand Dad bourbon.