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Wild Turkey - new tour


callmeox
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Wild Turkey's twitter feed today:

@WTBourbonMaster: The newly expanded Wild Turkey Distillery is now open for tours. We're not exactly impartial, but it's a pretty great place to visit.

Any details out there? Is this the new visitor center and facility across US-62 from the current distillery?

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I drove by there week before last, along 62, and didn't notice a new visitor center, but I wasn't really looking for one. I'll try to get over there soon.

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They're building a new visitors center and upgrading the visitor experience as part of the distillery enlargement, which will double their capacity. They're having a big unveiling event on 6/21. This expansion was actually planned when Pernod was still in charge, so it has been a long time coming, much like the expansion as Maker's which preceded Beam.

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Where's Wild Turkey bottled these days:

Lawrenceburg, KY?

Lawrenceburg, IN?

Fort Smith , AR?

Unfortunatley in AR, Jimmy Russell wants it back on the distillery site.

The stuff is all aired out and different by the time the tankard truck arrives in AR.

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Unfortunatley in AR, Jimmy Russell wants it back on the distillery site.

The stuff is all aired out and different by the time the tankard truck arrives in AR.

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I attended the new tour two weeks ago, literally on the first day they started running it. It was pretty cool. They show you a short video on the history of WT, then take you through a rickhouse, through the fermentation house, the distillery itself, etc all while pointing out the older facilities that were retired last year. They said they will start bottling on site again in the next year or two IIRC. All in all it was a fun experience. When we got back to the visitor's center Jimmy Russel himself was in the gift shop signing bottles :cool:

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What facilities did they identify as 'retired'? It was my understanding that they were building, essentially, a second virtually identical distillery in order to double capacity. I never heard anything about any facilities being 'retired.'

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  • 4 weeks later...
What facilities did they identify as 'retired'? It was my understanding that they were building, essentially, a second virtually identical distillery in order to double capacity. I never heard anything about any facilities being 'retired.'

The old distillery building is supposedly out of production now. The new building is 2-3 times larger. My guess is that 100% of the distilling is taking place in the new building. The old building already looked pretty much closed down.

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Interesting. Skyy Spirits/Campari has not been real free with information about what they're doing, although they are have a big press event there next month. It sounds from what everyone is saying that they revised the original plans developed under Pernod's ownership. Typically when this is done the old distillery is salvaged for anything they can use in the new one. If the old one is still intact, then there may be some intention to use both. I'll find out what I can.

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Interesting. Skyy Spirits/Campari has not been real free with information about what they're doing, although they are have a big press event there next month. It sounds from what everyone is saying that they revised the original plans developed under Pernod's ownership. Typically when this is done the old distillery is salvaged for anything they can use in the new one. If the old one is still intact, then there may be some intention to use both. I'll find out what I can.

You have a point. I didn't get to see inside of the old building so I do not know if it was gutted. Everything in the new building looked brand new though.

The two buildings are definitely not identical.

New building

http://www.sullivancozart.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90:wildturkeydistillerybuilding&catid=47:currentprojects&Itemid=78

Small write up about the change here...

http://www.ellenjaye.com/wturkey.htm

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When we were on our tour, the guide strongly implied that the old distillery building was done for good.

Of course he also said that Bourbon couldn't contain more than 79% corn in the mash and that it was cut with distilled water.

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When we were on our tour, the guide strongly implied that the old distillery building was done for good.

Of course he also said that Bourbon couldn't contain more than 79% corn in the mash and that it was cut with distilled water.

We were also told that some of the equipment from the old distillery was needed at the new site. With all of the automation and such at the new facility, I don't see why they would use both or why the guide would fib about something like that.

As far as the distilled water comment, both the WT and Sazerac (greatbourbon.com) sites mention using distilled water to cut to proof. It makes sense to me, but who knows?

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I took the tour while in town for the Sampler. They joked about their small visitor's center implying they wouldn't see a new one any time soon.

The new distillery was going full blast, with all the mash tubs bubbling away. Production looked to be controlled completely by 3 people at a bank of computers. Very modern and efficient and sterile, and not very interesting. It's the blandest possible industrial facility you could imagine - it smells like whiskey but that's it. We got to see the barrel filling line but it wasn't running. Didn't go inside any rick houses.

They did show us the original distillery building which looked to be completely mothballed. Noone parked there, no activity, shuttered.

In the gift shop you can buy custom inscribed bottles - I thought this one was good:

post-6498-14489817304349_thumb.jpg

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The new distillery was going full blast, with all the mash tubs bubbling away. Production looked to be controlled completely by 3 people at a bank of computers. Very modern and efficient and sterile, and not very interesting. It's the blandest possible industrial facility you could imagine - it smells like whiskey but that's it.

You've described the new facility perfectly. It's definitely a modern factory.....much different than what you see everywhere else.

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We were also told that some of the equipment from the old distillery was needed at the new site. With all of the automation and such at the new facility, I don't see why they would use both or why the guide would fib about something like that.

As far as the distilled water comment, both the WT and Sazerac (greatbourbon.com) sites mention using distilled water to cut to proof. It makes sense to me, but who knows?

I made such an assertion regarding distilled water a few years ago and I was told it was too expensive by an early Bourbonian of the Year.

The tour guide also said the process by which they distilled the water was charcoal filtering. :skep:

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You've described the new facility perfectly. It's definitely a modern factory.....much different than what you see everywhere else.

My impression was "well planned out" not sterile.

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Being so new it did feel sterile. Fresh paint, new cinderblocks, the still behind glass etc.

It was built for volume and efficiency, not appearances. That being said I did think it was a nice touch that they put those large windows in the room with all the fermentation swimming pools. Those things were huge and that room without those windows would be dreary.

But yeah, it's pretty much an industrial production facility.

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They don't use distilled water. The guides were probably told to say 'purified water,' or something like that, and it came out 'distilled water.' Distilled water is expensive, unnecessary and undesirable. You don't want neutral water, you want water that tastes good. All of the distilleries treat their water according to the profile of their supply. Reverse Osmosis is common, as is filtration through charcoal or certain minerals. It's similar to what many of the bottled water companies do.

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I bet the same guide who told you they use distilled water also said the reason Kentucky makes the best bourbon is because of the special water (usually has something to do with limestone). Of course if they distilled it, there woudn't be anything special about it.

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I bet the same guide who told you they use distilled water also said the reason Kentucky makes the best bourbon is because of the special water (usually has something to do with limestone). Of course if they distilled it, there woudn't be anything special about it.

Water ph does make a difference in fermentation process, so limestone water does play a role.

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Water ph does make a difference in fermentation process, so limestone water does play a role.

Not if it is distilled before use, since it would have a neutral pH, no matter how it started. But it's not distilled. That's the point.

I wonder if the whiskey made with the new equipment is going to be different. We won't know for sure for several years.

One of the things I loved about the old Wild Turkey tour is that the distillery looked very old and dirty, with puddles and hoses and spilled grain on the floor.

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I was talking to Eddie Russell a few years ago about the proposed expansion and as he showed me the beer still, he also showed me where the still operator sat, on a straight-backed chair right next to the control valves. He said there were no gauges or monitors then. The operator made adjustments based on the way the still was vibrating.

I look forward to talking to Jimmy and Eddie about the new place. They'll tell it straight.

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Not if it is distilled before use, since it would have a neutral pH, no matter how it started. But it's not distilled. That's the point.

I wonder if the whiskey made with the new equipment is going to be different. We won't know for sure for several years.

One of the things I loved about the old Wild Turkey tour is that the distillery looked very old and dirty, with puddles and hoses and spilled grain on the floor.

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