A trip in to the Old Continental Bottle house 1966 State of the Art

[dave ziegler]

I not long ago was speaking to a couple of people who worked in the 1966 Bottling house and they both told me the following story. Many People that worked there always carried a collaspible metal drinking cup and or a bending reuseable Straw. The Reason was well known if whiskey was spilled they could slurp it up with the straw and if the chance came to pour a quick drink, you had your metal folding cup in your pocket ready for the chance to try something special like the 20 year old, Old Hickory bourbon!

Sandy told me this and someone else not sure who it was but they told me the same story!

Working it that Bottling house was like being in a city people everywhere, everyone working in sink to make the great Spirits we made.

Dave Z
================================================== ===
Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey For Unhurried Moments

[dave ziegler]

This weekend I am hoping to get back to Kinsey and I want to take a walk in the 1966 Bottle House again to get a few more shots of the One thing that really brought Life to Kinsey back in 1966.

Before the Bottling house maybe 75 to 80 people worked there, but when the Bottling house opened there were around 600 people in its hayday! This week would be when the last local shipments of Spirits would be going out by Truck.
In the month of Nov there would have been 3 rail box cars at the dock all day every day two shifts 5 days a week.

People would be working very hard to get the last products out and Old Hickory would be flying off the shelf, and Inver House Scotch also. The biggest sellers were Old Hickory, 80 proof and and 86 Proof 10 yr, Inver House Scotch and Hallers County Fair 100 proof BIB. Inver House Scotch Opend the door for a working man to enjoy a good Scotch. Before Mr. Neuman started our Distillery in Scotland Scotch was very expensive do to the Special tax on it. When we shipped it here and bottled it here, and the fact it was owned by a USA company made the price go way down by not having to pay that special Exsise tax started by Joe Kennedy back in the 1930's.
Mr Neuman was an amazing Man and it was his inovation that started the using of used Bourbon barrels for Scotch on a big scale.
Dave Z
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[spiderblues]

Hey Dave,
I can head in with you on Sunday if you want to meet up.
Just shoot me a PM.
Rod

This weekend I am hoping to get back to Kinsey and I want to take a walk in the 1966 Bottle House again to get a few more shots of the One thing that really brought Life to Kinsey back in 1966.

Before the Bottling house maybe 75 to 80 people worked there, but when the Bottling house opened there were around 600 people in its hayday! This week would be when the last local shipments of Spirits would be going out by Truck.
In the month of Nov there would have been 3 rail box cars at the dock all day every day two shifts 5 days a week.

People would be working very hard to get the last products out and Old Hickory would be flying off the shelf, and Inver House Scotch also. The biggest sellers were Old Hickory, 80 proof and and 86 Proof 10 yr, Inver House Scotch and Hallers County Fair 100 proof BIB. Inver House Scotch Opend the door for a working man to enjoy a good Scotch. Before Mr. Neuman started our Distillery in Scotland Scotch was very expensive do to the Special tax on it. When we shipped it here and bottled it here, and the fact it was owned by a USA company made the price go way down by not having to pay that special Exsise tax started by Joe Kennedy back in the 1930's.
Mr Neuman was an amazing Man and it was his inovation that started the using of used Bourbon barrels for Scotch on a big scale.
Dave Z
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[Jono]

Dave, do you recall the connection or sale of the Inver House brand back to the current Inver House Distillers on Scotland?

http://www.inverhouse.com/portfolio-whisky.php

I assume they are one and the same.

Ralfy mentions Inver House Distillers in this review of Ancnoc 12 y.o.
http://whiskyreviews.blogspot.com/search?q=anCnoc

http://whiskyreviews.blogspot.com/20...1_archive.html
Inver House is currently owned by a Thai businessman.

