Chicken Cock Old Glory rye whiskey blends Kentucky Straight Rye with Laird’s Apple Brandy at 100 proof. Limited to 12,000 bottles. Here’s what it tastes like and where to find it.
Two of America’s oldest whiskey and brandy producers have collaborated for the first time in a combined 416 years of distilling.
Chicken Cock Whiskey: founded in Paris, Kentucky in 1856, revived in 2012, and now one of the fastest-growing American whiskey brands — has partnered with Laird & Company to produce Old Glory, a 70/30 blend of Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Rye and Laird’s Apple Brandy, bottled at 100 proof and limited to 12,000 bottles. It is the first time a Kentucky straight rye has been structurally blended with an American apple brandy at this ratio and proof.
That is the collaboration.
Here is what makes it matter: Laird & Company was founded in 1780 — four years before the Constitution was ratified. When the brand says “America’s oldest family-owned distillery,” it means older than the governing document of the country it has operated inside ever since. Ten generations. No gaps. That kind of continuity does not walk into a collaboration lightly.
Laird & Company was already making Apple Brandy when George Washington was still a general. Founded in 1780 in Scobeyville, New Jersey — four years before the Constitution existed — it has passed through ten consecutive generations of the same family without a single gap in production. That is not a marketing claim. That is an unusual fact about American institutional continuity.
Chicken Cock Whiskey, founded in Paris, Kentucky in 1856, has a shorter and stranger story: it was revived in 2012 after going dormant, rebuilt into one of the fastest-growing American whiskey brands, and is now bottling a 70/30 blend of its Kentucky Straight Rye and Laird’s Apple Brandy at 100 proof.
The result is Old Glory — limited to 12,000 bottles, $64.99 SRP, and the first expression either company has produced together in a combined 416 years of American distilling. The anniversary framing is convenient. The liquid is the argument.
H2: What a Rye-Apple Brandy Blend Actually Is
This category does not have a name yet, which is worth noting. American whiskey has absorbed finishes, blends, and collaborative expressions at pace for the last decade — but a straight rye blended with apple brandy at a 70/30 ratio is not a finish. It is a structural decision.
The base is Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Rye, aged a minimum of four years, carrying the grain-forward spice and dry backbone that defines the style — cracked coriander, black pepper, a firm tannic structure on the mid-palate. Against that, Laird’s Apple Brandy brings orchard sweetness and round stone-fruit weight. The interaction is not additive in the way a port finish is additive. It is integrative: the brandy softens the rye’s edges without blunting its character, and the rye keeps the apple from reading as dessert.
On the nose, Old Glory opens with orchard fruit layered over ginger and toasted oak — the apple arrives first but the rye asserts itself within seconds.
On the palate, honey and ripe pear sit alongside clove and baked red apple, with enough warmth from the 100 proof bottling to keep the sweetness from becoming syrupy. The finish is where the blend earns its keep: cracked coriander and red apple skin linger alongside a thread of mint that lifts the whole profile and signals that this is still, underneath the brandy influence, a rye whiskey.
At $64.99 for a 100-proof blend with components aged a minimum of four years, Old Glory is priced like a craft release that knows its value. It is not priced like a novelty. That distinction matters.
Two Companies, One Genuinely Strange American Story
“This collaboration unites two historic American spirits —
Laird’s Apple Brandy, passed down through 10 generations, and
Chicken Cock Whiskey, a revived brand from the mid-1800s,”
Lisa Laird
President & Global Ambassador at Laird & Company.
“Together, we’ve created a blend that respects tradition while delivering a bold, modern profile for today’s whiskey drinker. Old Glory is a true celebration of heritage and craftsmanship.”
The Laird family’s distilling history predates the American republic itself. What became Laird’s Applejack was supplied to Revolutionary War troops — a detail that tends to get buried under the 250th anniversary marketing but is worth sitting with. American distilling did not begin after independence. It ran alongside the war, provisioned it, and survived it. Laird & Company is the oldest continuous evidence of that.
Chicken Cock’s timeline is messier and more interesting for it. Founded in 1856 by James A. Miller in Paris, Kentucky, the brand became the first whiskey from Bourbon County to ship internationally, found its way into Old West saloons and Gilded Age social clubs, and somehow ended up at the Cotton Club during Prohibition — a detail that tells you more about Chicken Cock’s cultural reach than any brand history document could. It went dormant, was revived in 2012 by Matti Anttila and Grain & Barrel Spirits, and now operates its first brand home, Circa 1856, in Bardstown, with a second location opening in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood.
“Few things today could simultaneously break the mold while honoring tradition like Old Glory does,” said Will Woodington, Director of Brand Engagement for Grain & Barrel Spirits. “The blend may be a 70/30 split between Chicken Cock Rye and Laird’s Apple Brandy, but it is undeniably 100% American.”
That last line is doing the work of a bumper sticker, but it lands because the math holds. Two companies. Four hundred and sixteen combined years. One bottle, honeycomb glass, bald eagle on the label, 100 proof. [ANCHOR] The honeycomb bottle design is itself a reference — an homage to an 1800s medicinal bottle shape that Chicken Cock has used across its portfolio as a physical link to its pre-Prohibition identity.
For production and labeling standards governing American straight rye whiskey blended with other spirits, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) maintains current classification guidance.
Mini FAQ
What is Chicken Cock Old Glory and how is it made? Old Glory is a limited-release American whiskey blending 70% Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Rye — aged a minimum of four years — with 30% Laird’s Apple Brandy. It is bottled at 100 proof and limited to 12,000 bottles nationally at an SRP of $64.99. It is the first collaboration between the two brands.
What does Old Glory taste like? The nose leads with orchard fruit, ginger, and toasted oak. On the palate, expect honey, clove, ripe pear, and baked red apple with warmth from the 100-proof bottling. The finish is textured and long — cracked coriander, red apple skin, and a subtle mint lift that keeps the profile from reading as purely sweet.
Where can I buy Chicken Cock Old Glory? Old Glory is available nationally. With only 12,000 bottles produced, availability will vary by market. Check current stock and retailer information at chickencockwhiskey.com.
Taste History
Old Glory is worth finding before the 12,000 bottles are gone — not because of the anniversary framing on the label, but because a 100-proof rye-apple brandy blend at this price point from producers with this much combined history is not a thing that happens twice. Drink it neat, give it ten minutes in the glass, and pay attention to the finish. That is where the collaboration is actually happening.
