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My Memories of Kinsey Distilling


dave ziegler

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Here are the other two pictures it seems when you count on your Computer it will always let you down so sorry about having to put these in 3 sets of writtings but at least I got them on now! I am not the grestest with computers for sure but I still enjoy what you can do with them for History!

1. Picture one again is of the drying building and the bottom open door just behind the silo is where Old Charlie came roaring out every day!

2. Is another shot of the milling building.

I am glad I was able to get these on while what Ludy told me was fresh in my mind.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most Magnificent Bourbon

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Ludy last evening was telling me about the day Mr Neuman parked his Bently Rolls next to the Bottling house Mantaince door and walked in. He walked right up to Ludy and started talking about all kinds of things. Ludy said told me he just stood there and talked like a regular Guy we talked about all kinds of things. Then Ludy said I would love a ride in your Rolls teasing and he said maybe someday. This was the Kind of Man Si Neuman was. Brillant and yet down to earth a man of great Wisdom and A Giant of Industry.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Dave Ziegler is one great tour guide! Kinsey had to be just an amazing place in it's heyday...The warehouse buildings are massive brick structures that are totally different from the bourbon warehouses we see in KY.

We had a lot of fun, got some great exercise walking around the old Kinsey grounds and a wonderful history lesson from a great member of sb.com... Thanks again, Dave Z!

-Joe

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Dave Ziegler is one great tour guide! Kinsey had to be just an amazing place in it's heyday...The warehouse buildings are massive brick structures that are totally different from the bourbon warehouses we see in KY.

We had a lot of fun, got some great exercise walking around the old Kinsey grounds and a wonderful history lesson from a great member of sb.com... Thanks again, Dave Z!

-Joe

Joe It was a Pleasure taking you guys to Kinsey Till I saw pictures on this site I thought all Distillery Warehouses were Like Kinsey! They were and still are very Stong Buildings as the Picture Fricky put up shows even when the fire company knocked the hole in the wall the building still is standing and fixable. Sadly that is the one with the Fire Observation tower on top. I have been all through it and walked on the roof and it is still ok! The Buildings were wonderful this time of year with the heat if its a Hundred outside its Sixty inside. When Continental built the Explosion Proof Warehouses in the late 30' early 40's they were the most modern way to age Whiskey with fans that pulled air through and A little heat in each one during the winter. I have very Fond Memories of the Smells of Whiskey in them and the Blue fums at the ceiling. Back then it never even came to mind much about the famibiltiy of them. We just did are jobs and were glad to work at Kinsey!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Here are two Pictures inside one of the Warehouses Building J looking you can see how big the Pilers were and the old palets of Bottles falling over inside, all left behind when they closed. Those pilers like the walls were full of large Steel Rods, the floors and walls about 2 foot thick or close to that! All the Cement and terracotta made for a real cool place all year round. They were stated to be able to withstand an atomic Bomb, that was how strong they were made, I have an old Broshure My Dad was given in the begining of the 1950's when he worked there and it says Publicker Industries what to do in case of a Atomic Bomb attack and tells them to get into the warehouses quickly! I will take a picture some time and post it. The Cases of Bottles are Inver House Scotch!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Dave should write a Book on the Distillery I'm sure the family would be proud, thank you for your kind words Dave, Don Kinsey

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Just a note Don I am very glad you can see these pictures of Your Familys History. Mr Jacob G. Kinsey was a very Smart man and someone who did not give up! His great nephew Al Landis 90 years old now told me when he came to see him in spring of 1933 he Al Landis was a young man then and Mr Kinsey was 75 years old that he said Al I want you to come help me open up the Distillery and make fine wiskeys! Most people after all those years of not being able to Distill during Prohibition and being that old would just give up he did not and ran it till fall 1939 when his debt was to much Publicker / Continental Distilling bought it and ran it and built all the Explosion proof Warehouses. Mr Kinsey During Prohibition told me by Al Landis, went to Germany to study Brewing of Beer. Mr Kinsey started out as a School teacher, then after that went to work in a Creamery then bought 4 of his own then sold them and in 1891 fall bought the ground Kinsey stands on it was around 300 to 400 acres then and built his Distillery in 1892!

