Agro-tourism and eco-tourism have a nice ring for what they are, but alco-tourism sounds like a condition that requires attention.
Whatever you call it, whether it is the Scotch Whisky Trail, Portland’s Distillery Row, Tennessee Whiskey Trail, or the Iowa Micro-distillery Trail, more and more people are heading out to visit distilleries. Perhaps the largest tour of them all is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and its younger sibling, the Bourbon Trail Craft Tour.
The once cautious relationship between craft distillers and the legacy distilleries has turned symbiotic, with common goals of sharing knowledge, making Kentucky the center of the distilling universe and enjoying good company.
“We have a rare kinship here in Kentucky with a wealth of experience, knowledge and resources available from about every member and we work together to promote our signature spirit of Kentucky Bourbon,” said Shane Baker of the Wilderness Trail Distillery. “Being a part of the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA) and members of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour has been priceless.”
The state’s landscape has changed a lot since the last ADI conference in Louisville, three years ago. Most everything that was there is still there, but what has been added are craft distilleries—a lot more craft distilleries. The number of licensed distilleries has more than tripled, rising from 10 to 31, since 2012.
The Craft Tour launched that year with seven distilleries. KDA prints a passport to be stamped at the member distilleries along the Craft Tour. A completely stamped passport earns the bearer a commemorative julep cup. The passport boasted eight distilleries this past spring, with another one added during summer, and several now on the verge. Distilleries are being added so fast that the KDA can’t print passports fast enough to show all the additions. No one can say how many will be added by the time of ADI’s conference this coming spring, but the best estimate is that another dozen distilleries will open in 2015.
“We’re going to have to think of a bigger gift,” joked KDA President Eric Gregory, referring to the julep cup and the effort it would take to visit more than a dozen distilleries scattered over hundreds of miles of highways.
According to KDA, craft distilleries employ 127 people in the state, with salaries totaling more than $4 million. They have invested $30 million and plan to spend another $25 to $30 million in the next five years. Toursim is on the rise too. More than 630,000 people visited the Bourbon Trail and the Craft Tour in 2014, an increase of 43% in two years.
“The trail is quickly becoming a well-rounded destination for tourists,” said Steve Beam, co-founder of Limestone Branch Distillery. “What started with a few distilleries laced together by a passport has become a destination, fully supported by excellent restaurants, lodging, shops and experiences.”
Barrel House Distillery
200 Manchester St.
Lexington, KY 40504
barrelhousedistillery.com
Barrel House exemplifies a craft distillery: artisans pulling a small business up by its boot straps, incorporating old techniques such as gravity feeding a flame-heated copper pot still, on a scale which is too small to be making millions.
When the Craft Tour launched in October 2012, the kickoff party was held at Barrel House Distilling, in the shadow of the defunct James E. Pepper Distillery. Barrel House was a fitting place for the launch because it was the first craft distillery in Kentucky and the first to join KDA. The effect of being on the Craft Tour has been tremendous.
“All of a sudden, we have 18,000 people and most of those people are not from Kentucky,” said founding partner Jeff Wiseman. “And all those people are sharing our spirits, photographs and stories of our distillery with family and friends. We probably get a total reach of 25,000 people that we wouldn’t have gotten to because of the Craft Tour.”
Barrel House exemplifies a craft distillery: artisans pulling a small business up by its boot straps, incorporating old techniques such as gravity feeding a flame-heated copper pot still, on a scale which is too small to be making millions.
This micro-distillery, concentrating on quality instead of quantity, is primarily stashing away barrels of bourbon. While waiting for those barrels to mature, Barrel House has released rum, vodka and moonshine. In 2012, Barrel House’s Oak Rum took the best of category for over-proof rum in the ADI Judging of Craft American Spirits. A visit to their distillery today sees little change in their handmade production in their 6 1/2 years, except for an expansion in rooms to hold the barrels they are stashing away for future release.
“We acquired our building last year, so we now have nearly 7,000 sq ft. and are anticipating that we may reach capacity in the near future,” said Wiseman.
The rustic interior seems more like a hunting lodge than a showcase tasting room. This is fitting for an ownership that all enjoy fishing and kayaking around Kentucky’s many streams. In the winter you can warm yourself next to a wood-burning stove converted from a 50-gallon steel drum. It seems like a good place to come, put your feet up on the furniture and enjoy a good taste of the their Devil John’s Moonshine, while watching the whiskey mature in barrels.