[dave ziegler]

Jono it was sold in around spring 1980 I think. At the time of sale the employees there bought it but then later sold to the curent owners! When we opened it in 1964 it was the finish of Mr Neumens dream of making Scotch afordable to the common man.
Before Inver House Distillery Scotch was way to expensive for the working man!
Dave Z
----------------------------------------------------------------
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

I plan on walking inside the Old 1966 Bottling House very soon this winter, I have been told it is getting so bad rain and snow come through the sections where they meet in the building. And this fall you could see Sunlight coming through the ceiling. It is so sad as The Bottle house was the newest Building in the Plant having been built as general Explosion proof Warehouse U in 1951. And starting around 1964 being made into the worlds largest bottling House when completed in Sept 1966. It is a very big building as I have said before being 2 football fields long and 3/4 of a football field wide.

The few times I got in there working in the yard gang hauling broken glass I was in awe of it. Remembering going in there was like walking into a large city People everywhere. 250 or more a shift. 11 Lines roaring and fork lifts trying to keep up with the cases of Whiskey flying off the Lines.

Line A1-F could do 40,000 bottles a day, and was driven by a early Computer that used Vacum tubes in it because of the heat in the power generation. I actualy found a few brand new tubes in the bottle house, and will be using them in my Tube stereo pre amp in the near future.

The Bottle house was self suficent having its own Maintaince men, Laboratory, and Goverment men, also its own Nurse and dispensary.

It ran 2 shifts 5 days a week and the docks could handle 3 train box cars and 10 trucks. It also had enough room to hold all the finished Products till shipping.
Dave Z
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[dave ziegler]

Walking around outside the old 1966 State of art Continental Distilling Bottle House it is unbelieveable How bad the Newest of the Explosion proof Buildings has gotten.

Having been built in 1951 four years after the completing of the 14 other Explosion proof Warehouses it is leaking lots of water, pieces of the sealing cement falling down and the never ending Vandals stealing anything they can. For those that steal I hope some day they pay dearly. I don't want excuses that times are hard. Those type of people would rather steal then work even in the best of times!

Pipes Stainless Pump heads all gone and every kind of rotten thing possiblee done. People being Jerks and writing Rotten things on the walls I hope they get caught.

I loved the place the first day I went to work and can not understand people who will not work as they are missing the feeling of selfworth you get in making a living. I would go in early just to see Charlie Seipler roar out of the old grain drying building in his Model A Ford frame with a home made by him wooden flat bed. Powered by a 100 hp Ford V8 flat head engine.

It had no fenders, or windshield and the seat for Charlie was an old easy chair bolted on the frame and a metal chair for a passenger. Dicky Pfiefer put the big flat head in it and Charlie would come roaring out of the Building Hit second and slide around the big silo hit the main road and hit third gear!

As he drove into the distance you would see Smoke pouring out of His Corn Cob Pipe. Charlie took care of all painting upkeep and carpener and sign work. Charlie made all the signs on the warehouses now missing and stenciled all the writing.

Back In the day very few Whiskys ever made the ball drop Building in Times Square, but Kinsey Silver was one of the few that enjoyed much time in signage there. Also Kinsey Silver Blended was very loved in Ny City.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Best Old Fashions Are, you'll Find
The Mellow Made With Kinsey Kind
Dave Z

[Jono]

Just think what current regulators would say! That vehicle violated so many standards there would have been fines etc.

[dave ziegler]

I'll tell you one thing Jono that old buggy was fast and Charlie cranked it up! Here are some more plant shots from yesterday with Rod and Ethan and Gretchen. We had a great time looking aand taking pictures an finding stuff!
Here are six Pictures taken in theld Kinsey Grain Process building which was the lst stop for the grain before the DSP-Pa-12 still building. Tis old building was built at the turn of the century.
1.,2. Old grain Machine
3. Old Switch Box in Graain building.
4. Old Wooden Grain chutes number #3 there were many stes each having different number groups.
5. Looking from where the entrance from the Old Tunnel would be toward the Bathroom in the Grain perocess building
6. The Old Grain Collector
I will be posting Alot more pictures and a couple of special fun ones on theMemoris thread today.
Dave Z
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
It Seems All The Nicest People Drink Old Hickory
America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

[ethangsmith]

Here I am loading a barrel into the barrel elevator! Dave has another picture of both of us hard at work rolling some barrels.