We create high-quality, small-batch spirits, combining the expertise of generations with the artisan spirit of St. Pete. We love our hometown, and we want to take the spirit of St. Pete all over the country and the world. People from everywhere come to visit Florida, and when they return home, we hope they bring back memories of sunshine and a taste for our high-quality spirits. Tastethedram spoke to St. Petersburg’s Vice President of Productions, Frank Dibling.
Frank, tell us a little about yourself.
FD: I grew up as a farm boy in northwest Ohio, served my country in the US Cavalry, and was able to attend the University of Notre Dame. I worked 20 years in the automotive industry, and then 20 more in the distilling craft at Florida distillers.
When did you garnish interest in distilling?
FD: When I was a young boy helping my grandfathers making their homemade wine and distilling their version of arthritis pain killer.
What whiskey expressions do you produce?
FD: We make a Florida sweet corn whiskey, and a Florida bourbon. The bourbon has not yet been released due to the requirement of aging. Anyone worth their salt knows bourbon under 5 years of age is green whiskey, and our intention is to provide central Florida consumers a high quality product at a price that makes their purchase of our whiskey an unbeatable value.
Tell us a little about your warehouse, the stills, and manufacturing equipment.
FD: We have a 30K square foot finished product & raw material warehouse, which also houses our bottling line. Our bottling line is Italian manufactured equipment and is quite flexible. We can run most products with just 5 people. We have five copper pot stills, two of which are hand hammered, formed copper from the 1930’s. We have the ability to store 250K gallons of alcohol, and can chill up to 5600 gallons of whiskey for chill filtration at a time. We utilize a 55 horsepower natural gas fired boiler to provide steam for distillation of our alcohol and water. Our production capacity from mash to finished “white dog” is approximately 1000 gallons of 160P per week.
Does geographic location and the climate affect the whiskey maturation, if so, how?
FD: Yes geographic location which dictates climate, most certainly affects whiskey maturation. Whiskey maturation is a combination of drawing the tannins from the charred oak barrel, the temperature variations throughout the year. Kentucky bourbon is the gold standard for that very reason, hot summers and very cold winters. Aging whiskey in Florida is a relatively new phenomenon, maturation and aging still occur, but I really don’t believe there has been enough going on long enough to make a fair assessment of how the Florida climate will affect barreled whiskey.
How do you stand out in this super saturated craft whiskey industry?
FD: I believe the number one component that makes us the most unique is our water. We de-ionize, reverse osmosis, and then distill our feed water source. No other distillery follows this process that I know of. Flat out we have the purest water in the distilling industry. We also follow procedures in the cutting of our product to bottle strength that very few industry members follow. Our process allows for the perfect marriage of our whiskey and the water used to cut it.
Describe your whiskey in three words.
FD: Sweet, corn, ambrosia
Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
FD: The team at St Petersburg Distillery are dedicated passionate bunch, producing high quality products with as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. We feel that our location in St Pete matches our drive for excellence, creativity, and boldness. We are St Pete!