When will the bourbon be ready? When it’s ready.
Silver Trail Distillery / LBL Moonshine Museum
16619 US Highway 68
Aurora, KY, 42048
lblmoonshine.com
“In the mid-1940s my Dad’s oldest brother Rink Balentine went to the Federal lock up on a moonshining charge, which was a year and a day,” said Balentine. “When he came out, he had the specs for a new-fangled round cylinder condenser (instead of the worm), written down on a paper towel in his shoe.”
When you have moonshining in your blood and then take the family business legitimate, you of course erect a sign on Main Street proclaiming your product. In fact, you may even put a museum to your family history there, now that nobody can be prosecuted for exercising the trade. That’s what Spencer Balentine did.
Taking over the location of the former Bank of Benton building in the heart of Aurora, KY, Balentine brought in as many relics of his family’s moonshining days as could be found, including stills made by his great uncle with their unique condensers, and the car in which, as a young boy, Balentine had his first moonshining memory. The museum incorporates the old vault to recreate the jailhouse scene where Balentine’s uncle smuggled out the design for a new style of condenser that he dreamed up in prison.
“In the mid-1940s my Dad’s oldest brother Rink Balentine went to the Federal lock up on a moonshining charge, which was a year and a day,” said Balentine. “When he came out, he had the specs for a new-fangled round cylinder condenser (instead of the worm), written down on a paper towel in his shoe.”
The design was given to Casey Jones, Balentine’s great uncle who was already making a still with a unique flat bottom, allowing a greater amount of heat to hit the bottom of the pot, making for a quicker boil and a faster getaway.
“He gave the plans to Casey and from then on the cylinder condenser was mated to the square pot which made it into a ‘hot-rod’ still, producing a gallon in under four minutes, which my 200-gallon reproduction will do,” said Balentine.
Three miles from the museum in Hardin, KY, the Silver Trail Distillery is anything but inconspicuous and contains more relics of the family’s moonshining past, including the smokehouse in which Balentine found his father’s last still and a 1936 International truck that was once abandoned on the highway to get away from Federal agents. Inside, Balentine is making the old family recipe on a large replica of his great uncle’s still design.
But if you go there, beware; you cannot legally buy a bottle of their LBL Moonshine. The Silver Trail Distillery sits in a dry county.
MB Rowland Distillery
137 Barkers Mill Rd.
Pembroke, KY 42266
mbrdistillery.com
One of the more unique spirits is Black Dog, a “dark fired” clear whiskey made from locally grown white corn. It was one of the first smoked whiskies of the new wave that has entered the craft market.
It may only be about a mile off Interstate 24, one of the main arteries into Nashville, TN, but the MB Rowland Distillery has the feeling of being way, way out in the country. Two large grain elevators loom over a U-shaped collection of Amish-made barns around a farmhouse, part of which has been converted into a tasting room and gift shop. The still house is in one of the barns, barrel storage in another, and a third is being converted to hold events.
Though it may be far from the lights of town and surrounded by 20 acres of corn, there is never a dull moment. The Craft Tour has increased visitors to the distillery, which saw 21,000 guests last year and even more by the end of summer 2014.
When they are not tending to visitors, owners Paul and Merry Beth Tomaszewski are busy improving the property and putting up barrels by hand in ricks they have made themselves. Paul is a West Point graduate who served as an infantry officer in Iraq. At 33 years old, he still has a boyish look and never stops moving, talking, working and sweating as he roams about the compound. The couple stashes away as much bourbon as they can afford to make, which currently is only one to two 53-gallon barrels of bourbon a week, but they have capacity to produce more and expect to get up to three or four barrels a week soon.
MB Rowland is primarily a grain-to-bottle bourbon/whiskey distillery, but visitors also like to purchase their many moonshines. One of the more unique spirits is Black Dog, a “dark fired” clear whiskey made from locally grown white corn. It was one of the first smoked whiskies of the new wave that has entered the craft market.
Corsair
400 East Main St, #110
Bowling Green, KY 42101
corsairdistillery.com
Corsair has become an epicenter for whiskey experimentation, both in terms of alternative grains and smoked whiskeys, from which the distillery has created hundreds of recipes and shared the secrets that went into making them.
