Full Court Press group visits the Templeton Rye tasting room
In October, we embarked on our maiden voyage in the new Templeton Rye shuttle bus, bringing along the owners and staff from Full Court Press for a VIP distillery tour. Full Court Press operates several of the coolest and most unique bars in Des Moines, including The Royal Mile, The Red Monk, Shorty’s, High Life Lounge, Hessen Haus and Buzzard Billy’s. The trip was a chance for the whole gang to learn more about the history of Templeton Rye and the production, aging and bottling process.
Our brand new Templeton Rye shuttle bus
Our day included a tour of the distillery, a classic cocktail demonstration in the tasting room, and lunch at the Corner Station (the local diner that also serves as a convenience store / gas station). We then headed north to Maple Valley Junction to Little Gus’s for some post-lunch beers and good times.
Iowa Liquor Commissioner Lynn Walding lends a hand on the bottling line.
Lynn Walding, Administrator of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, recently visited the Templeton Rye distillery and toured our updated production, laboratory, warehouse, bottling and storage facilities. Commissioner Walding was joined by Steve Kuzynowski, Design Engineer for the Iowa ABD.
The tour concluded with lunch at the legendary Corner Station in Templeton, where we discussed distilleries in Iowa and how the Iowa ABD division operates. Distilleries are relatively new to Iowa, so we’re all learning as we go. We really appreciate Commissioner Walding taking the time to visit and tour our new-and-improved facility. Lynn is a former NABCA President and is well-known in the industry.
On October 9, 2008, we rolled out a dozen barrels in Templeton to pull samples for tasting, testing and inventory. We proof tested the strength of the whiskey and tasted a sample from each barrel. The whiskey has been aging for roughly two-and-a-half years and is well on its way to becoming what you’d expect from Templeton Rye.
Templeton Rye Brand Manager Michael Killmer rolls out the barrels of whiskey.
Distillery Manager Kevin Boersma proof tests one of the barrels.
Gale Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Geology at Georgia Southern University, sent us a story about a white loggerhead sea turtle named “Templeton” that was released into the Atlantic Ocean on August 25th from St. Catherines Island.
Templeton the Turtle hatched on August 24, 2008 (one of 81 sibling loggerhead sea turtles from one nest). The nest had just survived the tempests of Tropical Storm Kay on the Georgia coast. Templeton was the second white turtle of the 2008 nesting season (that’s two among 8037 hatchlings). According to Gale, Templeton should return to St. Catherines Island in approximately 30 years as a sexually-mature sea turtle, after growing from the size of a silver dollar to the size of a large wash-tub. You can visit the SCI Sea Turtle Program website at www.scistp.org to learn about what’s happening with sea turtles on Georgia’s coast.
Gale also writes:
Templeton Rye is rapidly gaining favor (or is that flavor?) here on St. Catherines Island, which, in the best of Prohibition tradition, is “run in” by automobile from Northeast Iowa.
Thanks for the story, Gale! We’re delighted that Templeton Rye has found its way to Georgia, and we hope to spot Templeton the Turtle again in 30 years.
In September, we welcomed some friends from our Illinois distributor Judge & Dolph to spend a day in Templeton, Iowa. This included lunch at The Corner Station, a tour of the distillery and a “Templeton style” scavenger hunt.
We filmed part of our day, which can be viewed in the video below:
Pat and her husband Meryln are two of the original Templeton Rye employees. If you are a fan of The Good Stuff, you would probably recognize Pat’s handwriting as she fills out the batch, barrel and bottle numbers on the back of each bottle.
Pat was born on the south side of Des Moines and previously worked as a clerk at Templeton Savings Bank. Her main hobby is sewing, where she makes baby blankets for every single baby born at Manning Hospital. Amazingly, Pat is self-taught in the art of sewing and also makes baptismal gowns out of used wedding dresses. Our Iowa Magazine recently featured her work in a segment called “Iowa Go-Getters.”
Pat’s favorite food is spaghetti and she is most likely to be found at home cleaning on a Saturday afternoon. She lists her brother as her hero, adding “He went through a lot in his short life but was always helping someone, even me.”
Pat and Merlyn have two dachshunds, Penny and Molly and her favorite color is red. As a non-drinker, all she can say about the difference between Templeton Rye and the bootleg recipe is that Templeton Rye is legal.
There are some songs that require you to have a drink in your hand while you listen to them, and there are some drinks that inspire you to write a song about them while you drink them – Templeton Rye is one of them. We think it’s cool that these people wrote songs about our whiskey and wanted to share them with you.
You might be familiar with a song by The Nadas called Templeton Rye from their album “Listen Through The Static.” The Nadas were so inspired by the stories they were hearing about Templeton Rye that they decided to write a song about it. You can listen to Templeton Ryehere.
