Recently, we were honored to host United States Senator Tom Harkin for a VIP distillery tour. Senator Harkin has long known about Templeton Rye from his travels across our great state, and he was very excited to see the distillery.

The Templeton Rye team discussed many issues with the senator, including rural development, renewable energy and specific challenges facing our company. Below are photos that we captured during the tour.

From left to right: Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff, Senator Tom Harkin and Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff in front of the Templeton Rye still.

Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff and Gene Wiese of Manning discuss historic photos in the tasting room.

Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff explaining the finer points of whiskey filtering.

As a surprise belated Father’s Day present for her father John Pederson, our friend Libby Crimmings invited a handful her dad’s closest friends for Father’s Day Templeton style.

The group loaded into the Templeton Rye (Nadas) bus and made their way to the distillery for an all-access tour. After an entertaining and informative tour, including hand-labeling some bottles and sampling a bit of The Good Stuff, the crew moved on to lunch and libations.

The afternoon consisted of a good old-fashioned Western Iowa Bar Crawl at Coon Bowl and the North Side Pub in Coon Rapids, Shack’s in Bayard, TOJO’s and the Dew Drop in Jamaica, the River House Barn, a historic speakeasy in the White Rock Conservancy, and a final stop at the Waveland in Des Moines. It was a perfect Father’s Day for a wonderful dad and great friend of Templeton Rye. We were pleased to help make it a special day.

To set up your own Templeton Rye Distillery tour, contact kevin@templetonrye.com

I would like to personally thank all of those who attended our distillery open house earlier this month. It was a huge success with an estimated 1,200 people coming from as far away as Chicago, Denver, Arizona and Michigan for a tour of our expanded distillery. Some of you surprised us by coming a little early and we appreciate you waiting patiently.

Thanks also for all of the kind words and encouragement. We were happy to witness the excitement for what we are doing and it makes the hard work we put into planning and construction well worth it. We would especially like to thank Dave Schoeppner of Schoeppner Construction for his excellent craftsmanship and great patience. The place really looks great and we are proud to have built it with local partners in Western Iowa.

For those of you who were not able to make it, we would love to have you come by. Please contact kevin@templetonrye.com to set up a tour.

Thanks again,
Keith Kerkhoff, Assistant Master Distiller, Templeton Rye

Photo credit: Mandy Miller Photography

Photo credit: Mandy Miller Photography

Below: Click to watch a live acoustic performance of Templeton Rye by The Nadas from the open house.

We recently opened our distillery doors to area media and state and local elected officials in conjunction with the Templeton and Carroll Area Development Corporations.

The luncheon was catered by The Still, and Templeton Mayor Ken Behrens, TADC President Nick Romey, CADC Executive Director Jim Gossett and Templeton Rye President Scott Bush shared remarks with the crowd of approximately 75 people. Guests toured the facility and had an opportunity to label a bottle of TR, see our new tasting room and try a little of The Good Stuff straight out of the still.

Pictures from the event can be viewed here. After pitching in with the daily distillery duties, we all landed in the tasting room for a sample and some shopping. We definitely need to put in an order for some more TR gear — it was flying off the shelves!

Steve Long from KPTV Fox 44 in Sioux City did a segment on the event, which you can view below:

PHOTO: The TR team at the distillery groundbreaking. Trust us, it looks a lot different today!

Hello friends,

Many of you have been inquiring about distillery tours. We are pleased to announce that our distillery expansion is almost complete, and we’re inviting all of you to attend our open house on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 in Templeton, Iowa.

In case you didn’t know, we’ve been hard at work expanding our existing facility from 1,500 to over 11,000 square feet. This expansion will help us keep up with production of The Good Stuff and will hopefully become a tourist destination. We’ll also be unveiling a new barrel warehouse, bottling line, grand tasting room and a gift shop.

On June 7th you’ll be able to tour the new expansion and (of course) sample The Good Stuff. You will also have the opportunity to buy an empty Templeton Rye barrel for your home, office or garden.

The open house will run from 1:00 - 5:00 pm, but the fun won’t stop there. The town of Templeton is hosting The Nadas in an outdoor concert adjacent to the distillery grounds. The concert will start at 7:00 pm and tickets will be available at IowaTix.com. Come hear The Nadas perform Templeton Rye along with all their other great songs.

Hope to see you there,

Michael Killmer
Brand Manager at Templeton Rye

Mox Irlmeier is the youngest of 12 children. He raised seven of his own children who have, in turn, given him 20 grandchildren. Mox is responsible for making and packing the boxes at the Templeton Rye distillery. Mox’s previous occupation was a farmer and a meat cutter, which would explain why he lists working with meat as one of his hobbies along with gardening and watching ball games.

