My Memories of Kinsey Distilling

[dave ziegler]

Here are the two pictures of the Old Kinsey Bottling house showing how the roof fell down from having been set on fire many years ago. And part of the wall coming down. I found that by sending the pictures reduced in size to my Office from my work computer and running them on the resizer again made them fit now as my Home computer is in the shop. The Old Kinsey Bottling house was fairly big for its time and the whole second floor which I put pictures of last year was where the Cases and labels and everything where kept then sent down through the floor and bottled there and the front room they were cased! If you go back to the page before this one and look at Pictures 17 & 18 number 17 is the front room where they cased the Liqours and picture 18 was the big room which was full of Singer Bottling Machines! The second floor also had another section which had fallen down before I ever got back to the plant after all those years and it had a lower floor also that was where the Dump trough I put a picture back a couple pages of, in the alley in one of the Pictures where the Barrel rails are the white wall across from Warehouse D was that two story part of the building, and there were Bottling machines in that section also with the dump trough. They could do enough Liqour's in that bottling house that Companys like Jacquins would call them up to make lots of Liquors for them when they had big Orders. it was one of those times I went in there in 1967 to clean with the yard gang. Also they could run barrels out of Old Warehouse D right into the old Bottle House and dump them.

I remember well how excited people were as it brought alot of extra Liqour Bottling to the Old Bottle House ment more poeple getting jobs. The Hardest Thing was getting the stuff out be be taken to the New bottle House Shipping but that was done by putting the cases on a pallets at the far side facing the New bottle house as there was a small cement Pad and a sign knocked own now by the falling down of the walls and fork trucks would be coming all the time taking Liqours. They Had the Place set up so good it was Ideal for making batches of Liqours and they did much contract work in the Old Kinsey Bottle Houes.
Dave Z
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It seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
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[dave ziegler]

Here is a picture of the second floor part of the old Kinsey Bottling House that was still standing till lately when I was up there in the spring of this year This was where they sent down the cases, Bottles and all things needed to bottle below! Note that it had a skylight in the roof when you look at the pictures of it down you can see the skylight in the wreckage!
Dave Z
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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

[dave ziegler]

Last night I called Ludy as I wanted to get the exact layout when the Old Kinsey Bottling House was running! First He told me about the very first Bottling house which was in the Kinsey Dsp-pa-10 Barn right next to the Still. When he started there in early 1936 they had 3 small lines going with him a blender from NY and 13 Ladies. They had a rolling on wheels tank for product and when they made a Blended Whiskey Product he would stir the product with a wooden Paddle as the Blender From NY would put the mixtures in!

Once What I call the Old Kinsey Bottle House which I have the pictures of was built that year here is how it was layed out!
I have in #212 a picture of what was left of the Second floor, on the part that had fell down there was a dump trough, below it on the fallen in first floor part was another Dump trough which I took a picture of back on another page with wreckage on it. Also upstairs in the Picture on #212 were two 500 gal tanks, boxes, labels caps and anything else needed. Also a section up stairs was for the finished product to be put.

Ludy said in that Bottle House one of the Jobs he had was running a small lift platform up to a trapdoor in the first floor sealing and the Finished product would be kept up there till it was taken out through two doors that were at the top of the wall for forklift to get them on skids. When it was run for liquor all those years they did the same thing till the end.

Now here is how the Bottling was layed out I was right about that if you go to Page 21 #208 Picture #18 is the end of the floor all the way out near the road, the Lines ended there where they cased the product then used a hand truck to pull it over along the wall on the right side facing out there to go up through the trap door.

Picture #19 is looking down toward the end there where 3 lines running down through there where 50 to 60 people working there 3 shifts back then and each line had one of the Singer Bottling Machines like I have put in pictures before. Next there were Ladies puting Front Labels on by Hand then ladies putting Back labels on and finally people packing and skiding product to be pulled under the trap door and lifted up to the second floor for shipping out. When they needed Supply there was another open place in the floor which I put a picture on in one of these threads where a rolling line came down and they would put whatever you needed on it send it down you would catch it and use it all bottles cases labels and everything esle came down through this hole.

