DISTILLERIES IN 3-D

Foreword:  This post results from my recently finding an article done years ago for a limited circulation publication that since has ceased publication and deciding that the images were interesting enough to warrant a reprise as a post for this blog.

This article is devoted to the depiction in three dimensions of whiskey distilleries, real and imagined.   That so much attention has been paid to distillery buildings is in itself puzzling since they normally are utilitarian structures and not very attractive.  Despite that, a number of whiskey makers have chosen to memorialized their buildings with replicas in ceramic.  Other distillery replicas come from the imaginations of those who provide kits for model railroad buffs. They often do resemble the rustic wooden buildings where much of America’s early whiskey was made.

The Old Taylor Distillery,  marked by the castle that served as its administrative headquarters, created a ceramic bottle that held a fifth of its bourbon.  The turret at right ends in a cork and can be removed to pour the whiskey.   Located in Frankfurt, Kentucky, Old Taylor also reproduced its architecture in a metal bank. The money inside could be retrieved by using a key to open a metal panel on the base.

The Ezra Brooks whiskey people also put their product in ceramic distillery bottles.  One shown here was issued in 1970 Featuring a smoke stack, it was colored in green, black and brown, with gold highlights.   Like the Old Taylor jug, the top of the factory screwed off to allow the whiskey to be poured.   Ezra Brooks also issued a mini version of the distillery, this one all in gold.  Made by Heritage China, this bottle featured a cork in the base that could be removed to access the small amount of liquor.

Abe Bomberger of Pennsylvania Dutch stock rebuilt andexpanded the still house, shown here, as well as the warehouse and the jug house. With these facilities the Michter distillery increased production substantially.  As a National Historical Landmark designation states: His complex “represents the transformation of whiskey distilling from an agricultural enterprise into a large scale industry.”

Bushmills Irish whiskey, a replica of its distillery shown here, claims a long heritage of distilling.  When the original building was destroyed by fire in 1885, the company built a new one. It is still in use and the model for the replica the company issued several years ago.

While the previous structures were constructed from metal or ceramic a third group of distilleries were made of wood, meant to be part of model railroad layouts.  Many come in kits ready for assembly.  They carry signs on them for Jack Daniels, Jim Beam,  and other popular contemporary brands.   These models have a rustic look, appropriate to an Old West layout for a Lionel steam train.  Here are examples:

For a long time, it seems, among manufacturing facilities, the distillery, has sparked considerable interest and imagination in three dimensions.  My hunch is that the product that flows from these mundane structures is what catches the interest of those who make the models and those who buy them.   In other words, it is the hooch and not the hutch that ultimately holds the appeal.