Dave Z

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Dave,

After reading all of your posts and touring the site with you, I am interested in learning more. I have unsuccessfully searched for information concerning J.G.Kinsey. Was he considered a master distiller or was his expertise in blending? What was distilled at the Linfield location? I found an old advertisement from about 1942 concerning Kinsey's Golden Anniversary Blend. The label indicates that it was blended and bottled in Linfield.

What happened to the records from the Linfield facility. Do you know if the county or township historical societies have any documents?

Thanks,

Doug

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Doug as far as I know Jacob G. Kinsey was a master Distiller and Blender of Whiskey. One of his earliest Whiskeys was Kinsey Straight Rye which he had in the earliest days bottled in Ny , if you look at my Wood case which is dated 1909 it Says Kinsey Straight Rye Whiskey.I Have a bottle at home so will look the name up of who bottled it for him. When he came back in 1933 Fall he started distilling and then set up an Early Bottle line in the #10 Rye Building I took you in on the tour. His Great Nephew and Ludy both told me about that then the Bottle House behind the Barn that Phils fan and I went in was his first real building for just bottling as before they bottled right next to the #10 Still. I will speak to his great nephew Al Landis and Ludy and find out how much he was of a distiller, but from all I have heard His was A Master Distiller! And from what I have heard He was very Good at making great Whiskey Blends when Prhibition ended!

He only had a couple people when he reopened so He would have been doing all the Distilling.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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A couple of more things Fricky I forgot to put in the above notes Mr Kinsey Distilled Kinsey Rye Kinsey,Kinsey Blended then Kinsey Gold and Kinsey Silver Blended Whiskey Linfield Bourbon, Kinsey's Maywood straight Rye which I have a bottle and I will ask Al Landis & Ludy when I talk to them about any more made while Mr Kinsey was there!

Dave Z

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Fricky here is a Picture of a very Old Bottle from when Kinsey was distilling but not bottling anything yet! Maywood Brand Straight RYE Whiskey. Note on the top it says Kinsey's Pennsyvania Rye 90 proof, bottom it says Bottled by The American Liquor Company Boston Mass. He must have back in the Angelo Myers days there have had his whiskeeys Bottled in Boston! I will be talking to Al Landis about Mr Kinseys Distilling very soon, and I will ask Ludy about his Ability as a Distiller.

This is the only None Linfield / Kinsy / Publicker / Continental Bottle I own they are few and far between. I do not have one of the Angelo Myers Bottles, but it could be he was an agent for getting his wiskeys bottled?

Do not Know.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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FRicky and everyone else here are some more Kinsey Brands I bought some rare labels at the flee Market also.

Picture

1. Conestoga Striaght Peach Brandy Distilled in Elverson Pa Bottled at Kinsey Distillery

2. Three Kings Straight Rye Distilled at Kinsey and Bottled at Kinsey

3. Linfield Bourbon which was one of the oldest Kinsey Brands bottled in Phila by Continental

4. An orginal Continental Brand Philadelphia but this time Straight Rye

5. Sweep Stakes Blended One of the very first Continenal Brands Label says 1933 on it they Made Sweep Stakes Striaght and Blended

Other Continental Brands that someone bought the Labels before I could are Town Crier Blended Whiskey & Rustic Straight Rye Whiskey.

I got the Label guys name and will be visiting him some time for more!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's MostMagnificent Bourbon

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The graphics on the straight peach brandy label speak of the 1950's, and this must be one of the last if not the last traditional American peach brandies made. This was not a brandy of the wine-derived type flavoured with peaches but a distillate of peaches themselves, and aged at least two years to earn the designation "straight". Cool.

Gary

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The graphics on the straight peach brandy label speak of the 1950's, and this must be one of the last if not the last traditional American peach brandies made. This was not a brandy of the wine-derived type flavoured with peaches but a distillate of peaches themselves, and aged at least two years to earn the designation "straight". Cool.

Gary

Thanks Gary I was going to ask you about that as I figured it was something like that. Elverson is only about 20 miles from Linfield but I do not have a clue to where it was distilled there. Boy I bet that was some good stuff! It would have been bottled in the Old Kinsey Bottle House out front beside Warehouse E with the Rye Barn DSP #10-Pa behind it!