Watch Jason performing Templeton Rye in this video:
A few others found inspiration in The Good Stuff, including The Reflections from Carroll, Iowa, who wrote a polka song about Templeton Rye (listen below) and Dave Morse, an Iowa Army National Guard Warrant Officer who wrote and recorded his song Ain’t No Time To Drink The Cheap Stuff. Read more about the inspiration behind Dave’s song and listen to it here.
Got a TR song of your own? We want to hear it! If you’ve written a song about Templeton Rye or feel compelled to write one, please reach out to us at: music@templetonrye.com.
Many of you have been asking about Templeton Rye distillery tours. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be offering several tour dates through the end of the year! For a complete schedule, visit our distillery tours page.
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.
By the early 1930s, many Templeton Rye stills had been shut down and destroyed by authorities. Despite these Prohibition efforts, there was still a surprising abundance of Templeton Rye.
The excerpt below from the Iowa News Service describes one young man’s account of the Templeton Rye supply in 1932.
It is estimated by persons who should know that there are now only three stills of any importance in the surrounding county. The rest, they say, were wiped out a year or so ago when for a short time authorities destroyed them at the rate of three a day.
The supply, however, is still adequate. Recently, a young man with an investigative turn of mind barged into Templeton to see what he could drink. In response to his initial inquiry he was informed that finding Templeton Rye these days was like locating a needle in a haystack.
Never, the young man now reports, did he come in contact with a needle so large, or a haystack so small.
During the Great Depression, many Iowans were making and selling Templeton Rye just to get by. The small towns would work together to warn each other when the Feds were coming. “The roads are rough” was code to watch out for the Feds, but it was also very symbolic of the times.
Gerald Gesinger of Carroll County shares the story behind the warning message and his memories of bootlegging during the Depression in the video below:
Gene Wiese from Manning, Iowa, shared this story about the popularity of Templeton Rye in Chicago back in the late 1940s:
When I was a kid, we just accepted Templeton Rye in our area as commonplace. We thought everybody might have something similar to Templeton Rye, that there was nothing unusual about it.
Soon after WWII in 1947, I exhibited cattle at the Great Chicago International Stock Show. My parents warned me, South State and Halsted Streets, that is a tough end of town. As I was sitting with my cattle, all these different ethnic groups would come.
When people asked you where you were from they would say, “Where is that from Des Moines?” or “Where is that from Sioux City?” Well, these folks in Chicago would look at the sign I painted and often ask, “Where is that from Templeton?” Now, this is Chicago, and they acquainted any town in Iowa with where it was from Templeton. The next question was “Did you bring any Templeton Rye with you?” The stories about its popularity in Chicago are very, very true.
You can listen to Gene talk about the Chicago International Stock Show and getting asked about Templeton Rye in the video below:
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.
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:
If you’ve traveled through the Des Moines International Airport lately, you may have stumbled upon what looks like Main Street Templeton, Iowa. That’s our new airport display, which includes a special Templeton and Prohibition Era history section.
Next time you make it through airport security, reward yourself by stopping by the display and taking a stroll down the historic streets of Templeton. If you happen to work up a thirst, just stop at the Capitol City Brew Pub next door — now serving Templeton Rye. We promise you that your flight will be much more enjoyable afterwards.
Garland of Manning, Iowa, sent us this story about a man named George Blade, from Irwin. He writes:
George Blade would ship 8-10 cars of cattle to Chicago several times a year. They would load them on the cars in Irwin and then the train would also stop in Manning to pick up more cattle. While they stopped in Manning, there would be a team of horses and a wagon that would back up to one of George Blade’s cattle cars and unload six or nine sacks of cattle feed.
Upon arriving in Chicago, George would always see that these sacks of cattle feed would get up to his hotel room. After the cattle were sold, the word would go out to the commission men and buyers and various other people that George Blade from Irwin was having some “hospitality” at such-and-such room. By now I’m sure you have figured out that the sacks of cattle feed also contained several bottles of Templeton Rye.
The Good Stuff is all about Templeton Rye, our fans, our employees, our industry and our history.
We invite you to join the conversation by sharing your comments and stories.
Templeton Rye Whiskey
When Prohibition outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in 1920, many enterprising residents of a small Iowa town chose to become outlaws – producing a high caliber and much sought-after whiskey known as Templeton Rye.
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Templeton Rye Brand Manager 
Pat was born on the south side of Des Moines and previously worked as a clerk at Templeton Savings Bank. Her main hobby is sewing, where she makes baby blankets for every single baby born at Manning Hospital. Amazingly, Pat is self-taught in the art of sewing and also makes baptismal gowns out of used wedding dresses. 
