This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Bourbon growth hits record high
Kentucky Bourbon is going through the “largest expansion mode since the end of prohibition” according to the president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.
Stacking them high: Bourbon barrels at a Jim Beam distillery
Kentucky distilleries, which produce about 95% of US Bourbon, filled 1.2 million barrels of the whiskey last year — the most in more than 40 years.
This is according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association trade group in an announcement last month about annual production levels.
In a recent interview, Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, said, “We’re in the largest expansion mode since the end of prohibition.”
He explained that the group’s members have spent about $500 million (£300m) to add bottling lines, storage warehouses and jobs in the last few years to meet the rocketing demand.
According to the Association, the number of Kentucky bourbon makers is expected to double next year to 40 licensed operating distillers.
Currently at 20 members, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association is at its post-1947 peak.
Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company is one of the newest producers expected to get its license by next year when it opens up shop in Louisville KY.