When I was in the Bottle house back then there were at least 40 to 50 people in there, and I asked Ludy since he worked in every Bottling house they ever had at Kinsey if they ever made Liqours in the New 1966 Bottling. He said they never bottled any Liqours there they were always till the very end all made in the Old Kinsey Bottle house. Back when He worked in there they bottled whatever Continental wanted then as they used it for Whiskey bottling till They closed DSP-Pa-10. Then all whiskey was bottled at their old Phila Bigler street Bottle house, till 1965 fall when they opened the Kinsey State of the Art bottling house which had 12 or 13 operating lines!

Now I have a question for Gary or anyone that knows! Did any of the Ky Distillerys use Bung Cloths in their Barrels. I brought back two Barrel staves with Bung holes for Fricky to restore for us, with them I got two nice Bungs from the Dump trough at O building and two Bung Cloths. Continental always used a Special cloth which they would pound in with the Bung after filling a barrel and I when I told fricky I got the cloths he said he had never heard of or saw such a thing in the Barrels at Distillerys in Ky. Myself having never been to any Distillery except Kinsey thought everyone used them. Now I am wondering did anyone else use them or was this another Continental Distilling Idea? Gary or Anyone esle who knows please answer this for me. When my Home Computer is running again I have pictures I took of the staves and bungs and cloths!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

Philadelphia The Heritage Whiskey
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[Gillman]

Thanks for the information earlier Dave about whiskey possibly being onsite. I sometimes wonder if any is buried around the old Gooderham and Worts site in Toronto, or in the rafters. I think no by this time due to all the redevelopment work going on in and around that site, although who knows.

I do not know if Kentucky distilleries ever used cloths around the bungs when hammered in, I think some did, but am not sure.

Gary

[dave ziegler]

Here are a couple of Old Kinsey Bottling Hpuse Pictures first the line coming down to the first floor from second to suppy, Then the first floor room where the Singer Bottle machines where, and the end room where they cased the Product. Also if you look on the pictures on the last two pages note the skylight to bring in light to the second floor, you can see it laying on top of the wreckage when the roof fell in a couple of weeks ago!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
==========================================

[dave ziegler]

When I went to see Ludy yesterday We were talking about the One Mechanic Dickie Pfiefer He was always in a bad mood and they built a special spot for him to work on the Old Cars and trucks and it seemed no matter How hard he tried people just kept messing them up. So it was no wonder he was mad.
There was a space between Warehouse A&B and the Kinsey #10 Rye Building Dsp-Pa-10 they ran some Heat pipes and hung a Raditator up in the air Left side, Put a Large fan on the other side for Summer there was a Stone wall at the point that went from Warehouse b to the Rye Building to close it off so they put on a Roof and Hung a old Roll door and That space was just big enough to pull trucks and cars in and leave the doors open. It was one cold spot but Dickie told me one time he liked being by himself as he got mad alot. He Had a chain lift to pull engines and would set the cars and trucks up in a way once he had pulled an engine that He could do them quickly.

I can't tell you How many Engines he had in those Old 1941 Ford trucks but as hard as they worked they were real good for what they did. At the end when I worked there one of them had no windshield and they had no wipers and two of them No Doors. They would Back up and catch the doors Open. No Mirrors and They Kept Dicky very Busy. If you look back a couple of Posts here you will see A Picture I took of an Old !941 Ford Carb, Wiper Motor and Generator! They were sitting on the table in maintanice and never got rebuilt! They had five guys keeping the Whole Plant going and The 1966 Bottling house had its own group of Maintaince Man and Ludy went to work in the Bottling house as a mechanic after it opened and never went back to coopering. He at one time had been in Maintaince in the plant besides being a cooper. So he did just about everything there in his 42 yrs.
Dave Z
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It Seems All Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon
______________________________________

[dave ziegler]

I am still hoping to hear from someone who is an expert on the Use of Bung Cloths as about 90% of Continentals Barrels had them only the oldest ones did not for the most part. Was This a Continental Distilling thing only? I remember them well and on my last trip into Kinsey I found a place open with a dump trough and got a couple to use in the Two barrel Staves with bung holes I got for myself and Fricky. They were a sort of a heavy Linen material and worked well less leaks and easier to get the Bung out to check the Whiskey or dump it.

