Adam Paris
Tall rickhouses stacked with aging, charred wood barrels dot the landscape of Kentucky’s rolling hills—an iconic image of the Bluegrass State. The practice and art of bourbon-making dates back centuries and has slowly evolved, with advances in distilling techniques and in the chemistry involved, but the aging process has remained basically the same. Until now.
On the 24-acre property of the old Medley Distilling Company in Owensboro, South Carolina-based Terressentia Corporation is distilling bourbon on a site that was dormant for more than 25 years. With the resurrection of the old buildings, the O.Z. Tyler Kentucky Bourbon Distillery has brought a high-tech twist to the aging process, literally removing years from the barrel’s timeline to maturity.
The company’s patented process, called TerrePURE, uses ultrasonic energy to mature the product in just a few hours. O.Z. Tyler bourbon, named for the inventor of the process, still ages in a charred oak barrel in a traditional rickhouse for at least a year and a day, as required by state law to be called Kentucky bourbon. Then, it is removed from the barrel and pumped into the computerized, top-secret machines. It emerges a few hours later as a mature bourbon.
“This ultrasonic process allows us to replicate what happens in a barrel,” Master Distiller Jacob Call said. “We filter away the impure alcohols, but in hours instead of years.”
Call said that if the bourbon is left in the barrel for two years, it tastes similar to a 6-year-old bourbon after the process, and a 4-year, barrel-aged product is as smooth as if it has been in a rickhouse for 10 to 12 years.
This process was created by Orville Zelotes Tyler III, an inventor who loved 12-year-old Scotch but searched for reasons why it needed to age that long. Also credited with inventing the lining of soft drink cans and washable wallpaper, Tyler passed away in 2014. His research, along with his machinery, led to a method of applying energy and oxygen at the same time, which removes impurities from the bourbon quickly and eliminates the inefficiency of aging it in barrels for years. This time-saving process became the basis of a next generation of bourbon, so the company named its brand after Tyler.
In addition to saving time, the process also results in more bourbon making it into the bottle.
“In four years of aging, you lose about 20 percent to evaporation, what distillers call the ‘angels’ share,’ ” Call said. “After one year, we still lose some to evaporation and what soaks into the barrel, but it is much less.”
Although the operation subtracts years from the process, the O.Z. Tyler brand continues to cling to tradition. The land originally was the site of Green River Distillery, which produced bourbon from 1885 until 1918, when a devastating fire wiped out most of the buildings and all of the product. From a historical standpoint, it just was not a good time to be in the bourbon business. As the distillery was still reeling from the fire, the Volstead Act of 1919 was passed, ushering in Prohibition, making it illegal to produce, import or distribute alcoholic beverages. What had been left of Green River Distillery was essentially gone. In the 1930s, Prohibition was repealed, and the property, which had changed hands a few times, began producing spirits again, most notably as the Charles Medley Distillery. Medley produced bourbon on the site for the next several decades.
Adam Paris
In 2014, the property, which at that point had been dormant for about 25 years, was purchased by Terressentia to create its bourbon using the TerrePURE process. While its process is modern, the company needed someone with bourbon history to spearhead the project. To bring a little bit of Bardstown 100 miles west, the owners brought in Ron Call, a second-generation distiller who had been with Jim Beam Distillery and later a Florida distillery, and Jacob, his son who also had distilling experience. The two collaborated on recipes and techniques, creating O.Z. Tyler.
“We still make bourbon traditionally, from milling our own grain up until it goes in the barrel,” Jacob Call said. “But then we are able to accelerate the aging process.”
The distillery produces about 72,000 barrels per year, with 65 employees working around the clock. Call said the company ships bourbon all over the world and to other distilleries. O.Z. Tyler bourbon is available only in Kentucky, so this bulk bourbon sometimes is sold under other names.
This summer, O.Z. Tyler Distillery became part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This self-guided journey to 13 of the state’s premier distilleries is a huge feather in the cap for a relatively new distillery out in the western reaches of the state. A boon to tourism, the trail attracted more than 1 million visitors to Kentucky distilleries last year.
To become a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a distillery must maintain a barrel inventory of 25,000 or more per year and offer a bourbon experience, said Colleen Thomas, director of member and public affairs at the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.
“Visitors coming into the state from that direction are greeted with Kentucky hospitality and bourbon in Owensboro,” she said. “Similar to Napa Valley or the wine region of France, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail has become a bucket list item for bourbon lovers.”
Thorough, behind-the-scenes tours and tastings are offered Monday through Saturday at O.Z. Tyler. Visitors can see all the elements from the old distilleries as well as the new technology. The distillery offers event space to rent and hosts its own events throughout the year. Also on site is a gift shop stocked with logo shirts and caps, along with the bourbon itself.
Although most customers say they can’t tell much difference in the flavor of O.Z. Tyler’s product versus regularly aged bourbon, there are purists who believe the bourbon needs to soak in the essence of the barrel for years and experience the frigid winters and sticky, humid summers of Kentucky while stacked up in the old rickhouses to earn its stripes. Call has heard it all.
“You just have to taste it to believe it,” he said.