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Bending and brewing

Fabricator builds distillery, crafts original recipes

Fabricator Paul Ziegman designed and built all of the equipment for Tinbender Craft Distillery, Spokane, Wash., including a still body that transitions from square to round.

Many fabricators who work with metal when they’re on the clock do something similar when they’re off the clock. From 9 to 5 it’s one thing—running a tube mill, doing autobody repair or restoration, or teaching welding classes—and after 5 it’s something similar, working with their hands, forcing metal to do their bidding to make abstract pieces, yard art, sculptures, and so on.

Then there’s Paul Ziegman. His nights-and-weekends vocation is nearly identical to his day job. Bend sheet metal to print? Check. Weld in compliance with applicable codes? Check. Find creative solutions to occasionally perplexing fabrication challenges? Check. Have an affinity for brewing spirits from locally grown ingredients? Check. Work with stainless steel? Check. Able to run the entire process from fabrication to installation? Check.

Only one of those doesn’t cross over, but the other five come in handy nearly every day when Ziegman is at work. A member of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 55 (Washington, Idaho, and eastern Oregon), Ziegman is part of a team that fabricates and installs commercial kitchen equipment from start to finish. It’s a great vocation for a hands-on guy interested in learning, and perfecting, every step: measurement, layout, bending, welding, and polishing. The satisfaction comes from a job well done and helping an entrepreneur launch a new venture.

One day not so long ago, Ziegman himself became a venture-launching entrepreneur. He used the skills he learned and honed during his 16 years in the industry to build a distillery. His day job and his night job cross in one more way: The business is named for his vocation, Tinbender.

Distilled, Not Matured

If building a distillery from scratch sounds like a daunting task, it is. If it were as simple as following a print to build a still, it might be manageable, but still designs vary as much as the beverages that come out of them.

“For scotch, the traditional material is copper,” Ziegman said. “Copper needs regular cleaning, and I didn’t want that hassle,” he said. “Vodka needs long columns, clear to the ceiling, and I didn’t want to deal with that.”

After studying a great number of designs and their uses, Ziegman came up with an original concept versatile enough to make whiskey and brandy. It also could make moonshine, he added, but for now he uses it to make one whiskey recipe and one brandy recipe. His whiskey isn’t exactly an instant beverage, but it does go directly from still to bottle without the years-long interlude in a wooden barrel that adds flavor and color.

“A freshly charred cask screams at the whiskey. A used cask has a conversation with it,” Ziegman said. While the second sounds a lot more palatable than the first, neither is necessary to make a respectable beverage. Skipping the barrel soak is in keeping with the spirit of a craft beverage, which in Ziegman’s case means using local ingredients and letting little interfere with their flavors.

More Metals

Ziegman did more metal work at Tinbender than just the distilleries and the plumbing. Essentially every metal item in the business is his work, from the hammered copper countertop to the decorative touches, so a tour of Tinbender is a tour of Ziegman’s metalworking skill. His employer provided wholehearted encouragement, allowing him to use the company’s equipment and even some sheet metal left over from other jobs.

If you find yourself in downtown Spokane, Tinbender is centrally located at 32 W. 2nd Ave., and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding it. The sign is adorned with the company name and a tinbender’s tool—a wide-faced hammer—and it hangs from an ornate wrought iron bracket, another one of Ziegman’s creations.

Tinbender Craft Distillery, 32 W. 2nd Ave., Suite 400, Spokane, WA 99201, 509-315-7939, tinbender craftdistillery@gmail.com, www.tinbendercraftdistillery.com

Tinbender’s founder, Paul Ziegman, came up with the name, designed the sign, and fabricated the wrought iron bracket.

About the Author
FMA Communications Inc.

Eric Lundin

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Eric Lundin worked on The Tube & Pipe Journal from 2000 to 2022.