The couple bungs I got were in the trough and fine no breaks at all. The More I think about Kinsey / Continental Distilling the more I see How much they were ahead of everyone back there in the 1960's. As Most know by now Continental Distilling was founded in 1933 right after Prohibition ended and During that time they made up the Brand names they would first use. Publicker having been founded back in 1913 by Harry Publicker made all industrial Alcohols up to and through Prohibition and afterwards and it was Si Neumans Idea to create a special division for making Drinking Alcohols. And That is How Continental Distilling started.

Kinsey was known as a special Affiliate to Publicker so my Pay stub says and Continentel was a division of Publicker! We had at least 5 or 6 or more kinds and sizes of Bungs. So I sure would like to know if we were the only one to use Bung Cloths. Ludy said also that they were something we used all the time. He is going to get me a picture of his 6 gal barrel he made by hand at Barrel Coopers school!

One other thing I remember now what the two water tanks had on them.
They used to say
Publicker Inddustries
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Continental Distilling Division
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Linfield Pa.
Written in Black with Silver Backgroud.


Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon
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[fricky]

Is it possible that the bung cloths were used so that the bungs could be easily removed and then the bungs could be used in another barrel?
Doug

[mozilla]

I am really leaning towards the hardwood bungs, theory.

If(and I am not cutting my only Publicker bung, up) Publicker used hardwood bungs, they would not soak up the distillate like Poplar bungs would. This keeps them from making a good seal with the staves. So, to counteract the effects...Publicker went with the bung cloth. This way the cloth would fill in the gaps, make reuse of bungs possible, and any other reason I have not come up with yet.

When Poplar comes into contact with distillate....it swells up and gets fat. This makes a great seal with the barrel staves.

My bung from Publicker has alot more grain texture than any of my Ky sourced bungs from the last two years. It is also about .25 inch shorter than any of the Ky bungs.

[dave ziegler]

Working at Kinsey for Publicker at age 19 in 1966 was an amazing thing as for the very first time I made enough Money to buy a good car and because I worked at Kinsey my Credit to get a car was easy for a 19 year old! When I started there I totaly fixed up my 1955 Chevy but then it got hit and it was time for a Newer car. It was 1966 and I was able to buy a 3 old low miles 1963 Chevy. it was 3 speed on the Colume with overdrive and it was awesome. And as I have said before Thanks To Frank Kurtas a Kinsey maintaince man My first and only break down was Fixed by Him cost me nothing as He got me a generator put it on while I worked and told me don't worry about it you can't aford it with your Payments. This was what working at Kinsey was like people helping each other doing our jobs and making the Best Whiskey's, Gins, Vodka's and everything else we made. You never minded going to work as you knew if you did your Job you would have a great day. For me to get a job with about 10 Holidays full insurance and Paid Vacation! That much was unheard of at most jobs back then but at Publicker it was the standard! And you were treated with respect by our boss's.


We worked 5 days a week 7:00 to 3:30 PM and had Lunch and 2 breaks could go out at Lunch and they did not watch to make sure you were back at the very exact time. Our Insurance was the best then with Persriptions for I think a $1.00 co pay and full coverage, Blue Cross & Blue Shield. And the Years I worked there no more Layoffs as there had been back when Bottling was down in Phila. It was something amazing for me and the first time I got my first weeks Vacation I took a trip down to the Old Atlantic City and I will never forget going over the Walt and seeing the Stack with It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory in Neon on it with Andy Jackson. I was so proud to work for Continental Distilling!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon
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