Pictures...

[boone]

Yeah...You probably figured right...If boone writes the subject "Pictures" it's probably pictures inside Heaven Hill...

Hey, here are some pictures inside Heaven Hill...

A-line (200, flask)...one of the oldest label machines in the bottling house...I ran this machine for nearly seven years...Hmmmmmmm...Seven years too many...

Theresa runs it now...

Bettye Jo

[boone]

C-line (1 liter, glass) packer...

There is hardly a night that goes by that I don't havta do some kind of adjustment on this packer...

For those of you who don't know what a packer is?...It's the machine that puts the bottles into the cases...

I call her Margaret...but her name real name is, Rebecca... ---->Punch it Margaret<--- ...

[boone]

The Dump Room...

It's where they "dump" the barrels of bourbon...If you were blindfolded...and led to the entry of this room...You'd know exactly, what room you were about to enter...A very stong, very powerful smell of bourbon...

Ronnie is in the front and Brandon is in the back...Sorry the picture is so dark...but it's dark in there ...

[boone]

Hand dipping our EWSB, 1993...

I don't know the new girl's name on the left (they just hired 16 new one's)...but the girl on the right is Dawn...She has dipped (seasonal worker) the EWSB for almost 6 years ...

[boone]

This is not our product...but we bottle and label it...It's very slow and very precise work...The entire process is done by hand...Bottles cleaned, filled, corked, dipped, labeled, packed and numbered by hand...

[boone]

This is Linda...She inspects the bottles as they go by...Her job is not hard but requires constant attention...Need I say more?...

Constant concentration, just to stay awake, if it were me...It's one of those jobs that confine you to one spot, sometimes looking at the same bottle, with the same label, running by you at the average speed of 180 BPM, 9 hours a night...Now ain't that fun...

I always drop by, every so often, to tell (and hear) the latest jokes, shake the place up a bit and do a song and dance...J/K...

[ratcheer]

Thanks, Bettye Jo.

Now there's the inside story! You bring it all to life for us.

Tim

[bobbyc]

Notice the radio, one thing they have plenty of at HH. I noticed one that was expertly installed under a conveyor, it looked like part of the equipment. I didn't notice what they listen to I guess some of everything. Techno Dance music would fit the mood of the place. I guess if someone sampled a bit then the wailing fiddles and steel guitars would fit nicely!

I guess a little foggy mountian breakdown would be neat where all those cases are flying down the line.

<font color="green"> Good God Give Flat & Scruggs Some! </font>

[gr8erdane]

I envision something a bit more classical such as Flight of the Valkyries for some reason. But I guess Wagner is more of a beer composer...

Dane

[boone]

Note the date...I don't know how that got in there like that but it did...I have rid the camera of that ugly (wrong) looking date...

This picture was taken today (December 28, 2003) at work...

Heaven Hill, has been shut down for inventory and maintenance...I was off last week (one of my vacation weeks)...Went back to work today, but on day shift this week only...

I am glad, that I am not scared of heights...Seems, kinda regular, that I am working 20 to 30 feet off the ground...Today, we did some welding in case supply...It's located near the roof...I was sitting up there as the "fire watch"...After you weld...you need to stick around for at least 1/2 hour to make sure, you don't catch the place on fire...

Actually...a small flame did appear "while we were welding"...Mike said, FLAME, Bettye Jo...He grabs the bucket of water (he has the welder's helmet on) and misses it completly...I grab the bucket away from him...and start to pour quickly...I miss...pour it all over him...Then, I grab the bigger bucket and put the flame out...We have a really good laugh on that one ...I apologize to no end...Good thing, he is good natured...

I holler, fire in the hole...As it starts raining water, to all beneath us...

I can see everyone, who comes a goes in the area...

I hear my BOSS--->The, "Most Handsome" Eddie Kirsch<---I holler hey Eddie, he walks over where he can look up to see me... I tell him, Smile real big, so's I can take your picture...

Oh Well, He was smiling...To the left is Ben, Center, Allen, and MY BOSS Eddie...A big Harley Davidson Man...

Bettye Jo

P.S. Not to worry...We had a 10,000 gallon tank full of de-mineralized water "almost" right under us...

[Paradox]

shake the place up a bit and do a song and dance...

