Templeton Rye in high demand, but not gone

While Templeton Rye whiskey has been flying off the shelves since the release of its fourth batch earlier this month, the supply has not been depleted, according to the company's owners.

At the Templeton Rye Mobile Speakeasy Tour which stopped Thursday at Short's Burger and Shine, 18 S. Clinton St., Templeton Rye owners Scott Bush and Keith Kerkhoff discussed the history, current status and future of the sought-after whiskey.

The whiskey's original recipe was created in Templeton by Kerkhoff's grandfather, Alphonse Kerkhoff, in the 1920s during Prohibition. It was a favorite of gangster Al Capone who bootlegged cases of it to speak-easies across the country.

In 2001, Kerkhoff and Bush (who also had a grandfather involved in Prohibition whiskey bootlegging) resurrected Templeton Rye and began to sell it legally for the first time in 2006.

It sold quickly and the company made a much larger batch in 2006. Because the whiskey ages for four years in oak barrels, that batch wasn't released until a few weeks ago.

The company's production has increased significantly - 7,500 cases were distributed in 2010, and 40,000 cases of the current fourth batch will be distributed throughout the next year.

“You don't find a lot of small whiskey makers,” Bush said. “We made as much as we could with the resources we had at that point. We thought we were being aggressive, but apparently not enough.”

Of the 40,000 cases of the latest batch, 5,000 were sent to Iowa distributors in December. An additional 1,000 cases were sent to Chicago and 200 each to New York and San Francisco, Kerkhoff said.

“It's not gone,” he said. “We've spread it out.”

Bush realizes the company is not keeping up with the demand, but plans to “grow wisely.”

“We're not going from 50,000 cases to a million in a year,” he said.

Not that those lined up at Short's for the speak-easy tour would mind.

“We've been waiting,” said Willa Goodfellow, 58, of Coralville, who tried Templeton Rye for the first time Thursday.

“It's the spices that make it so good,” she said after savoring the sample.