In 2012, Steve Thompson, Chris Miller, and Mike Loring founded the Kentucky Artisan Distillery, a craft distillery in the old Crestwood, Kentucky Ice Cream Distributors, Inc. building. Steve is a veteran in the Spirits industry who was inspired to create the first contract distillery in Kentucky and the only production-sized farm-to-bottle distillery.

This means that KAD can produce as little as one barrel for a special occasion or up to over 1,800 barrels a year for brands like Jefferson’s Reserve, the famous Bourbon brand that comes from the distillery. Other brands include Whiskey Row Bourbon, Coalition Whiskey, and Billy Goat Strut North American Whiskey.

The distillery is run completely by hand — there are no iPads on-site, making the production the closest one can get to what the Bourbon production was like 200 years ago. The grain for their Whiskey comes from a family from around a mile away. Every drop of bourbon is produced completely by hand and overseen by Master Distiller Jade Peterson.