Dave Z

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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--Thanks Gary I was going to ask you about that as I figured it was something like that. Elverson is only about 20 miles from Linfield but I do not have a clue to where it was distilled there. Boy I bet that was some good stuff! It would have been bottled in the Old Kinsey Bottle House out front beside Warehouse E with the Rye Barn DSP #10-Pa behind it! Just found this under the History of Elverson Pa. The Old Dolfingers Milk Depot had a very Bad explosion in in 1934. The Building reopened as the Old Orchard Distillery in 1935 Makers of Straight Peach brandy and Apple Jack and continued till the early 1950's when it became a sewing Factory and the Building where the Constoga Peach Brandy was Distilled is now the Factory / Show room for Vixen Hill Gazebos.

Dave Z

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Continental After they bought Kinsey kept most of the Labels going that Kinsey Had and in the Pictures on the page before here they must have kept getting the Distillate of Peaches and having Kinsey Bottle them in the Old Bottle House that they later used for all their Liquors. Boy I bet that was some good Tasting Brandy and with some power in it also and a Neat Name Conestoga Straight Peach Brandy. Elverson is a small town going up Rt 23 toward Lancaster you turn off RT 100 out of Pottstown and it is about 15 Miles out the road it is just before Morgantown Pa. Looking at the Label Picture on the page before this it was 86 Proof Straight Peach Brandy and clearly says Bottled at Kinsey Distillery so it was for sure done in the old Kinsey Bottle House as all the large bottling jobs were at that time done at Continentals Bottling house at Bigler & Swanson Streets in Phila and they used that Bottle house for all their Whiskeys till when the Linfield bottling house at Kinsey was done in Late 1965 and opened in 1966!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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I was thinking this morning how different things were working in the 1960's at Kinsey. We were expected to work safe with out a million signs notices or being watched all the time and we did. We knew not to steal and for the most part no one did. We had them big open mash tanks there where we rang out filled with water and no one had to be told to not to fall in. Those days I think one of the reasons we enjoyed our jobs there was we took personal responibility for ourselves and the Company just expected us to! Today Companys treat employees like little kids and People do some of the most dumb things in the world! Those were simple days then. We would ask the Boss in the yard gang John Zuber what he wanted each of us to do and we did it. Anything from sweeping the Fire escapes stairs down to moving Mr Bryants lawn down at the kinsey house by the river. I had access to every Building in the Plant on the yard crew and I offten walked around the old #12 Still on breaks. We worked when we were supposed to and no one had to keep watch on us. As a Kid My Dad told me when you start to work you work and that is it and I think for the most part people in that time did just that worked and were proud of working and doing their Job. Everyone That is still iving I talk to about Kinsey all say the same thing what a great Place it was to work. There are times when I wish I could have been there when the still was still going but I did get some taste of the whiskeys made there out of old Warehouse E where I had my first Rye and those stills made some Dam good Whiskeys Old Warehouse E was like a larger Bunker of Bourbons and Ryes from DSP-10 & Dsp 12! I talked to someone a week or so ago who lived across the road from the distillery and he said when I was a Kid there was no more Beatuiful looking Plant anywhere in Pa. He talked about the lawns and the Flower beds and the trees. It was like working in a beatiful Park and the river breezes were very cool and nice being it sits on a penicula. The cement Road in there has out lived all the roads around in town it is so well made with 1 1/2 inch rods running in the cemment after all these years it had never bluged up from frost but remains fine. All a testament to Continental Distilling doing things right under Si Neuman. With Mr Neuman it was always Big and well made and kept. I can still see him coming down the plant road in his Rolls Bently him and his Race dog and stopping to say hello to people. Great memories of great days gone by! Note Old warehouse E was the wood and Brick one Next to the old Bottle house and #10 still building I put pictures of the racks on the tour with Phils fan and Fricky of Warehouse E.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most magnificent Bourbon

Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Last night I went By Kinsey and it always seems so weird to go by and not see all the plant lights burning. It is such a big Place the lights used to light up the sky at night for miles. Also coming into either direction you back then would see the front and back water towers with Publicker Industires written on them, sadly time has washed that away as time has brought riun to the place. Many of the people who lived during those days are now gone and alot of people don't even know the place ever was! About a year ago I stopped at a Yard sale on the other side of the river the back of the peoples house faced the back of the plant I said to the lady I worked at the Distillery behind your House when I was a Kid she said oh is that what it was I just thought it was a bunch of old Buildings! From being the largest employer in three countys to a bunch of old Buildings such is History if not kept alive, and yet for 600 people back then it meant a way to buy a home a car, food on the table and any other needs you had. We worked hard but it was a clean Honest way to earn money and we were paid very well for those times. People came down from the Coal reagions of Pa to get a house and work at Kinsey. We never had to worry about if we would get our pay it was there every Friday. And if you did your Job you had a job for life! People Like Frank Kurtas, Shorty Tyson, Dickie Pfeiffer,and Charlie Sipler worked there over 40 yrs! Ludy worked there 44 years. And enjoyed his job till the end. Working at Kinsey was like viewing life, so many different people with so many differnt hopes and plans. And Products that were really good and alot of times under rated. I looked at an old picture book about Liquor and distilling and it listed great Companys of the old days and nothing about Continental, which made me want to toss it! Continental was one of the greatest enterprises ever in the Distilling Bussiness yet seems forgotten that is why I hope some day to write a book about it all! When I worked there I never dreaded going to work I can't say that for my job yrs later for 18 yrs one of the worlds worst places to work and ran by a small family it was terrible! Time will someday show what an amazing Man Mr Si Neuman was and his father inlaw Harry Publicker, they were Men of Vision and they got things done and many people had great lives because of their Vision. This is something we need most badly in America Vision! As they said on the old TV Show The Lone Ranger- lets return to those thrilling days of Yesterday and Publicker Rides again!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most magnificent Bourbon

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey

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Inver House Soft As A Kiss

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Days were so differant back when I worked at Kinsey, I offten would see one or two cars go by me going to work till I got to the road to there. And many of the 600 poeple that worked there came by bus from Phila as the Cpmpany supplied a bus to bring up the ones that had many years at the Old Phila Bigler Street Bottling house once the new one opened at Kinsey! The smells of Whiskey filled the air in the Bottling house and the 12 Lines seemed to just run endlessly those days. I remember Early in the Morning in the fall months there were always box cars leaving full across the river bridge the company owned and then 3 new ones would be brought along the docks to be loaded. They would fill them all the way to the top with Bourbons, Gins, Scotchs and Blended Whiskeys also they would truck boxes of Liquors from the Old Bottle house over and load them too. Till about a few days before Christmas every Year this would Happen and there was so much going on it was exciting being there! When winter would come out of the old cold Barn mantaince building the guys would be going all over the plant fixing leaks in the steam Lines which ran on uprights all throught the whole Plant. There were around 250 to 275 poeple working in the big Bottling house on each shift first and second! In winter another job we had on the Yard gang was cleaning up snow after storms it was a busy time as we had trucks coming in for loads of Whiskeys even as the Box cars were being loaded as there was room for 3 or 4 trucks or more at a time besides the Box cars to be loaded at the Bottling house Docks. It is very strange for me to walk there now and see nothing but abandonment there. It is like everyone left after work and never returned which is what happened. In the bottling house are old Refridges with peoples lunchs from 22 yrs ago. They just turned everything off and left forever. I still wish I knew just what they did after Mr Neuman died that led to this! Clearly they did not know how to run things and put bad people in mangagement, and the Hostil takeover by stock and quiting making drinking whiskey to just do Industrial stuff only and selling Kinsey Linfield and renting back the tankage and bottle house were a very Big Mistake that put them under control of the man who bought the place and after they closed, He sealed it and left it to fall in riun! He just left it to fall apart and then when the old Historic buildings were still in great shape they could have made the front part into a living History Museum but no one did anything. That is the hardest part for me to see a hole were Old #12 stood and and the tunnel were we would eat our Luch those happy days all gone! I will always remeber Kinsey Distillery and those great days gone by!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Here are a few more plant and 1966 Bottling house pictures I got. Like a Moth to a flame I just can't stay away from Kinsey so went back for the first time since I took Fricky and Phils fan there! Went in to total darkness in the 1966 bottlinghouse and got some pictures alot did not turn out but here are some that did. Had to wear a mask as the air was moldy and bad but when it comes to History I want to shot all the pictures I can! Pictures in Order are

1. Old Well with Pump at Building O

2. Looking at the buildings from dock of Building P

3 thru 7. Inside the 1966 Bottling house shot in total darkness. Picture 7. is in the fenced in black tanks at the far end of the bottling house walking out on the metal flooring these tanks used to hold the different Products, Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Bourbon, and Scotch. The pictures I put on of the lines that were marked come from these tanks!

