Our Team

Alan R. Bishop - Partner, VP of Production, Alchemist

Alan is the driving creative and conceptual force of our production team and lays out products and protocols, sources ingredients, and is responsible for quality control as well as managing our yeast and grain production and varieties. 

A native of Pekin IN, Alan grew up working the family tobacco farm his grandparents purchased in the 1940's and his father took over in the 90's.  Alan can trace his distilling heritage across all branches of his family and grew up with the production of not only fine Burley tobacco but also with distilling. His family, particularly his dad, Dale, took a keen interest in teaching Alan the skills of distillation, and Alan and his Dad have both been a part of the Old Homestead team since the beginning.  Alan recalls stills being as ordinary as any other piece of farm machinery and the production of illicit Moonshine as yet just another way to pay for property taxes, emergencies, and for Christmas gifts.  In his 20's he converted the old farm to the production of organic produce and, more importantly, seeds. Always loving sustainable agriculture, he was drawn to breeding new varieties of plants for various domestic uses, and it was at this time that he started to realize the parallels between agriculture and distillation as well as exploring the deeper cultural and historic context of both in Southern Indiana alongside a blossoming interest in Alchemy and the Esoteric.  

By age 30 Alan was working as Assistant Distiller at Copper and Kings American Brandy Company but knew that in the long run he wanted to contribute to the distilling legacy of the Hoosier State, particularly than of the Black Forest, and soon took a job at Spirits of French Lick where he served as Head Alchemist for 8 years, putting into place a program of whiskies and brandies as well as a single barrel program that was wildly successful and popular based around his interest in local history.  Alan came to Old Homestead as a founder and now co-owner with a full lifetime of experience distilling.  Alan is also heavily involved in writing about the history of distilling in Indiana and has appeared in several documentaries.  He has distilled for George Washington's Mount Vernon and created a protocol for Apple Brandy there as well as writing the mash bill and process for their first American Whiskey.  Alan was a longtime volunteer of Locust Groves farm distillery program where he laid out programming alongside Brian Cushing of the Victorian Barroom. Alan has also written for many distilling publications, taught classes, spoken at seminars, and participated at various distilling related demonstrations, and he works closely with Spring Mill State Park on restoring the historic distillery there. Alan is a co-host of the popular podcast Distillers Talk and runs a channel about distilling called the One Piece At A Time Distilling Institute as well as a podcast called Sacred & Profane alongside Tyler Ritchison.  In addition, he has released a number of books about the art of distillation and publishes an annual Practical Distillers and Alchemists almanac while finding time to host the If You Have Ghosts You Have Everything podcast.  He was also the subject of a documentary called "The Alan Bishop Experience" directed by Bo Cumberland, and has been the recipient of many distilling awards.