Visit These 4 Kentucky Bourbon Distilleries

Bourbon is as synonymous with the Bluegrass State as the Kentucky Derby and Louisville Slugger. Distilleries across the state craft Kentucky’s signature spirit, with names ranging from legends such as Maker’s Mark and Jim Beam that export their bourbons near and far to smaller operations like Wilderness Trail Distillery and Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. that offer bourbon lovers a closeup look at how their favorite spirit is made. 

James B. Beam Distilling Co. | Clermont

For a 90-year-old bourbon distillery, there’s a lot that’s new at James B. Beam Distilling Co. in Clermont, Kentucky. There’s an updated visitor center stocked with hard-to-find bourbons, a new restaurant serving up tasty pizzas and a fresh tour experience that Alex Bowie, the distillery’s director of homeplace experience, is especially fond of.

Launched in early 2025, the new Craft Distillery Tour gives visitors a look inside the Fred B. Noe Distillery, which was previously only accessible by invitation only and not open to the public. The behind-the-scenes experience offers a look at how small-batch bourbons are made. Hands-on exhibits showcase distillation and maturation, and the tour ends with a tasting of new releases and innovations. 

“Our [Beam-Made Bourbon] tour is a historical look at what it means to have eight generations of one family making bourbon,” Bowie says. “This tour is looking toward the future and how we’re innovating.”

There’s also a bit of James B. Beam history in the pizza served at The Kitchen Table, the on-site restaurant. For months, chef Brian Landry pestered eighth-generation master distiller Freddie Noe to let him use the distillery’s guarded yeast in the pizzas, and Noe eventually relented. 

“So even when you’re eating our pizzas,” Bowie explains, “you’re still experiencing part of what makes our bourbon unique and special.” 

For a taste of hard-to-find bourbons, Bowie advises visiting the tasting bar on the second floor of the American Outpost. 

“It’s a great space to explore some of what we sell in the gift shop along with some past releases we might not have for sale anymore,” he says. 568 Happy Hollow Rd., Clermont, Kentucky 40110, 502/543-9877, beamdistilling.com

Maker’s Mark | Loretto

Maker’s Mark bourbon is served around the world, but visiting its distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, feels close to home. Most of the property’s 1,100 acres is farmland filled with fields of wheat, bee apiaries, and grazing wagyu cattle and Katahdin sheep.

“We’re a working farm,” says director of hospitality Frank Krockenberger, “and visitors can get exposed to all of that.”

Maker’s Mark features its agrarian roots by including much of its property, known as Star Hill Farm, on its tours. The roughly 75-minute Whiskey Creek Walking Tour includes strolls by a few of the distillery’s production buildings, some history about the land, a look at Maker’s Mark’s apiaries and mushroom quarry, and of course, a bourbon tasting. 

Or, choose to keep things sweet with the 1-hour-and-45-minute Wax Drips & Honey Dips Experience, which kicks off with a honey-based bourbon cocktail and includes a honey tasting and a question-and-answer session with the distillery’s beekeeper. 

“We wouldn’t have wheat for bourbon if it weren’t for pollinators,” Krockenberger notes.

Be sure to visit Star Hill Provisions, the distillery’s on-site restaurant. The menu here features seasonal takes on wagyu burgers, pizzas, riffs on hot browns (a Kentucky favorite) and a must-try cocktail program that features twists on a mint julep, an Old Fashioned and more. 

Of course, no trip to Maker’s Mark is complete without buying a bottle of bourbon and dipping it in its iconic red wax seal. 3350 Burkes Spring Rd., Loretto, Kentucky 40037, 270/865-2099, makersmark.com

Wilderness Trail Distillery | Danville

If you’re in tune with the likes of science guys Bill Nye and Neal DeGrasse Tyson, Wilderness Trail Distillery’s approach to crafting bourbon is the spirited destination you’ve been looking for. 

