Thirteenth Colony Distilleries brought in new course for retired physician

ALBANY — After more than 30 years of practicing obstetrics and gynecology in Albany, retired physician Dr. Gilbert Klemann’s life took an interesting turn.

Now serving as the vice president of product and development with Thirteenth Colony Distilleries in Americus, Klemann spoke recently to the Dougherty Rotary Club on how his business functions and what it takes to keep it open.

Given a name referencing the order in which Georgia was established as a colony in 1732, the distillery took a while to get going due to the hoops that needed to be jumped through to make the business a reality.

“It took two years to get the paperwork done necessary to get the distillery off the ground,” Klemann said.

Klemann said he has been fingerprinted and photographed several times for regulation purposes, a search warrant is no longer needed to go into his home in the middle of the night, and he has to file taxes every two weeks — because it is relatively easy to make alcohol products illegally.

While giving a quick chemistry lesson, he noted the boiling points of both alcohol and water. Alcohol boils at 174 degrees, and water boils at 212 degrees.

“The lowest point boils off first, so you now know all you need to know to separate water and alcohol,” he said.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Food and Drug Administration; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; Department of Revenue; Department of Agriculture, and various state departments are among the agencies the business is held accountable to.

Klemann spoke of his interactions with representatives of a few of the agencies, including the Department of Agriculture.

“Alcohol is a food, so (we were told) we had to wear hairnets when we are making the product,” he said.

Klemann said it was a bit of a challenge to pick the right spot to base Thirteenth Colony Distilleries. Either a three-year amount of lease money was demanded up-front, or the location was too close to a church or school. Eventually, the principals settled on North Dudley Street in Americus.

For its products, the company uses city water, which is dechlorinated and put through reverse osmosis. Thirteenth Colony has a 1,000-gallon food grade for storage on site, as well as a boiler that is required to be isolated. There is also a 400-grade stainless steel still to create the environment needed to produce vodka.

In a pot with its own heat source, the product is cooked at 149-160 degrees for four hours before it goes back into the still.

“We have to cook it to 183 degrees before it can be fermented,” Klemann said.

An activated charcoal unit is on site. With it, the product has to be filtered for 16 hours to make the company’s plantation vodka.

The distillery can cap off 12 bottles of alcohol a minute that are filled up six at a time, Klemann said.

Georgia is a three-tier state that includes distillers, distributors and retailers for the production and sale of alcohol.

“As a distiller, we can only sell to a distributor and another distiller,” Klemann said.

All three tiers expect to make money from each bottle, so when it is divided up, a $11.99 container can turn into 4-7 cents of alcohol, Klemann said.

The company’s Southern corn whiskey cannot be aged, but it can be stored in a used bourbon barrel. It’s Southern rye whiskey and Southern bourbon whiskey are usually aged about two years, Klemann said.

The company’s other products include Southern vodka and Southern gin.

Overall, Klemann said he has enjoyed the experience and has learned a lot. When asked by a fellow physician in the club whether dealing with the agencies he is working with now is better than the ones he was dealing with as a doctor, he gave an honest answer.

“No,” Klemann said. “I had to think about that, but the answer is no.”