Mox is a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes and Detroit Tigers and insists that he doesn’t have a favorite color — in fact, he says he likes them all equally. (He’s color blind.) One of the mottos he lives by is: “Never put something where you can’t see it, or it may get lost.” Mox lists Bob Feller as one of his heros. His favorite way to drink The Good Stuff is straight with a water chaser.

We’ve posted a video tour of our distillery in Templeton, Iowa. Enjoy!

Rick is a man of few words, but of great importance to Templeton Rye. At the distillery, you are most likely to find Rick at the filler topping off the bottles and corking them before they are labeled.

Rick was born on August 17th, 1964. His previous occupation was in industrial maintenance. Rick’s hobbies include hunting and fishing. He especially enjoys hunting for coyotes (thanks Rick, for helping our pheasant population) and fishing for bass.

Growing up, Rick was told stories of a great uncle bootlegging the original “Good Stuff.” He has enjoyed learning other TR stories while working for Templeton Rye because Rick is a local history buff. He often employs one of his favorite pieces of advice which is to “trust, but verify.” Rick calls Thomas Edison one of his heros, but when asked what one person, dead or alive, he would like to have dinner with, he said his grandfather.

Rick’s favorite way to drink TR is on ice or mixed with Limeade.

Below is a personal message from Scott Bush, President of Templeton Rye, regarding the Iowa Native Distillery Bill currently being debated in the Iowa Legislature.

We built the Templeton Rye Distillery in Templeton, Iowa. Currently we are expanding from 1,500 to nearly 12,000 square feet. An integral piece of our expansion plans is to be able to sell Templeton Rye to distillery visitors. In order for this to happen, the Iowa Native Distillery Bill will need to pass through the Iowa Legislature.

This bill will allow craft distilleries located in Iowa to sell up to 5,000 proof gallons of spirits to tourists visiting their distillery for home consumption. Distillers would pay a fixed $14.50 per proof gallon directly to the State of Iowa.

Currently in the U.S., there are 17 states that allow (or are considering allowing) native distilleries to sell product on-site, including our neighbors Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Lynchburg, Tennessee, has a population of 350 people and receives 250,000 visitors annually due to the presence of the Jack Daniel Distillery. At Templeton Rye, we feel the State of Iowa should support native distilleries, or risk missing out on a great tourism, economic development and value-added agricultural opportunity.

You may show your support of the Iowa Native Distillery Bill by contacting your legislator today.

Dori is a jack of all trades at Templeton Rye. She can be found bottling, labeling, boxing, and stacking the pallet. She “helps where ever she is needed.”

She plays the same role at the bowling alley in Manning as a cook, a waitress and bartender, as well as working at Lori’s Flowers in Manning. She couldn’t tell us her favorite color and responded “I work with flowers, remember.” Dori’s hobbies include bowling, crafting, reading short stories, and playing games with her family.

Dori lists her sister Dawn as her hero. She says Dawn is a very brave and strong person who is struggling with cancer for seven years while raising four children. Dori says that Dawn taught her to live each day to the fullest and enjoy life. She inspires her to try things she has never done before. Dori hopes that she is her sister’s “rock” as much as Dawn is hers.

Other fun things to know about Dori include:
Birthday: March 21st
Person she would like to have dinner with: Princess Diana
Favorite food: Prime Rib (rare) with lobster.
Favorite way to drink Templeton Rye: On the rocks with Diet Mountain Dew

Merlyn applies the plastic seal on the top of each bottle of Templeton Rye and is the foreman for all of the bottling crew, although he says “nobody really knows that.”

Merlyn was born on April 17, 1929, and spent most of his life as a builder and farmer near Templeton. He served in the US Army and was stationed at Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Merlyn calls himself a woodworker, although that is like calling Michelangelo a church painter. He has made two wooden cars and a life size, self-powered stagecoach, all of which are favorites at area parades and social gatherings. Merlyn has also been designing custom wooden boxes to store and display Templeton Rye. When asked why he started making wooden cars, he said, “I saw somebody make one on TV and said I can do that.” He told his wife Pat not to worry, because if it didn’t work, he would just burn it.

Merlyn’s dad stored the bootleg Templeton Rye during prohibition and Merlyn tells the story of when a cow fell into a hole in the pasture and had to be pulled out by a team of horses. Later, when out playing, Merlyn explored the mysterious spot and found that it was a secret bootleg storage hold.

Merlyn says he works for Templeton Rye to keep himself busy. He and his wife Pat live on a century old farmstead just west of Templeton and raise miniature horses. They have six children and twelve grandchildren.

Other fun things to know about Merlyn Zubrod:
Favorite color: Purple
Favorite quote: “Well, I’ll be.”
Where he’s most likely to be on a Saturday afternoon: Working in his shop
Person he would like to have dinner with: Hillary Clinton
Favorite food: Bread pudding
Hero: His dad
Favorite way to drink The Good Stuff: Straight on ice