OMG Pure Rye, is made from 80% rye and 20% malted rye. This bottling of 'white dog' is obviously unaged so far from yet being a true OMG (Old Monon Gahela rye) but High West rightly thought we'd want to try the un-aged version.
According to High West, 'OMG' had a different meaning in the 1800s. It was an acronym of Old Monon Gahela rye, referencing the Monongahela river in western Pennsylvania, named after a Latinized version of the Native American word Mechmenawungihilla, meaning 'falling banks' - appropriate as the high river banks are unstable and regularly collapse. This region was not only home to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, but later it became the centre of American distilling in the whiskey production boom of the 1800s. In 1810 Kentucky produced 2.2 million gallons of whiskey, primarily from corn, while Pennsylvania produced 6.5 million gallons mostly of Monongahela rye. Monongahela rye benefitted from longer barrel aging due to its taking longer to transport in cask to its main market on the East coast. That extra aging made Monongahela whiskey the gold standard of its day, refereed for its quality. Sadly Prohibition killed the Pennsylvania's whiskey distilleries which never recovered after Prohibition in the way bourbon distilleries in Kentucky did. Rye whiskey practically faded away until its recent resurgence in popularity.…