My Memories of Kinsey Distilling

[dave ziegler]

Jono when Publicker Quit Distilling spirits they sold most of the Brands if not all of them. For one Old Hickory went to Medley for a bit then He sold it and someone else sold it and when I talked to Charles Medley he said He thought that Luxco had that brand now sadly. Heaven hills has Rittenhouse Rye and some others, the guy who owns the place does not have a clue about much of anything about Whiskey.

Publicker when they went into trying to be like P&G industrial only in 1980, they sold him the plant in 1982 to get more capital to buy more Equipment, after they sold him the Kinsey Plant they leased the Bottling House and all the Tankage and one or two Warehouses till to many loses and Him raising their lease Price made them go under and Then He just shut the whole Place down and walked away all these years except for going there maybe once a year or so and just looking around.

I think that the Kinsey Name belongs to Inver House Distillers I may be wrong but I seem to recall them getting it, why I do not Know.

And the guy who owns Kinsey pays the two fellows I am friends with to just keep locking buildings after they are broken in to. And cleaning up some when they have time.

I wish someone would buy the Old Hickory Name and bring it back with the Original Mash Bill, it was a fine whiskey and the Old Hickory that Medley made was very good also.
I still think if someone brought that Name back with a Fine High End Whiskey it would again be a big seller as there are still many people livng that loved it and those people would pass the word on!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most magnificent Bourbon
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[Jono]

Hmm, you never know...maybe some of our industry readers will take note and seek the rights and make it once again. Stranger things have happened.

I was not familiar with Luxco....(I see they make Ezra Brooks and Rebel Yell):

http://www.luxco.com/home.html

They sell a "Cafe Lolita"....was that an old Kinsey brand like the peanut?
I have never seen some of their product...Wall Street, Dr. Nicholson 1843, Davies County, Bourbon Supreme, Yellowstone.

I wonder...maybe the Old Hickory recipe is used in one of these?

Dave, send them an email and ask about Old Hickory...you may get a response.

http://www.luxco.com/public/contactLuxco.asp?stateid=38

Or the big guy:

Lux, Donn
President and Chief Executive Officer
5050 Kemper Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63139
(314) 772-2626 Ext. 243
d.lux@luxco.com Fax: (314) 772-7120

[shoshani]

Luxco (formerly The David Sherman Company) doesn't make anything. They buy the whiskey for their brands in bulk (most likely from Heaven Hill) and bottle it themselves. I seriously doubt that they know anything at all about the mashbills of their products, nor do I imagine it would deviate much from the standard fare of whichever distiller is making their juice.

Luxco owns Ezra Brooks, Bourbon Supreme, Rebel Yell (which, when I wrote to them to ask, is still made from a wheat recipe) and Yellowstone that I am aware of, maybe a couple of others. Yellowstone is difficult to find in Chicago anymore (unless I'm looking in the wrong places ), but their website shows an interesting variety of expressions, including a 7 year old that's just a shade over 90 proof.

[Jono]

Hmm, maybe they could still revive the Old Hickory Brand due to consumer interest....ok...SB interest! If they received the recipe as part of a legal transfer of assets and product they may have it in a dusty box somewhere.
Heaven Hill or whoever makes the bourbon could recreate it.

[dave ziegler]

Hey Jono thanks for the Info I wrote to the Big Guy a few minutes ago they do have their whiskey made for them But that does not mean that they could not have someone make them something close to what the Old Hickory mash bill was Mr Medley made Old Hickory for a bit after he used up what he bought from us and I have had the Medley made Old Hickory and it was Dam close to ours and very good!
I would love to try that Caffe Lolita as I wonder how it compares to ours I have a bottle and a half of that too.

So I wrote and I will write alot if I have to just to see the return of a truely Great Bourbon and My all time favorite Bourbon. Have you ever Had Old Hickory? If you did you know what I mean. This has made me decide to have a shot of what I have left. I have a some 86 Proof and a little 80 proof yet and then I will be hoping and looking again.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
-----------------------------------------------------

[Jono]

Nope, never had it...maybe in the future!

Dave, if anyone could convince them to revive a brand it is you!

