Charles Mortimer Dedman’s life as a Kentucky distiller was fairly typical for its time, successes and defeats. He created Kentucky Owl Sour Mash Bourbon Whiskey in 1879 and saw it do well until 1916’s pre-Prohibition days. He, like many of his peers, was ordered to cease production and ship his barreled liquid to government warehouses. To add misery to that madness, those warehouses mysteriously burned, Dedman never received payment for the lost whiskey, and he never returned to distilling.

In 2014, fully 98 years later, Kentucky Owl Bourbon was revived by Mortimer’s great-great grandson, Dixon Dedman, and business partners…