When Darek Bell, his wife Amy Lee Bell, and his childhood friend Andrew Webber went to follow the dream of starting a distillery, it was illegal in their hometown of Nashville, TN, so they moved it an hour up the interstate to Bowling Green, KY. The distillery was founded in the receiving dock at the back of a former department store on the picturesque town square. The current operation holds more activity in a small space than appears possible. It is truly a working distillery, where the cases, barrels and bottles spread throughout have outgrown the space.
Corsair has become an epicenter for whiskey experimentation, both in terms of alternative grains and smoked whiskeys, from which the distillery has created hundreds of recipes and shared the secrets that went into making them. While other distilleries are hiding their “trade secrets,” Corsair is publishing theirs.
In his two books, Alt Whiskeys and Firewater, Bell shares the methodology and results, successes and failures, of the hundreds of experimental whiskeys that Corsair has created, along with the recipes and techniques for making them (see the book review for Firewater on page 136). It was not only the innovation, but also Bell’s generosity in sharing this knowledge that earned Corsair ADI’s Bubble Cap Award for Distillery of the Year 2014.
While the distillery has gotten crowded, the tasting room has moved upstairs into the spacious confines of the former Pushin Brothers Department Store. Visitors can enjoy more than a dozen different releases that Corsair offers while sitting conversation-pit style on cushy leather couches.
Since opening in Bowling Green, Corsair has been able to get the laws changed in Nashville, TN, to allow for another distillery there, which is also a brewery and maltery.
As Corsair has grown in status, the stills have not kept up with demand. One of the original Bowling Green stills has found its way to Nashville. Bowling Green will soon replace it with a new Vendome stripping still; and Nashville has recently received a 600-gallon, Prulho Cognac-style still, which is under installation.
Wilderness Trail Distillery
445 Roy Arnold Ave.
Danville, KY 40422
wildernesstracedistillery.com
Good distillation begins with good fermentation, and the founders of Wilderness Trail have that part down. Partners Shane Baker and Partrick Heist have been running Ferm Solutions, a… supplier of yeast and laboratory services to both beverage and fuel alcohol producers.
Good distillation begins with good fermentation, and the founders of Wilderness Trail have that part down. Partners Shane Baker and Partrick Heist have been running Ferm Solutions, a Danville, KY based supplier of yeast and laboratory services to both beverage and fuel alcohol producers. The partners, who both have Ph.Ds, have been experimenting in yeast propagation and alcohol production for more than 20 years.
“We even have yeast in outer space,” proclaims project manager Jerod Smith, referring to an experiment to test the effect of zero gravity on yeast aboard the International Space Station.
Baker said, “We will also utilize the returning vessel as dona seed for an actual large scale fermentation batch and determine if there is any impact on the production of bourbon from those yeast cells grown in space. You could say this research will be beneficial to future generations living in space.”
The distillery’s production is 95% bourbon, and they have stowed away enough to require building a barrelhouse in Danville. While Wilderness Trail is waiting the four to six years it takes for the bourbon to reach maturity, it has released two other spirits: Blue Heron Vodka, made from corn and wheat, and Harvest Rum, which is made from Sorghum molasses.
“Rum is made from sugar cane,” the purists cry, and they are right. The Sorghum bicolor Wilderness Trail uses is a member of Poaceae, the same family of grass as sugar cane. They submitted the formula to the TTB saying they were making rum from molasses, citing the source of molasses, providing samples and analytical formulation.
“The TTB classified our formula as a US Gold Rum,” said Baker. “It is made from molasses and that legally makes it rum.”
Being on the Bourbon Trail Craft Tour has been a boon to Wilderness Trail. “We now average about 35% of our volume sold in our gift shop and we see our retail and on-premise continuing to grow each day from loyal followers,” said Baker. “After tastings of our other award-winning spirits, we offer visitors the ability to reserve up to two bottles of our bourbon that is aging, and for a while we were sold out until we increased production to get ahead of the demand.”
Willett Distillery
1869 Loretto Rd.
Bardstown, KY 40004
kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com
The distillery in the valley below is named Heaven Hill, but perched on this hill overlooking that valley is what truly feels like paradise, standing near the still house, surrounded above and below by rick houses and the several ponds where the distillery retrieves and recycles water.
