The owners of Koenig Distillery  out by Caldwell Idaho hired us to come out and build a Kachelöfen for them.  This Kachelöfen that we were to build was originally built by the owners father for a client.  Andrew Koenig’s father built Kachelöfen in the Sun Valley Region. One of his fathers old clients was moving and the new owners did not want the stove so Andrew went out and numbered and dismantled the stove so that he could own a stove that his father originally imported from Austria and built.

I asked my masonry heater building mentor and long time friend Jerry Frisch from Everett WA to come down and help me build this tile stove.  Jerry was happy to come down and help build this stove with my son Colten and my apprentice Jake.  Jerry was going to drive down to California after the build to see one of his daughters on his 83rd birthday with his newly wed wife Ester of 2 weeks.

The Koenig Distillery was an incredibly impressive operation with fruit trees’ and honey bee hives all over the property.  Andy supplied the majority of all of the materials with supplies left over from his fathers masonry stash.

The stove build went very well and I got to learn a few new tricks from Jerry.  Jerry has always been willing to help and teach anyone that was interested in masonry heaters.   The masonry heater industry in North America would not be where it is this day without a few people like Jerry and the other guys that formed the Masonry Heater Association less than 20 yrs ago.