I went into a bar the other day and saw the following names:
Old Crow
Old Grand Dad
Old Fitzgerald
Old Taylor
Old Overholt
Old Sunnybrook
My question is – were there ever any YOUNG versions of any of these? What is they etymology of the “Old” alcohol brands?
WAG but I believe the “Old” is a reference to aging.
Aging, as well as the implication that this was an alcohol brand that has been around for many years, so we know what we’re doing.
Young alcohol is an attribution mainly to moonshine.
There is Jonge Genever. With genever, the difference between oude (old) Genever and jonge (young) genever does not derive from aging, but on the distilling process (wikipedia)
‘Old’ implies matured spirits rather than rotgut distilled last week.
On top of which, “Young Grand Dad” would sound incongruous …
There are some alchoholic beverages with the word young or new in their name. But they are all beer, not liquor.
The V.O. in Seagram’s V.O. stands for Very Old
Then again you have Young’s brewery in London. 
Except it’s not in London any more. Young’s merged with Charles Wells and closed the Ram brewery in London. All its beer is brewed in Bedford now.
Is nothing holy anymore?
I had a couple of pints of Old Slug at the weekend - very nice!
(sitting out the back at the Sheep Heid Inn at Duddingston, if any other Edinburgh Dopers want to try it)
Old Peculiar, is one of my favorites.
Speaking of old alcohol names, the word “alcohol” is a cognate (that is, the same word in two different languages) with ancient Sumerian. It’s the oldest cognate I know.
Then there’s even “Ancient Age”, which I guess presumes to date itself relative to stages in the Laramide Orogeny.
And Yuengling in Pennsylvania, which seems to be an Anglicization of the German Jüngling, meaning young person.
Which begs to be called “Old Yuengling”
Actually, it stands for “Very Own.” Perhaps you are conflating it with Cognac designations, such as VS, VSOP (Very Special Old Pale) and XO (eXtra Old).
Guess I got my whiskey and cognac mixed up. Thanks for the info.
