ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 It was a good day to travel to Fredericksburg, VA for a tour of the A. Smith Bowman distillery. Our host was Master Distiller Joe Dangler. Those in attendance were:GregMarkReidEmeraldHowieDave G.Dave R.JayFollowing are some pictures of our day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 1. Entrance to Bowman Distillery 2. Reid inviting everyone in....like he owns the place. 3. Howie....and this is before he started drinking. 4. Inside the warehouse with some "special barrels" and lots of pallets. 5. Master Distiller, Joe Dangler giving us the history is the Bowman family. 6. Inside the storage portion of the warehouse.....barrels of bourbon on pallets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 7. Another pic of the storage warehouse 8. An aerial view of the barrels 9. An empty and still to be used portion of the warehouse 10. Group shot - milling around listening to Joe explain some of their expansion plans 11. Tank room 12. Doubler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 · Hidden Hidden 13. Joe turns his back and we sneak a taste of barrel proof VG 10 yr old.14. Reid's all smiles as he gulps down the white dog......BAD REID!!!15. Cool antique barrel scale16. Bottling Room17. Barrel head of a barrel I would love to dip into.....hmmm....16 yr AA.18. Home of Virginia Gentlemen Link to comment
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 13. Joe turns his back and we sneak a taste of barrel proof VG 10 yr old. 14. Reid's all smiles as he gulps down the white dog......BAD REID!!! 15. Cool antique barrel scale 16. Bottling Room 17. Barrel head of a barrel I would love to dip into.....hmmm....16 yr AA. 18. Home of Virginia Gentlemen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 Here's some more pics that Howie took. Thanks Howie! The last pic is the group with the Master Distiller. From left to right - Dave G., Joe Dangler, Jay, Reid, Mark, Emerald, Howie, Dave R. and Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozilla Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 So, are they taking tankers of distillate and doubling them? And then barreling them in their own barrels? Or are the taking barreled spirits and doubling or redoubling? What's the deal?How did they end up with some super sweet A/18/93 AA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarnv Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 They are bringing in distillate from BT in bulk and barreling at Bowman. Quite a few interesting barrels at Bowman scattered throughout the place including a few ryes. It appears that they are moving to put a visitors center in at Bowman as well as expanding their roles in premium / super premium products. Being just off I-95 it would make a great spot to promote BT products. Word of a cask strength bottling in the near future was rumoured...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Great pics! Thanks for sharing them. Sounds like they have a lot of exciting things happening there. If I ever get out that way, I'll definately drop by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 So, are they taking tankers of distillate and doubling them? And then barreling them in their own barrels? Or are the taking barreled spirits and doubling or redoubling? What's the deal?How did they end up with some super sweet A/18/93 AA?VG is triple distilled. On the bottle of VG it states "Distilled in KY and Re-distilled in Virginia". They then barrel and place on pallets for storage.I have the same question on that 16 AA. What the heck are they going to do with that. I asked the question but Joe sidestepped the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoopsie Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 VG is triple distilled.Now Greg, IIRC that is not what I understood from Joe Dangler. It is distilled in KY and Re-Distilled in VA only once. So it is double distilled, just like most other bourbons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barturtle Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Now Greg, IIRC that is not what I understood from Joe Dangler. It is distilled in KY and Re-Distilled in VA only once. So it is double distilled, just like most other bourbons.That would beg the question of whether they get their stuff from BT off the still or the doubler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgonano Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Guys, They column still at BT and deliver by tankers to VA. Bowman tanks the product and redistills in their Doubler. They get new barrels from Independent Stave. The product is barreled and stored on pallets( they do not have rickhouses). The warehouses are climate controlled and interestingly keep the in and out proof at about 125.They do their own bottling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 Now Greg, IIRC that is not what I understood from Joe Dangler. It is distilled in KY and Re-Distilled in VA only once. So it is double distilled, just like most other bourbons.Howie,Then I may have misunderstood. I was under the impression they received the double distilled wash as normal and then Bowman sent it through the copper still which would be thrice distilled.....no? According to this article, that's what's been reported and I thought it was mentioned again yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoopsie Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Howie,Then I may have misunderstood. I was under the impression they received the double distilled wash as normal and then Bowman sent it through the copper still which would be thrice distilled.....no? According to this article, that's what's been reported and I thought it was mentioned again yesterday. What do those people know. Do you believe everything you read on the internet? That is the reason I asked Joe that specifically and he said that it was distilled in KY and redistilled in VA. I just assumed he meant distilled once in KY. I may be wrong, if so, shame on me for not more precise:blush: I guess that means we will have to make another trip done there in for the fall distillation, so we can get the most correct answer.:woohoo: Happy Howie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 6, 2009 Author Share Posted March 6, 2009 What do those people know. Do you believe everything you read on the internet? That is the reason I asked Joe that specifically and he said that it was distilled in KY and redistilled in VA. I just assumed he meant distilled once in KY. I may be wrong, if so, shame on me for not more precise:blush: I guess that means we will have to make another trip done there in for the fall distillation, so we can get the most correct answer.:woohoo:Happy Howie Ok, works for me!:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgonano Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I guess it's a tripler then! I must have also misinterpreted the good man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bourbonv Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 When Howie, John, Linda, Linn and myself (Dave, were you there then as well? I know you were at Howies for a tasting.) visited there about 5 years ago we specifically asked if it was single distilled or double distilled before it was sent to Virginia Gentleman and we were told "Single distilled". That was not by Joe but by Mr. Adams? (Help me out here Howie - this was the president of the distillery and I know he is decended from Washington family, The Adams family and Lee family). We made a point to find out if it was double or tripled distilled and the answer was double distilled.Mike Veach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgonano Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I only got as far as Howie's home five year's ago. I did not join in the tour group. Mike, I did not hear Joe say any thing about triple distillation. I asked him where the first distillation occurred....Buffalo Trace. I assumed it only went through the column still before the trip to Virginia. But I may be wrong.Anyway there is no special mashbill..just the regular BT...he would not disclose the grain make-up of the mashbill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spun_cookie Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 He said it was single distilled coming to Virginia, they distilled it the second time and got it up to ~145 proof, watered it down to ~125 to put into the barrel. If he meant something else, then I am clueless, but everything seemed very straight forward (Q&A that is) He did tend to run through a couple stories at anyone time during the tour, but he answered that question in front of the copper art work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdery Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Since they started getting white dog from Frankfort, I have been under the impression that what they are receiving would have been barreled at BT, hence running it through their still in Virginia makes it triple-distilled. I'm not sure it matters all that much either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 The A. Smith Bowman website says they don't give tours. Was this a sort of private pre-arranged deal or are they now open for tours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarnv Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 The tour was pre-arranged and private to the group. They are not open to the public nor typically grant tours at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggilbertva Posted March 10, 2009 Author Share Posted March 10, 2009 Chuck,The distillate is trucked in on tankers, they do their re-distillation and then barrel it there on premises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdery Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Chuck,The distillate is trucked in on tankers, they do their re-distillation and then barrel it there on premises.You may have mis-read my previous post. My point was that the whiskey they ship to VA is spirit ready to be barreled, i.e., it has been double distilled. I know it is re-distilled and then bottled in VA.Do you know for a fact that it is tankered? That seems like too much quantity. Spirit in smaller quantities is shipped in what they call totes, which can I believe be sent by common carrier. They typically hold 300 to 500 gallons, which seems about right for ASB.The still at ASB is very small, maybe 100 gallons. Long-haul tanker trucks are typically 5,000 to 10,000 gallons, so that's a lot of passes through that little still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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