Shane Baker, a mechanical engineer, and Pat Heist, a plant pathologist and medical microbiologist, co-founded the place in 2012 after meeting at the University of Kentucky and bonding over a mutual love for metal music and the science of bourbon fermentation. For example, if you know a yeast takes 48 hours to ferment, then you can time your process to that. Fermentation also sets the flavor base of a bourbon early in the process. 

“With fermentation, there’s a living interaction that’s happening,” says Haley Perros, national brand ambassador for the distillery, which is located in Danville, Kentucky. “If you know on a molecular level what’s going on in that tank, that sets the trajectory of your flavor going forward.”

Visitors to the 168-acre distillery can grab a cocktail or flight, but Wilderness Trail’s 90-minute Bourbon Is a Solution experience lets you become a quality-control scientist. You’ll gather a fermentation sample, use lab equipment to measure the sugar and pH levels, and peer through a microscope to determine if the yeast is thriving. The tour ends with a tasting. 

“Fermentation can be a tough concept for people to grasp, and it’s such a huge part of every distillery’s process,” Perros says. “We walk you through it, and you get to have a hands-on experience of actually doing it.” 4095 Lebanon Rd., Danville, Kentucky 40422, 859/402-8707, wildernesstraildistillery.com

Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. | Frankfort

The experience of visiting Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. outside of Frankfort, Kentucky, is as unfiltered as its single-batch, single barrel whiskey. The distillery, set on a 127-acre working farm, is so laid back that visitors might walk in on staffers mashing grain. 

“If you come here, you’re really in the middle of it all,” says owner and CEO Walter Zausch, who bought the 10-year-old distillery in 2021. “We give everybody an all-access pass to seeing whatever they want to see.”

That extends to something as simple as how the whiskey is served. Order a drink and the barrel-tenders, as they’re known, use a copper tool called a whiskey thief to extract the spirit and pour it into your glass.

“Barrels are always changing, and the whiskey is evolving,” Zausch says. “Distillers taste the bourbon as it ages in the barrels, and they’re using a whiskey thief to taste it.”

Visitors can even try their hand at using the tool to fill their own bottle of bourbon. Whether you’re bottling yourself or purchasing off the shelf at the gift shop, the distillery is one of just two places you can buy Whiskey Thief bourbon. (It’s also available at the distillery’s tasting room in Louisville.) 

Tours are unscripted and geared toward the audience. If Whiskey Thief is your third distillery visit of the day, they’ll skip the bourbon basics and focus more on seeing the process in action and tasting a handful of whiskeys right from the barrel. 

“It’s a place to relax, come taste some whiskey and have a good time,” Zausch says. “We really just invite you out and you stay as long as you want.” 238 Crab Orchard Rd., Frankfort, Kentucky 40601, 502/552-1001, whiskeythief.com

Trail Mix 
If you want to explore Kentucky’s rich bourbon scene, check out these two popular routes. 

Kentucky Bourbon Trail
As the United States was expanding in the late 1700s and early 1800s, trails and traces across Kentucky carried explorers and frontiersmen into North America’s interior. So, it’s fitting that the Kentucky Bourbon Trail carries bourbon lovers to new discoveries, with more than 50 distilleries and tasting rooms across 27 counties. Check out the 30,000-square-foot whiskey wonderland that is Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience in Bardstown or Bluegrass Distillers at Elkwood Farm, which is set on a historic estate. Many distilleries, such as Bardstown Bourbon Co., also have dedicated tasting rooms in Louisville. kybourbontrail.com

B-Line Trail
Distilling stops along the Northern Kentucky portion of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail into an easily digestible checklist, the B-Line Trail highlights nine must-visit bourbon bars and 10 whiskey-centric restaurants. Highlights include New Riff Distilling along the Ohio River in Newport. The industrial-style distillery might look new (it was founded in 2014), but its bourbon is made using time-honored techniques. Meanwhile, Becker & Bird Distillery in Augusta, traces its roots back to John Baker, who the distillery says moved to Kentucky in 1797 to make bourbon after serving in the Revolutionary War. thebline.com

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