Topic: A Sip of Knowledge with Kevin Smith of Company Distilling

Hosts: Lew Bryson and Liz Rhoades

What You’ll Learn: Join a duo of drink industry veterans in weekly conversation on whiskey, spirits, distilling, marketing, and the current state of the drink industry. This week, Kevin Smith, Director of Distilling and Brewing at Company Distilling, joins the group.

About Kevin Smith:

Kevin Brent Smith is the Director of Distilling & Brewing for the newly formed Company Distillery in Townsend, TN. Company Distilling was founded in 2021 when a group of highly experienced, Tennessee Distilling industry leaders joined forces to create superior quality whiskies, distilled spirits, and brews to be celebrated while “Gathering Around” in the best of company. Currently, Company Distilling has two production facilities.  The first is in Thompson Station just south of Nashville, TN.  A second and newly opened distillery is located in Townsend, TN less than a mile from the entrance to the Smoky Mountains National Park. Process designs have been completed for a much larger distillery set to open in 2024 in Alcoa, TN. 

Prior to coming to Company Distilling, Kevin worked for the Brown-Forman Corporation in various roles and for a total of twenty-two years. These roles included Distillery Manager, Distillery Quality Manager, Whiskey Technical Resource, and Microbiologist at the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, TN.  Primary responsibilities at Jack Daniels included management and optimization of fermentation and distillation processes, maintenance of production yeast and lactic cultures, optimization of yield and new whiskey organoleptic character. Kevin also served as the Global Technical Resource optimizing fermentation processes at all Brown-Forman distilleries.  

Kevin’s career chronology is hard to work out without knowing that he left Jack Daniels in 2003 yet was recruited back in 2007. In 2003, Kevin transitioned to and spent four years in the Fuel Ethanol Industry, first working for Commonwealth Agri-Energy as Plant Manager/Lab Manager in Hopkinsville, KY. In 2005, Kevin was hired by Lallemand Ethanol Technology and moved to central Iowa. A year later, He was promoted by Lallemand and served the larger Fuel Ethanol Industry as Technical Manager.  

Kevin holds a Masters of Science Degree in Environmental Biology with an emphasis in Microbiological studies from the University of Louisville. 

Kevin has authored a chapter on “Yeasting Practices in the Production of American Whiskies” in the sixth edition of The Alcohol Textbook.   

About the Hosts: 

• Liz Rhoades, founder of Spirit Safe Consulting, former research scientist for DIAGEO, distilling consultant, spirits writer for The Whiskey Wash & presenter.

• Lew Bryson, former managing editor for Whisky Advocate Magazine for 20 years, whiskey author, beer/whiskey writer and presenter.