[dave ziegler]

Jono I will e mail them every other week if I think they are listening as If they got someone to Distill the mash Bill and age it for the Old Hickory 10 yr 86 Proof stuff that they made in 1961 which I have some do to Ludy giving it to me, I will tell you People would wait in line with pleasure to have a shot of it. And if you wanted a smooth drinking Whiskey to have a few Old Hickory 6 yr 80 Proof is awesome stuff so dam Smooth I never wanted to buy anything Else and also It kept me working too!

People today who never drank our products can say what they want we had some of the Very Best Stuff on the market those days and the prices were so good that it was part of the trouble our stuff was highly Reasonable. The Company wanted it to be afordable to anyone who wanted a great Whiskey or other Spirits!

One of the Biggest problems we did not have many good people in management after Mr Neuman died and some wrong people took control and Continental is gone but I will always be looking for vintage Old Hickory till I leave this world!

It Was a Magnificent Bourbon!

Another Pair of Great Bourbons we made were Haller's County Fair BIB and other Proof ones too and Charter Oak Bourbon. We also Made A good Bourbon called Planters Club I never Had any of that one.
And Who could forget our Rittenhouse Rye, the new stuff is good but I still think ours was better.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest people drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
---------------------------------------------

[dave ziegler]

This Cold weather makes me think of Our Liqour's, we had some of the Finest Liqour's and some great Brandies too! One of Our Biggest selling Brandies was our Continental Black Berry Brandy it was better then any of the one's out today,and of course our Amaretto Lolita was so famous then that it was seen in Movie props and mentioned in some old Movies! A friend not long ago was watching an Old Movie and the guy asked the Lady what do you have I need a drink of something and the first thing she said was Amaretto Lolita!

Our Caffe Lolita was our biggest seller I have found papers in the Plant where different State Liqour stores were asking why they could not get caffe Lolita any more, it is now made by someone else but I doubt it is as good as ours of Which I have 1 1/2 Bottles yet I do not Have any of the Amaretto but Luckly I do have lots of my favorite that we Made which as anyone who reads my Writting knows is Peanut Lolita.

Some Cold Mornings in The Plant some Hot coffee from the break room machine and some of one of the liqours would hit the spot! On days like this we would bundle up real good in our Sub Zero Coats as it could feel colder inside then out those cold days. The Cold wind would come up from the river and there was always a bit of a breeze coming up through between the two rows of warehouses behind the Big Bottling house.

On days like this our Nurse would have more then one Coffee and Bourbon!
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
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[mozilla]

I thought y'all heated the warehouses durring the winter, Dave? Bourbon won't age very well under 45 degrees or so. What is the story there?

How did y'all plow the snow from inbetween buildings and on your rail system? Were you distilling year round or just bottling year round?
Thanks.

[dave ziegler]

Jeff All the Distilling in the Years I worked there was done in Phila at Dsp Pa-1 in Phila all year round. The Kinsey Dsp-pa-12 & 10 were not Run after early 1951. As for the Warehouses they had some heat and fans to move the air around year round but it was still cold for us working in there in winter as the materials used to build them Terracota and Cement and 2 foot thick walls sealings and floors. The Fans had a sort of Thermostate to kick them in and out to move the heated air around so the aging Whiskey would not be to cold or Hot. These design's were built into them in the early 1940's when Continental built them. When we worked some of them also had a thermostate that you could turn up to warm things up a little bit more when you worked in that building. You would hear the fans running off and on all the time and they too were explosion proof in design and wiring and switching.

If you look at some of my eariler pictures you can see the Air Vents and places where the Fans were on the outside walls. They the 13 regular ones and the Big Bottle house Building U Had no windows at all. The Warehouse O Being also the offices of the Government Men had some windows and a different set up but the upstairs floors had the same fan set up and heat elements and No windows.

All Heat traveled to the Warehouses by way of an in air on uprights asbestos covered Hot Steam line and it went from all the way out front at the boiler rooms to the very back to the Water Intake room were they pumped water out of the river for fire fighting, That room had hot water pipe elements in it to, and even heat traveled up to the roof of Building Q to the Fire safety Room if you look at my Pictures there you will see a heat element there on the wall too!

Sadly the system of heat traveling in Pipes on up rights is part of the reason it cost so much to run the place. Plus today it is a no,no to have pipes covered with asbestos. Also the type of Elevators in the warehouses were made to load Barrels on the cradels and there was no way to put anything Else on the top floors except to lift it by Chain hoist through the big doors in the walls on the upper floors.
Dave Z
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It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
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