Does that new camera of yours have a video mode Bettye Jo? --><-- Really though, thanks for posting some pics, makes me feel like I'm right there again. Now if only a pic could do that label room justice! It's amazing just how many labels there really are to be found in there.

[boone]

Yeah, I got a new digital camera for Christmas. I am very happy with it. It captures video with exceptional quatlity. I am very impressed. I have been practicing taking pictures around the bottling house and of course I am gonna post all---well, "most" of em here

This line is called O-line. I had to get on a big ole ladder just to get the entire line in the picture. This line was added to Heaven Hill in 1991. I was hired because of this new line

O-line, runs plastic, 1.75. At record, can pump out 10,000 cases in ONE (1) shift. I have taken a lot of the folks on this forum on tours to see it. They will tell you, it's awsome...

I find it rather funny that this line is called O-line

We have A-line, B-line, C-line, D-line, E-line, F-line, G-line and then they skip clear to O-line. I asked, why did they skip so many letters? The answer, the line makes a complete circle, so, O-line it became

Bettye Jo

[boone]

The full case warehouse.

I always "try" to take my guest, to see this warehouse and how massive our stock is. I take everyone, to the main isle, and tell them to look in all directions. All the pallets are stacked nearly three high. Massive amounts of product that we cannot keep in stock. We have been on overtime since November.

This warehouse is around 350,000 sq. ft.(?) If you look close (in the center) you can see the opening of the latest addition to this warehouse. One could easily get lost in the maze of pallets

Bettye Jo

[boone]

This is the "display" case with some of our products. Well, some is a understatment. If they were to make a case with all the labels, that entire wall would become a display case, extending from one end of the bottling house to the other.

I know, a lot of you are wondering Her name is Sandy (we call her, Blondie) she keeps the case clean She keeps all of Heaven Hill clean

Bettye Jo

[Gillman]

Bettye Jo, as far as you know, does HH keep a formal inventory, not just of current offerings to display, but bottles made in previous years, as a reference library? E.g. if Parker Beam would want to taste, say, Heaven Hill's bonded whiskey as released in 1945, 1980, or 1990, etc., are there samples, either in full regular-labelled bottles or smaller mini-sized ones, kept for this purpose?

And great pictures of the distillery, thanks for posting them here.

Gary

[boone]

You are Welcome

The only collection, that I am aware of, is the fist #1 Barrel bottlings of each single barrel, Evan Willaims and Elijah Craig. That entire collection is kept in the, "full case warehouse". I would hope, that the family may still have a few of the older bottlings of Heaven Hill, in thier own collections.

My cousin, Katie Lou Beam, donated a bottle of Heaven Hill bond, to the Getz museum. At the time she donated it, it was about half full, but now it's empty. That bottle, was taken off the line at Heaven Hill, by my greatgrandfather right before he retired. On the back label it states that Joseph L. Beam Master Distiller Heaven Hill

When they started work on the new visitor center and museum. The designers of the museum contacted me and my Aunt Jo for historical information on the "early days" of Heaven Hill. They had very little to go on. Seems that everthing got lost over time. The very first picture taken in the begining is one of my Grandfather Harry Beam, and my greatgrandfather Joseph L. Beam standing over a mash tub. That picture will be in the new center. There is another picture that is going to be used as a back drop in one of the rooms. It's a picture of my "entire" family of Beams (a family portrait), standing on the front pourch of the old Jail house, in Bardstown. I posted it somewhere in these forums. In that one picture, there are 8 Master Distillers, in one family

It sits proudly in my "little" display bunker

I did a lot of work, helping get the historical facts, for the "early days" of Heaven Hill. I hope they keep thier word and those two pictures are still in the final plans.

Bettye Jo

[cowdery]

I can answer that question and it's an emphatic yes. That's what profiling is all about, keeping an inventory of samples of different bottling batches, as well as whiskey as it's aging in the warehouse. That's a major part of whiskey-making. Generally it's one-pint (maybe 500 ml now) bottles. They have rooms full of them.

I don't know if it goes so far as a particular label in a particular year. For one thing, Heaven Hill has always had a lot more labels than it does different whiskies, but essentially, yes, they absolutely do keep reference samples.

