Distillery Configurations
Early-nineteenth-century farmers and millers were often craft distillers, mashing and fermenting grain meal in wooden barrels before distilling the liquid in small copper pot stills. Waterwheels powered the first-generation creek-side mills and distilleries. Wood fueled early steam engines; the use of coal required access to better transportation. Second-generation distilleries, operating from the 1830s to the 1880s, used traditional pot stills,although some adopted new column stills, perfected in Scotland, when they began to mechanize. Old still buildings were often modified to accommodate new machinery. Distillers stored whiskey-filled wooden barrels in stack warehouses to age. Industrialization required a larger labor force. By 1880, businesses in Louisville and other river cities were producing steam engines, boilers, and related equipment. Third-generation distilleries operated from the 1880s to 1920; their high-capacity output required more grain and fuel, mandating locations near railroad tracks or navigable rivers. Complementary industries such as cooperages, metal fabricators, slaughterhouses, and tanneries were attracted to urban, rail-side distilleries.