8. Back fire escape of Building O at back Government Building this is like everything on O different then all the others.

I walked through total darkness and very bad air but I want to get every Picture I can to save of Kinsey so people can see what the place was like!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whisskey

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Here are a few more plant and 1966 Bottling house pictures I got. Like a Moth to a flame I just can't stay away from Kinsey so went back for the first time since I took Fricky and Phils fan there! Went in to total darkness in the 1966 bottlinghouse and got some pictures alot did not turn out but here are some that did. Had to wear a mask as the air was moldy and bad but when it comes to History I want to shot all the pictures I can! Pictures in Order are

1. Old Well with Pump at Building O

2. Looking at the buildings from dock of Building P

3 thru 7. Inside the 1966 Bottling house shot in total darkness. Picture 7. is in the fenced in black tanks at the far end of the bottling house walking out on the metal flooring these tanks used to hold the different Products, Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Bourbon, and Scotch. The pictures I put on of the lines that were marked come from these tanks!

8. Back fire escape of Building O at back Government Building this is like everything on O different then all the others.

I walked through total darkness and very bad air but I want to get every Picture I can to save of Kinsey so people can see what the place was like!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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Kinsey The Unhurried Whisskey

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Just a quick note on Picture # 1 it is one of many wells at the Plant this one was for water that was distilled for some of the Products at Building O. There is also a well right beside Warehouse H 1937 just across from the 1966 Bottling House. Also picture # 6 if you look back in my Picture you will see the tanks on each side in that tunnel Picture at the far side of the Bottling Plant. In the last years many of them were used to hold Antifreeze which they bottled there for all the major companys till 1986 from 1980.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's most magnificent Bourbon

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Here is a shot of the tanks in Picture 6 on page #146 that I took the other day. This shot from someone else not me will get some better shots when I can. This picture does not show them at a good angle they go all the way down to the ground there at the far end of the 1966 Bottling house. and the shot I took in picture 6 is walking at ground level through tunnel outside on the Metal gangway of grating! This shot was taken from a roof across the Bottle house roof to the far end water laying on roof and tanks coming way up above the Roof from the ground.

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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I am sitting here drinking my second shot of Old Hickory and thinking about what a great Bourbon it is now drinking it as a vintage Bourbon. Its flavor keeps saying have another and I answer the call. Its smoothness just makes it roll down with great ease. I can remember the state stores always having the shelves full of it and going there buying it and telling the clerk I work for them with pride! If I was broke I would get a half pint or Pint if things were going good a fifth or quart. I always bought it even after I left there and I will always think of it with joy and enjoy it when I find some which is not easy but thanks to Kurt I still have some and getting a little more soon! TO me Publicker was and always will be the most prolic company when it comes to all kinds of Whiskeys and Gins ,Scotchs and Vodkas. How I wish that someone with some ideas would have steped up when Mr Si Neuman Died. He will always be one of my all time Hero's a man with vision kindness and a man who was not afraid to try the unssual and never look back. He was a very great Man and I am proud that I worked for him may God rest his soul. Kinsey to me was the most Beautiful place a person could work it was like working in a beautiful park with cool breezes coming from the river and trees and flowers everywhere. Wild life walking acorss the company road and a great pay for a kid who coming out of High school never relised that he would work at such a great place! My memories will always be good of my Wonderful Kinsey Distillery. Everytime I go there my heart hurts for the days of old. If I was rich I would open it up again no matter what the cost. I am and always will be Thankful to have worked there, to have seen Mr Neuman and to have been blessed by my many friends there. May these memories go on long after I am gone! One last thing Old hickory is truely Magnificent they had that completely RIGHT!

Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon

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OLD HICKORY IS THE BEST TO ME-!!!!!

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Dave,

You mave mentioned it before but I don't remember, who was the Master Distiller at Kinsey when you were there?

Joe :usflag:

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