Ever wonder what it actually takes to build, run, and automate a distillery? On this episode, we sit down with someone unknown to most of the general population, but he’s on speed dial for every major prodocuer across the country. A 2023 Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Inductee, and the owner of Distillery Engineering: Pete Kamer. We talk about Pete’s incredible journey from his early days learning the ropes at Four Roses to his milestone career of 27 years at Barton in Bardstown. The distilling world has its own unique engineering hurdles, especially as traditional floor operations transitioned into modern automation. Pete shares his masterclass take on adjusting flavor profiles through still design, yeast, and cuts, and why relying on an operator’s sight, smell, and hearing will always beat looking at a screen.

Show Notes:

• Pete’s career journey from Four Roses to his 27-year legacy at Barton in Bardstown
• The evolution of traditional distillery floor operations into modern automation
• Technical insights into manipulating whiskey flavor profiles through still design, yeast, and cuts
• Why sensory skills—sight, smell, and hearing—beat relying on control-room screens
• The mechanics and engineering hurdles of running a large-scale Kentucky distillery
• The physics and environmental factors that make duplicating the exact same whiskey impossible across different warehouses