Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd.

[wadewood]

I'm more interested in the 2nd distillation that uses a pot still. I was hoping somebody knew what other major distillers use pot stills on their 2nd distillation or if this is common. The full paragraph reads:

[QUOTE]
The first distilling is achieved by the use of a custom designed column still, made especially for the distilling of Bourbon. Thereafter, we distill our Bourbon a second time. This time, in we use a pot still, also custom made for our product, with the design based on the Alembic, original still design. Incorporated into the design of our custom made pot-still is a special film-tray section added into the top section of the still.

[cowdery]

Who uses a pot still for their second distillation? Everybody. They call it a doubler (direct heat source) or a thumper (steam) but either way it is an alembic-type still. They don't look like the ones in Scotland (or at Woodford Reserve) but they are, in actual fact, pot stills.

[doubleblank]

Wade....Using a pot still for the second distillation is very common. There are some informative discussions on distillation elsewhere on this board that explain it in detail.

Randy

[boone]

Hmmmmmm...thanks Chuck for "Reading in between the lines"...

I look over at the old Willetts place daily...No smell of distilling going on there...Geezzzzzzzzzz...By the picture that's on that web page it looks to be a nice looking place when actually it's really dumpy looking, run down, almost looks abandoned...

They bottle in there.

Bettye Jo

[Gillman]

Yes but the drawing on the site shows a separate, free standing alembic still such as is used in Scotland (spirit still). I thought that thumper and other typical bourbon industry doubling equipment was different, operating on a pot still-like basis but attached to the columnar apparatus to receive the spirit but not something where you loaded the column distillate, batch-style, into a separate piece of equipment that looks a lot like a Scots spirit still.

Gary

[cowdery]

The illustration is indeed of a scottish-type alembic and, therefore, somewhat misleading. It was probably pulled out of a book without a lot of thought. A doubler/thumper is classified as a pot or alembic still, but it doesn't look like the one in the picture. If one interprets that picture as a drawing of "their" still, then it is misleading, because I guarantee "their" still does not look like that.

[cowdery]

The picture is taken from just far enough away that you can't see how old the cars are. My guess would be that the picture was taken when the place was brand new, in the 1930s or thereabouts. Maybe as late as the 1950s.

[dgonano]

Well, maybe not the 30's but 50's or 60's perhaps. Funny how the site says the family has put a lot of time into restoring the facilities. When finished ? it will look like it did in 1800's.

Regarding the stills, if they were on site , KBD most likely would have
displayed a photo image as opposed to a chemistry book drawing.

One last thought... is their whiskey made according to their specifications or do they just pick barrels that have certain characteristics and age the whiskey?

[cowdery]

...is their whiskey made according to their specifications...

Probably not.

... or do they just pick barrels that have certain characteristics ...

They probably do that, yes.

... and age the whiskey?

I don't believe they do any aging on site. They simply buy whiskey of the age they want. Part of the reason for this is that aging whiskey yourself ties up capital and incurs a state tax liability. If there is any whiskey in the remaining rackhouses there it belongs to someone else and KBD is merely leasing them the space. If they would subsequently happen to buy some barrels that are already on their premises, it would be a coincidence.

[bobbyc]

If there is any whiskey in the remaining rackhouses

Also the issue of the odd sized barrels.