[Kohlsdorf] We've taken a short detour south of the Lincoln Highway to Templeton, a small town with a big spirit that has become nationally known for its age-old rye whiskey.

Let's take a look around.

♪♪ [Chase Prebeck] We're here in the visitor's center, more specifically the museum where we kind of really dig into the history and everything behind Templeton, the town and the people and the whiskey.

[Kohlsdorf] This place is amazing.

There is a lot here.

What is the story of Templeton?

[Chase Prebeck] 1882 is when the town started.

So, we start in the museum here talking about some of that early history, how people came to town.

And then we start moving along throughout the 1920s, Prohibition, times got tough, the Great Depression hits.

So, that kind of comes into why did we start making this whiskey?

Had to make some money, had to feed our families.

So, people thought well, let's make some whiskey, let's start selling it.

People made it for years and years after Prohibition ended and then in 2006 made it legally, we'll call it when Templeton really started here at the distillery when we started making our whiskey.

So, we've got a lot more going on in the other buildings behind us.

Do you want to go over there and see how it's all made?

[Kohlsdorf] Yes, let's go!

[Chase Prebeck] Perfect, let's go!

♪♪ [Lester Brown] Well, Brooke, welcome to the Templeton Distillery.

[Kohlsdorf] Thank you for having me.

Tell me about this place.

[Lester Brown] So, this place was built in 2018.

We could do essentially 8,500 barrels a year.

That equivalates to about 400,000 cases of whiskey.

Right now, we're doing a low rye bourbon, so the mash is 75% corn, 17% rye and 8% malted barley.

So, the corn comes in, we put it in the silo.

We'll go ahead and we'll grind it and we'll add our rye, we'll cook it, we'll cool it and then we ferment it for four and a half to five and a half days.

[Kohlsdorf] And then it goes into the barrels.

Where does that happen?

Where do the barrels go?

[Lester Brown] So, we have two warehouses.

We actually filled one up when we had to build another warehouse.

So, the barrels will sit in a row for four, six, ten years.

[Kohlsdorf] So, after the whiskey or the rye sits, then it is bottled right away here?

[Lester Brown] Yep, we'll dump it, we'll go ahead and process it and then we put it in bottling tanks and then it's bottled right here on site.

♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] So, this is the bottling phase.

Tell me what's going on here.

[Nate Marr] Right now I'm putting eight bottles on a piece on a turntable.

They go down to the rinsing station right behind me.

So, I'm rinsing everything out.

And then from there it goes on to fill the bottles with the whiskey and it moves onto our corker, which automatically corks it on by itself and then it goes down to our labeler.

And then it goes down to our sleever that sleeves it on.

And then it goes down to where our boxes are at down there, put them in the box.

♪♪ [Randy Facile] Every once in a while, you might get one with a wrinkle, but not very often.

But we want to make sure they're perfect before we put them in the box.

[Kohlsdorf] So, you're quality control down here.

[Randy Facile] If you want to say that, okay.

(laughs) ♪♪ [Chase Prebeck] Brooke, welcome to our tasting room.

[Kohlsdorf] Thank you.

[Chase Prebeck] This is where we end our tours so we can try a few different whiskeys here.

We will start with our Templeton Rye 6-year town reserve.

Only can find here in Templeton, was aged right here in Templeton.

We can start with it here now.

First, take a little smell and kind of get a little bit of the rye spice coming out, a little bit of the sweetness coming off the nose and then go ahead and take a sip out of it.

♪♪ Here you should get a little bit of the black pepper spice flavor, a little bit of caramel, a little bit of butterscotch on the finish, really warms you up.

[Kohlsdorf] It burns, mm-hmm.

(laughter) [Kohlsdorf] Yeah, but you do, you taste that caramel in this one.

[Chase Prebeck] I always say the two seconds after you drink it is the best flavor you'll get.

The finish really gets that nice sweetness coming out.

You get a lot of that flavor from the barrel because you get about 75% of your flavor from the barrel.

[Kohlsdorf] It's been really fun to see your operation here to see how it's made, how it's bottled and how you enjoy it.

It seems like it's really important bringing people here to experience it, right?

[Chase Prebeck] Oh absolutely.

We love showing off our small town hospitality, bringing people in from all over the world to come here to try our whiskey and to show them what we have here in our little town of 360 people.

[Kohlsdorf] Well, cheers to Templeton, right?

[Chase Prebeck] Yes, cheers!

♪♪