10 Aug 2024 - George Dickel Distillery; Beechcraft Heritage Museum

 

We arrived at the Cascade Hollow Distilling Company, which is the home of George Dickel whiskey.  Tour attendees gather at the visitor center, start from there and end back there for the tasting.  

The visitor center used to be a general store and the post office for Dickel TN.  The lady that ran it used to make a big pot of soup on the pot belly stove for the distillery employees.

  

The back serves as the gift shop.

There were supposed to be 12 on out tour, but the group of 10 (in addition to Doreen and I) did not show up, so it started as a tour for two, then two more joined us, so nice small group. 

After about a 10 minute history lesson on George Dickel and his whiskey, we headed to see where they make the charcoal for their filtration process and then across the street to the distillery.  So why Tullahoma TN?  The spring water here is iron-free, naturally filtered through many layers of limestone in the aquafer.  Many distilleries utilize this water all over Tennessee and Kentucky  to make their whiskeys/bourbons.  

The spring water that comes through here is crystal clear.

Across the street is the distillery

As we entered the distillery, as soon as he opened the door it was evident the process was happening as you could smell the fermenting mash.  We toured the distillery and saw where each of the processes takes place, includes mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, bottling.  Dickel whiskey adds a second distillation process and then before it is barreled it is filtering through charcoal which is made here.  

The grain is weighed as the mash is created- see the old school beam scale on the left?

Other grain is added in this bin

Once the mash is created it is pumped into fermentation tanks where a special yeast and some spent beer is added.  There it is cooked to convert the grain starches into sugars.  Each one holds 20,323.64 gallons!

The bubbles were just rolling on the surface of the mash in these fermentation tanks

Today three fermentation tanks were cooking.

As mentioned before, George Dickel double distills during their process.  That happens here:

The next step is "charcoal mellowing" and cold-filtering.  In these vats are layers of round metal dividers, charcoal that is created here, and virgin wool layers.  

Charcoal used in the filtering process removes the "bite" and makes their whiskey smoother.

Once it is "mellowed", it is pumped into charred oak barrels and allowed to age for years.  The charring gives the whiskey color and flavor.  They have some here in there aging houses that is 18 years old.  Their barrels are only used once here.  They are all reused by other companies to flavor wines, beers, gold Tequila in Mexico, and other companies blended bourbons.  

Most of their whiskeys are shipped elsewhere to be bottled when it is ready.  You can buy a barrel of whiskey.  They will bottle it and you keep the barrel.  That is the only way you can get one.  A barrel of whiskey will cost you anywhere from $7000 to $10,000 or more, depending on how much whiskey results.  The longer it ages, the more evaporates, so longer aged whiskey results in less whiskey in the barrel.  The angel's share is the whiskey lost to evaporation during the aging process.

So back to the general store we went, which is where the tasting room is.  Each of us got a flight of four samples.  Each sample had a unique flavor.  You could pay extra to try some of the more expensive whiskeys.  

We enjoyed our tour at Cascade Hollow Distilling Company, home of George Dickel, but did not buy any to take with us. 

We stopped at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then headed back to the campground to tend to Liberty before our next adventure, the Beechcraft (aircraft) Heritage Museum. 

This museum "is committed to preserving the Beechcraft heritage and fostering aviation education to those of all ages." 

 The Museum began as the Staggerwing Museum Foundation, incorporated in October 1973 under the auspices of the Staggerwing Club. A Staggerwing aircraft is a biplane, but the wings, rather than being one directly on top of the other, are staggered like this:

1934 Collins Staggerwing 

According to Google, staggering a plane's wings can reduce lift loss, improve visibility, and increase aerodynamic efficiency and longitudinal stability. 

So in April 2007, the Museum was renamed Beechcraft Heritage Museum "to reflect their commitment to promoting aviation education and preserving the heritage of all Beechcraft models from 1932 through the present".

From the Beech Center where the reception area is, they directed us to the Log Cabin that featured Aviatrix Louise Thadon.  Many of her awards and other items were displayed to include the 1936 Bendix Trophy she won, and her pilot's license signed by Orville Wright!

Next stop was the Walter Beech Hangar.  The very first, as in Serial #1 Beech Aircraft Staggerwing is there along with Serial #1 Travel Air and Serial #1 Travel Air "Mystery Ship".  Some pictures:

The first Beechcraft

Travel Air

Travel Air "Mystery Ship"

The next stop was the Cianchette Hangar.  Again, gorgeous aircraft - spotless!  Of special mention, one of three remaining pre-WWII civilian Beech 18 aircraft, and a Beech 18 cargo display. They also have the only aircraft that you can sit in for a photo op! 

This is a Beechcraft UC-45J cockpit display, Doreen in the pilot's seat!

 

This aircraft was so beautifully polished, and not a fingerprint on it!

We headed back through the entryway and saw a couple more Beechcraft airplanes, one of which is iconic from a non-pilot standpoint.  The Beechcraft Bonanza with the v-shaped tail.  

One of the very first Beechcraft Bonanzas

Finally, we visited the Bost Hangar with various Bonanzas, the unique Starship, some military exhibits.  

A cutaway view of a Bonanza

The "Starship", a very unique one of 53 built.  Sold for $3,900,000 in 1989.  Has no vertical stabilizer, instead uses Canards on the wingtips.  The engines are "pushers"

T-34C Turbomentor trainer

Various engines from Pratt and Whitney

This is an awesome aviation museum if you are interested in aircraft.  They played such a huge role in our Nation's history, commerce, defense, etc.  Glad we stopped!

Back at the campground we relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Doreen took Liberty on a couple walks while I downloaded and processed a few hundred pictures!  Tomorrow we tour and taste at Jack Daniels Distillery!