Despite the current rise of cocktail culture, it\u2019s a good\u00a0bet that most of us order our Old Fashioneds or\u00a0Manhattans without a lot of consideration about\u00a0how the spirits in our glass are produced. But not\u00a0Courtney King, Engr \u201918. King\u2019s role as distillery\u00a0manager\u2014the person responsible for running all\u00a0operations\u2014at Bulleit Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky,\u00a0has her thinking about bourbon most hours\u00a0of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a 24-7 facility,\u201d King explains. \u201cI may go\u00a0home each night, but the plant doesn\u2019t stop running.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine not being in this industry. I love it. It\u2019s like that perfect blend of engineering\u00a0and art.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\u2014 Courtney King<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
King\u2019s path to the distilling world was serendipitous.\u00a0While still a chemical and biomolecular\u00a0engineering student at Johns Hopkins, she knew\u00a0she wanted a career focused on manufacturing but\u00a0couldn\u2019t pinpoint the right field. When her father\u00a0casually joked that if she took a job far from her Virginia\u00a0home, she should be living somewhere and\u00a0doing something that would make her family want\u00a0to visit. It was, she says, \u201ca lightbulb moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping in the back of her mind her family\u2019s\u00a0love of food and drink, and focusing her search on\u00a0companies that had leadership training, King discovered\u00a0Diageo, the parent company of high-profile\u00a0beverage brands like Tanqueray, Guinness, and\u00a0Johnnie Walker. She submitted an online application,\u00a0was called the next day for an interview, and\u00a0was hired soon after.<\/p>\n
After completing three one-year rotations in\u00a0manufacturing, project management, and what\u00a0Diageo calls \u201cManufacturing Excellence\u201d\u2014a deep\u00a0dive into learning the company\u2019s business model\u2014as part of the company\u2019s supply leadership development\u00a0program, King moved to Bulleit Distillery in\u00a02022 as a distillery team lead. Just under a year later,\u00a0in January 2023, she was promoted to distillery\u00a0manager, where she oversees the entire production\u00a0process from the intake of raw materials through\u00a0mashing, fermentation, and distillation.<\/p>\n
A distillery manager, says King, does \u201ca little bit\u00a0of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
She evaluates the quality of grain used to make\u00a0the liquid\u2014industry speak for the variety of products\u00a0a distillery produces\u2014and builds out annual\u00a0plans that help her extrapolate the amounts of raw\u00a0material, including grain, yeast, enzymes, and barrels\u00a0the distillery will need. \u201cWhen we\u2019re actually in\u00a0the weeds of production,\u201d says King, \u201cI look a lot at\u00a0our conversion efficiency\u2014how well are we converting\u00a0our starches in the grains we\u2019re receiving into\u00a0sugars and then alcohol. I\u2019m looking at the quality\u00a0of that liquid and making adjustments as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although much of King\u2019s current work focuses\u00a0on planning and special projects, she says she calls\u00a0on her chemistry and engineering backgrounds on\u00a0a regular basis.<\/p>\n
Bulleit\u2019s quality control team routinely uses HPLC\u00a0(high-performance liquid chromatography) to identify\u00a0components in a sample and NIR (near-infrared spectroscopy)\u00a0to analyze starch content in grains. \u201cI took a\u00a0materials class at Hopkins as an elective,\u201d King recalls.\u00a0\u201cAnd I remember going through a lot of those analytical\u00a0instruments, and here I am using them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also more engineering involved in distilling\u00a0than most people might think, says King. Historically,\u00a0bourbon production has focused more on\u00a0the art of production: Each producer would tweak\u00a0a traditional method or combination of ingredients\u00a0to produce a signature style in small batches,\u00a0she explains. With the rise of larger companies relying\u00a0more on automation, she says, the depth and\u00a0breadth of available production data to analyze and\u00a0track have grown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got data that I\u2019m analyzing all the time,\u201d\u00a0says King. \u201cI look at quality data, temperatures, flow\u00a0rates, proofs, mass balances, and heat balances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started in the industry, I knew\u00a0separations and heat transfer from my classes at\u00a0Hopkins,\u201d she says. \u201cIn fact, our professor used distillation\u00a0and whiskey production as examples for\u00a0separation! Still, I didn\u2019t expect to use these lessons\u00a0on a day-to-day basis as much as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
King adds that in retrospect, another required class\u00a0at Johns Hopkins\u2014focused on soft skills and taught\u00a0by Bob Graham in the school\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Center for Leadership\u00a0Education<\/a>\u2014made a significant impact on her career.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve had five roles in six years,\u201d she says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t\u00a0be where I am without the soft skills. The technical\u00a0stuff you can learn. To communicate effectively, to\u00a0have difficult conversations, to write an email professionally\u2014those things are core to what I do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
King says she is thrilled to be a part of Bulleit\u00a0and to work with people who share in the joy of producing\u00a0a quality product.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine not being in this industry,\u201d she says. \u201cI love it. It\u2019s like that perfect blend of engineering and art.”<\/p>\n
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