The Willett Family can trace its distilling past back to 16th century Huguenots who distilled Cognac. Some of the family migrated to Paris, and Square Willette on Montmartre is named for a distant relative. Another branch of the Willett family left for England, continued to Maryland and eventually ended up in Kentucky. Shortly after the Civil War, John David Willett was partner and distiller of the Moore, Willett and Frenke Distillery in Bardstown. Thompson Willett founded the Willett Distillery on its current location in 1936, where it operated until 1980. Thompson’s daughter, Martha Harriet Willett, married Even Kulsveen, who bought the property in 1984. Operating a blending and bottling operation, Kulsveen developed a reputation for releasing some of the best bourbon and rye to come out of Kentucky. Under the guidance of Even’s son Drew Kulsveen, they installed and fired up stills on the property in January of 2012. The Willett Distillery released a new grain-to-bottle rye whiskey in the spring of this year.
The distillery in the valley below is named Heaven Hill, but perched on this hill overlooking that valley is what truly feels like paradise, standing near the still house, surrounded above and below by rick houses and the several ponds where the distillery retrieves and recycles water. Listening to leaves rustle in a gentle breeze, it is a scene of timeless beauty and, … construction. The Kulsveens are installing a water-powered mill house and a bed and breakfast is being built on the property.
And the whiskey? The first release opened to rave reviews. It still has a way to go to get to the maturity of the expressions the family has released over the years. Give it time. This family looks to be making bourbon and rye in this place for a long time.
Limestone Branch Distillery
1280 Veterans Memorial Highway (Hwy 2154)
Lebanon, KY 40033
limestonebranch.com
The bucolic 25 acres where brothers Steve and Paul Beam chose to restart the family’s distilling business straddles a small creek—the Limestone Branch, which provides enough water for a distillery.
Limestone Branch is located at 1280 Veterans Memorial Highway outside Lebanon, KY, but don’t plug that address into your GPS because you will never find it. You had better know it’s on State Highway 2154. Then you can’t get lost.
The bucolic 25 acres where brothers Steve and Paul Beam chose to restart the family’s distilling business straddles a small creek — the Limestone Branch, which provides enough water for a distillery. Their placement on the Craft Tour and proximity to some of the more famous distilleries on the Bourbon Trail has provided more than 20,000 visitors to the distillery.
“It has been a great boost to our business,” said Steve Beam. “People enjoy visiting multiple distilleries and we are able to cross-promote each other. It has really gained us exposure we could not accomplish on our own.”
Beam estimates that 80–85% percent of the visitors to the distillery are from out of state.
“Our gift shop currently generates about 25% of our sales,” said Beam. “We are our largest customer.”
Though the future direction of Limestone Branch is reviving some of the family’s legendary brands, a profitable side trip for them has been moonshine. A gold-medal, best of class in the 2012 ADI Judging of Craft American Spirits for TJ Pottinger’s Sugar*Shine brought enough recognition to attract some big contracts. Two nationally-recognized entities came to Limestone Branch for production of moonshine. Tim Smith, of the Moonshiners television show, contracted to produce his Climax Moonshine, and the distillery is also licensed to produce Moon Pie Moonshine. But these are a detour that is financially aiding the distillery on the way to its eventual destination.
“We are headed into whiskies and bourbon,” said Beam.
Old Pogue Distillery
716 West 2nd St,
Maysville, KY 41056
oldpogue.com
The approach is to do honor to the family recipes and let growth occur in an organic way; to not rush things and let the whiskey come of age to show the right flavors.
Many distilleries have a story about their pre-prohibition family recipe and grandfather’s old recipe. Fifth cousins once-removed, John and Paul Pogue have more than the story. They have the land, the cases of old, old bottles of whiskey, the stories, the pictures, the receipts and the recipes. The distillery is in an outbuilding next to the historic family mansion, overlooking the Ohio River and the site between the waterfront and railroad tracks where the distillery once sat, — an ideal location for shipping.
The place was so ideal that their “Old Time” Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was once the largest exporting brand of bourbon. According to a 1900 newspaper article, the brand reached Europe and as far away as Japan.
One of the curios recently uncovered on a trip through the family history is a document verifying that our predecessors preferred younger whiskey than is now in fashion. The family has a receipt signed by John’s great-great-great grandfather in which he regrets not being able to give a better price on the return of some barrels because there was not much demand for bourbon at the ripe age of 8-years-old.
Unfortunately, after sitting dark for a decade, the old distillery burned to the ground in 1973 and little remains except for the landing. The Pogue model is for slow growth.
“We’re pleased with our current operations and often entertain the idea of slightly expanding in areas,” said John Pogue, “but we’re not in a hurry and, as with most aspects of this industry, patience seems to pay out.”
