Whiskey House of Kentucky announced its state-of-the art distillery will begin operations July 1, 2024. Located on a 176-acre campus in the T.J. Patterson Elizabethtown Hardin County Industrial Park, Whiskey House will be the most sophisticated, technically advanced producer of custom bourbon and American whiskey in the United States. It will invest more than $350 million over the next decade, employing approximately 50 employees in 2024, and expanding to more than 100 employees by 2027.
Co-founder and CEO David Mandell says:
Whiskey House will reshape the contract whiskey market in the United States. As the bourbon market continues to grow, we see the need for additional distilling capacity and more customer focused solutions. We will provide the highest-quality production, guaranteed capacity, and exceptional customer service for our brand partners.
Whiskey House's property development plan includes 16, 41,500-barrel traditional rickhouses, a 50,000-square-foot palatized warehouse, a spent grain processing facility, a bottling facility, a rail system, as well as access to one of the highest yielding hydro stratigraphic limestone aquifers in the region, which sits 120 feet below the property. Produced by Vendome Copper & Brass Works, Whiskey House's distilling and processing equipment is built around a 48-inch custom still and 14, 33,000-gallon closed-top fermenters. The company will begin operations with greater than seven million proof gallons of annual capacity (112,000 barrels), expanding to more than 14 million proof gallons (224,000 barrels) in 2027.
Whiskey House's fully integrated operational and information technology infrastructure captures and analyzes data across the entire manufacturing process. With the addition of its artificial intelligence applications, the company can continually improve quality and efficiency, increase production yields, expand sustainability initiatives, and provide critical real-time information to customers about their liquid. As a result of its efforts and vision for the distillery, Whiskey House received a Microsoft for Startups Founder's Hub Grant to accelerate the implementation of AI in all aspects of its manufacturing and distillation process.
My Take
I love this. This is probably our best bet to start a bourbon brand. As you may know, it's very expensive to create and build a distillery, so Whiskey House of Kentucky has done that part... now it's up to brands to work with them on creating unique and differentiated products and brands.
What do you think? Drop a note in the comments below.
