Master Distiller Dave Pickerell puts feet on the dreams of start-up distillers

Dave Pickerell is Senior Engineer and Master Distiller at Oak View Spirits, a full-service consulting firm to assist clients in bringing their dreams of owning and operating a distillery to life. At age five, Dave wanted to be a chemical engineer. By high school he knew he needed to earn a scholarship to attend college, so he pursued a sports scholarship by playing football. He graduated as a first team all-state Ohio offensive tackle. His success in football won him a free ride to West Point. He excelled at West Point where he finished in the top one percent his freshman year and graduated in the top eight percent. Following West Point, he served in the Army as a cavalry officer and parachutist. During this time, Dave earned another scholarship to enter a graduate program for a Masters of Chemical Engineering at the University of Louisville. While there, a thermodynamics professor led him on the road to distilling. “I wanted an overseas assignment,” Dave recalls. “I asked him for a reference, and he instead pointed me towards a Louisville-based alcohol consulting firm called Ro-Tech. The minute I got there, I knew I belonged.” And, indeed he was right smack in the center of bourbon country.

As a Senior Consultant at Ro-Tech Inc., he provided engineering and construction management services to the beverage alcohol industry focusing on distilleries worldwide. Five years later he landed at Maker’s Mark Distillery as Master Distiller. Dave spent more than 14 years overseeing the handmade production of Maker’s Mark bourbon in Loretto, Kentucky, from 1994 to 2008. He was involved in ensuring that the quality standards in their 19-barrel batches were upheld in everything from the selection of the grains to choosing the white oak barrels, and the final bourbon tasting. But the history of crafting distilling was in the making. For it was at Maker’s Mark that a number of companies wanted to get into small batch distilling. The lure of craft distilling caught his eye, and Dave began consulting. He wanted to help make a dream come true for anyone who had a dream of becoming a craft distiller.

Most recently, Dave has again been providing consulting services to the craft beverage alcohol industry through his company, Oak View Spirits. He has been involved in everything from new brand investigation to operator training and facility design and optimization. Among his favorite assignments, he serves as the Master Distiller for George Washington’s Distillery at Mount Vernon, where he oversees the commercial production of George Washington’s Rye Whiskey, including the first batch made since 1814. Currently, he is a consultant to 80 distilleries, the largest being Whistlepig in Shoreham, Vermont and J. Rieger & Company in Kansas City. He has designed equipment, systems, and processes for about 100 distilleries worldwide.

When entrepreneur, Jeff Baker, founded Hillrock Estate Distillery in the Hudson Valley, he wanted to produce “field-to-glass” whiskey, creating the highest quality whiskeys that reflect the Hudson Valley’s unique local terroir. Every aspect of production is controlled, from planting and harvesting heirloom grains, smoking its malt and crafting whiskeys in a copper pot still, to aging in small oak barrels and hand bottling. When Baker heard about Dave Pickerell, he sought him out to be a partner and make world-class whiskey from the Distillery’s organically grown grains. Dave trained the staff at Hillrock and is in constant contact with them and Head Distiller Tim Welly. He spends about one week a month at Hillrock overseeing production.

He’s a seasoned expert who start-up distillers turn to for guidance and experienced peers seek out for perspective. He has not only influenced the way American distillers make whiskey, but is guiding the rapidly changing category in ways that will continue to unfold decades from now.

Dave is well known among Kentucky distillers for his breadth of knowledge in the production of bourbon. In addition to serving as a past chair and director for the Kentucky Distillers Association, he served as the chair of its technical committee. He has also served on the technical committee of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Dave has provided engineering consultation for beverage alcohol facilities around the world including Russia, Scotland, China, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Canada. In the U.S., he has also designed equipment and systems for many of the bourbon and Tennessee Whisky distilleries.