The Old Pogue brand dates from 1876, and the family revived the label in 2004 with sourced whiskey. The Pogues began distilling again in 2012 and released the self-distilled Limestone Landing Single Malt Whiskey, followed in 2013 by their Five Fathers Pure Rye Malt Whiskey.
“On the spirits side of the question, we make only bourbon, rye or wheat whiskies and, fortunately, the family has many pre-prohibition bottles that are targets for our modern production,” said John Pogue. The approach is to do honor to the family recipes and let growth occur in an organic way; to not rush things and let the whiskey come of age to show the right flavors.
John Pogue said, “We will not mar the standards that precede us.”
New Riff Distillery
24 Distillery Way
Newport, KY 41071
newriffdistillery.com
This brand-spanking new state of the art facility is set up for both distilling and entertaining, with four stories of stills, labs, fermentation tanks, tasting rooms, and a full bar/tasting room on the top floor, which looks across the Ohio river into the hills that frame downtown Cincinnati.
When you have the budget to build your dream distillery, what do you build? Some people are able to think big, and New Riff is one of them. Started by the owners of The Party Source, one of the largest liquor stores in the country, New Riff enters the craft community much larger than a micro-distillery, yet smaller than the big distilleries.
The outside of the building features a glass tower that houses their Vendome Coffey still and a pot still. This brand-spanking new state of the art facility is set up for both distilling and entertaining, with four stories of stills, labs, fermentation tanks, tasting rooms, and a full bar/tasting room on the top floor, which looks across the Ohio river into the hills that frame downtown Cincinnati.
The distillery not only shares a parking lot with The Party Source, it also stole one of the best spirits palates in the country from its corporate mother ship. Production Manager Jay Erisman was the spirits buyer for the retail store and writer of some of the best tasting notes this side of the Atlantic. He assumes his position with modesty, not waving the title of master distiller, and saving the title for people like Larry Ebersol, retired Master Distiller of Seagrams/LDI/MGPI, whom Erisman leans on as a consultant. He is also quick to express appreciation for the help he has received from the master distillers of Kentucky, many of whom have wandered in to check out the new distillery.
With an army of brewers at his disposal to make wash, Erisman seems like a kid in a candy store. New Riff is the newest entry to the Bourbon Trail Craft Tour, with others soon to follow. The have also released a sourced bourbon, which they call OKI Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a reference to the corner where Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana come together. Their self-distilled whiskeys have some time to mature in barrels and Erisman is refining their gin recipe for release.
Copper & Kings
1121 East Washington St.
Louisville, KY 40206
copperandkings.com
This wonderfully modern facility represents a kick in the pants of tradition, making brandy in bourbon country, and making it on steam-heated stills instead of the flame-fired stills found in the traditional brandy-producing regions.
Though members of KDA, Copper & Kings is not on the Bourbon Trail Craft Tour.
The distillery represents a paradox for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour, not because of what they are making but because of what they are not making —bourbon. This wonderfully modern facility represents a kick in the pants of tradition, making brandy in bourbon country, and making it on steam-heated stills instead of the flame-fired stills found in the traditional brandy-producing regions. Coming straight out the gate with a clear grape brandy eau de vie and a publicity campaign proclaiming “this is not vodka.” Their latest Copper & Kings promotion for their new absinthe, which is neither green nor red but blanche, proclaims Absinthe is more rock and roll than gin.
Spirits are not the only place where founders Joe and Lesley Heron are flipping off tradition. The perimeter of the courtyard looks like a tornado has scattered several bright orange package containers, in which are placed a ticket booth, gift shop, restrooms and a kitchen. The place is set up to entertain with a barbecue pit and fire pit, and is already rocking Louisville’s Butchertown.
This new facility plans to dazzle a town that has grown around distilling. And they have some exciting new spirits they are set to release; we are just not allowed to say quite yet what they are.
No one knows exactly how many future Kentucky distilleries are under construction or in the paperwork process. How many will be operational by the time of ADI’s conference is yet another question. Kentucky Artisan Distillers, in Louisville, are up and running and are KDA members but not members of the Craft Tour. Corky and Carson Taylor intend to revive their family brand by opening Kentucky Peerless Distilling, which is now under construction. Other distilleries in the process include Dueling Grounds Distillery, Lulbegrud Creek Distillery, Malesh and Zenger Distillery, Deviant Distillers, Peristyle Distillery, and Boundary Oak Distillery.