[boone]

Just finishing up with some of the pictures that I took the other night. Bottling Elijah Craig Single Barrel. This run, is done practically by hand. The bottles (to the right) are dumped by hand, each bottle is air blown clean. The filler operator puts the bottle in the filler (by hand). It's very slow moving. No high speed bottling operation here. The bottle is cork sealed, a laborer will put the cork on the top of the bottle and then put the bottle into a "press" to seal it. We had to modify this simple little gadget. Seems that, a lot of fingers were being severely pinched. We modified it so that there was no way your hand could fit near the top of the bottle

One the newly hired "young ones" came over and asked why I was taking all theses pictures. I told her to jump right in and smile really big Ashley, (similing so big), just got her job (full time) in Decmeber. To her right is "Rico" and "Nester" in on the opposite side, the filler operator.

Bettye Jo

[boone]

Carmel, hand labeling a bottle of ECSB She is adding a extra "sticker" to the top (back) of this bottling. It's going to Japan. It says well I don't know what is written there but it's probably the same information as it's written in english

Hey Bobby, note the radio, I told Carmel what you said about the radio's. She told me, to make sure I got a good shot of this radio's antenna. She said that everyone needs to see a real "Kentucky Style" antenna

Bettye Jo

[boone]

One more...I almost overlooked We decorate the lines for nearly all occasions

B-line,starting the wave of decorations

Bettye Jo

[Bob]

Bettye Jo,

These are all great pictures, but I have a question about this one. Why isn't the bottle that is being filled closer to the filler operator? It appears as though there are positions which would be closer to the filler operator. Looking at the picture, I wonder how she can even see the bottle, given its position relative to hers.

Bob

[dgonano]

Bettye Jo,

I really appreciate these posts.The pictures

are great. Thanks!

It brings back memories of my college years(back in

the sixties) when I spent my summers toiling at National Can

in Baltimore. We made cans mostly for the beer industry, but in late summer corn and tomato cans had us working

12 hour shifts 6 days a week(I needed the overtime pay).

I would like to know if those pallets have ever been

inadvertantly dropped or any other accidents caused by

a negligent tow motor(forklift) operator? It certainly happened many times at the can factory.

[boone]

Hi Bob,

I am behind the filler taking the picture. I should have known that one could not see how it operates from the back of the filler.

It rides like a carousel. Those plates that the bottle rest on go up and down. The fill point will proceed when this plate lifts up to engauge pressure on the stem and push up the sleeve, to release product. You can see the springs on each stem. When the plate comes down the spring will force the sleeve down to encase and seal the stem.

Directly in front of her, the plates are completely down. To the left she is removing a full bottle and the right she is inserting a new one before the plate lifts up

I hope this helps in the description of how this very old filler machine works

Bettye Jo

[boone]

Dave,

Yes, you do hear crashes every now and then but that's not very often. Sometimes, (during the summer) you will hear a crash and there ain't a soul back there High humidity during the summer months will sometimes cause a 3 high to start to droop. Each day, it will droop more and more. Sometimes, the workers are so busy, they don't notice, and then, ya hear one taking a dive to the floor. It's the biggest mess, ya ever did see

I used to be a utility operator. That job required you to learn every job in the plant. You were the replacement person. I remember training of the fork truck. Geeeezzzzzzzzzzzz They took me for a ride in the warehouse, showing me how it's marked off in letters and sections and how to find praticular products in the maze of pallets and cases.

Yeah right. It's a lot to take in. Then, they put me in the driver's seat, stood on the side and showed me how to operate the fork truck... Yeah Right ...They said, to got to the back and practice on "one high" the entire night moving it from one space to another. I started to drive to the back of the warehouse and my trainer jumped off. I stopped and said. jump back on. He just laughed at me and said go on. I drove back there. I bet you I laughed for a solid half hour. I punched holes in a lot of pallets .Geeeezzzzzzz They made it look so easy...I would laugh even more. As the days progessed, in my training, they added another pallet high. On the third day, I was starting to move pallets from in a tight 3 high and move across the warhouse (driving backwards like going in reverse in driving a car) and placing that pallet three high in a really tight spot. I tell ya, it took me awhile but I finally got it. I think the laughing helped. I know, I was the entertaiment for everbody, while I was back there training

My supervisior told me, that if I knocked over anything to let him know (for serial numbers) and clean the mess up.

It does happen but not very often

Bettye Jo

[texascarl]

I think this is my favorite of all your posts. I'm smiling because y'all were laughing. Keep up the good work.