Step 1
Production:
From Mill to Still

Visual Inspection of Incoming Grain, circa 1948; 96.X1.9.

"Production is the place to be
It's better than the rest.
We grind and cook and cool and pump
And then we run a test.

Some have said that what we do
Is hard to understand.
It may be so, but we are you know
The best in all the land!"

Waterloo News, February 14, 1975.

The "production" work of the unit of the distillery was responsible for the process of turning grain into spirits through the steps of milling, mashing, fermenting and distilling. The miller and his assistants prepared the grains by grinding them to expose the starch needed in the mashing process. This batch was then weighed and conveyed to the mash tun, a large cooking vessel, where operators added water and malt (germinated barley) to the mixture. The resulting mixture was pumped into tanks where the fermenting room operator added yeast. After fermentation was completed, the fermented mash of distiller's beer was sent to the stills where the stillman collected the "heads" (aldehydes and esters), "centres" (base spirits), and "tails" (mostly fusel oils). The man in the senior position of distiller oversaw the entire process.

The Stillhouse and Mill, circa 1979; Photograph by Marklevitz; 96.X1.96.

In conducting their specific duties, workers in the production crew were responsible for maintaining cleanliness, monitoring time, controlling temperatures, calculating precise measurements and conducting numerous control tests. Throughout the entire process, attention to quality was paramount.