Bourbon is one of the most popular spirits in the world. Some Kentucky distilleries are adding data analytics, automation, IoT sensors, and RFID tags to streamline production.
This article was originally published as a TechRepublic cover story.
Afternoon sunlight filters through the dusty windows of a 125-year-old bourbon warehouse as Wild Turkey master distiller Eddie Russell explains the process of making Kentucky’s most famous export.
As Russell talks about the nuances of his art, the intoxicating scent of aging bourbon fills the air in the warehouse, which sits serenely on Wild Turkey Hill overlooking the Kentucky River and houses more than 14,000 bourbon barrels.
“You’re smelling the angel’s share. You’re smelling some of that oak, some of the whiskey that’s coming out of that oak, some of the water,” he said. It’s called the angel’s share not because it’s heavenly, but because it evaporates into the atmosphere before ever touching human lips.
Making bourbon, even on the scale that Wild Turkey does with close to 100,000 barrels of bourbon a year, is something that takes time and is steeped in tradition. Some parts of the process have remained unchanged for decades, such as for Wild Turkey, the water from the nearby river that’s naturally filtered through limestone rocks to create a softer, sweeter taste. However, high-tech change has arrived in Kentucky’s bourbon industry. “For the distillery, everything’s very modern, very computerized. But we’re still using the same old recipe, the same old yeast. This part of it hasn’t changed since the beginning. You just put it in here [the warehouse], and let nature do its thing. You need the hot weather to push the whiskey into the wood, the cold weather to pull it out of the wood. So you pick up 100% of your color and a lot of your flavor from the barrel,” Russell said. Distilleries are doing everything from adding IoT sensors to equipment for collection of data analytics, to adding RFID tags to bourbon barrels, to creating experimental aging warehouses in an attempt to refine their centuries-old craft.
None of this is to done to create bourbon faster–it’s about making the process smarter and more efficient. It takes more than 20 years to produce some bourbons, and that’s not going to change. The consensus among bourbon experts and master distillers is that there is no shortcut to making good bourbon. And in Kentucky this is big business, with the state’s distilleries producing about 95% of the world’s bourbon in an $8.6 billion a year industry for the state.
Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon. In 1783, Evan Williams opened the first commercial distillery in Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville. Bourbon making evolved over the centuries and even continued during Prohibition in the US in 1920, although only four distilleries were making bourbon by the time Prohibition ended in 1933.
There’s plenty of tradition associated with bourbon whiskey as America’s only native spirit, as declared by Congress in 1964. Bourbon must be made with a minimum of 51% corn, aged in charred new oak barrels, distilled at a maximum strength of 160 proof, stored at no more than 125 proof, and bottled at 80 proof or higher. Contrary to popular belief, bourbon can be made in any state in the US, not just Kentucky. Aficionados around the globe appreciate the nuanced flavors of vanilla, oak, tobacco, and caramel in bourbon.
Kentucky bourbon whiskey has a reputation as the finest in the world. The mint julep—a sweet concoction of bourbon, muddled mint, and simple syrup over crushed ice—is as much a part of the Kentucky Derby as the thoroughbred horses in the famous race.
Today, there are 68 distilleries spread out across 32 Kentucky counties. Tennessee is the second-largest producer of whiskey in the US, making bourbon, as well as whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, and moonshine. It’s important to note that bourbon is a type of whiskey, but not all whiskeys are bourbon.
Nationwide, there are more than 1,400 bourbon distilleries, but most of those are boutique producers making small volumes. In Kentucky, there are six major distilleries making the bulk of bourbon produced in the world: Brown-Forman, Wild Turkey, Diageo, Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, and Four Roses.
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Bourbon is in the midst of a popularity boom, and this means that more barrels of bourbon need to be made. Since these spirits take years—sometimes decades—to age, Kentucky distilleries are in a race to produce as much bourbon as the world can drink.
According to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, the state’s distilleries filled 1.7 million barrels of bourbon in 2018, the most since 1972. With a total inventory of 7.5 million barrels of bourbon being aged, this means that there is nearly twice the number of barrels of bourbon in Kentucky than there are people, since the state’s population is approximately 4.4 million.
Between 2012 and 2017, sales of bourbon whiskey grew by more than 50% to $3.3 billion.
The bourbon boom is apparent in the growth of the number of distilleries in Kentucky. In 2018, there were 68 distilleries in the state, up from 19 just 10 years ago. Bourbon production has increased more than 115% in the last five years, with premium small batch and single barrel brands driving the bourbon renaissance, and millennials are among those driving demand.
SEE: Photos: Kentucky bourbon gets a tech twist (TechRepublic)
Kentucky is a state that takes its bourbon seriously. And while this amber liquid is steeped in tradition, the new technology that some distilleries are using can improve production and distribution.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an old distillery or a brand new one, technology is playing an ever-increasing role in bourbon making, particularly if a new generation is taking over at an existing distillery or a new parent company has purchased the distillery. For instance, Buffalo Trace is owned by Sazerac, and Wild Turkey is owned by GruppoCampari. Bardstown Bourbon Company is new and independently owned by a group of investors.
One of the key reasons for the push to make more bourbon is because of a newfound love that millennials have for the taste of brown spirits. Eddie Russell said this is because preference in drinks tend to skip a generation, with people in their 20s and 30s not wanting to drink what their parents did.
All brown spirits are up in sales, but bourbon is the pinnacle. “Bourbon’s what started the revolution. It was the mixologists or the bartenders coming back making the Old Fashioneds, the Manhattans, the classic drinks again. So they brought it back into where it was cool for the younger generation to drink it, where it used to be just vodka drinks,” he said.
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Bottles of some iconic names in bourbon making, such as Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year from Buffalo Trace, are selling for more than $200 a shot and $2,000 a bottle. That is, if a bottle can be found to buy.
“Pappy is a great story for us. It’s a bourbon that everybody seems to talk about, and there’s a super high demand for that. And of course, and I always ask the question, ‘How many people were drinking Pappy 23 years ago?’ And hardly anybody raises their hand. And that’s how I explain why we’re short. I mean, nobody knew the demand 23 years ago was going to be like it is today, and we’re making more every year. And the demand is at its all-time peak right now for that brand, and pretty popular,” said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller at Buffalo Trace.
But Wheatley stresses that there’s no way to take a shortcut when making bourbon.
“There’s just no way to cheat mother nature or father time. We’ve proved it over and over again. You can’t artificially get those true, balanced three-dimensional flavors that you get with a good bourbon,” he said.
Of course the world’s love affair with bourbon means more money for Kentucky’s economy. The combination of economic growth from jobs, taxes and tourism related to bourbon is something local politicians call bourbonism.
Bourbon generates 20,100 jobs in Kentucky with an average salary of $95,000, for an annual payroll of $1 billion. The state is home to more than a third of all distilling jobs in the US.
Taxes are part of the benefit, too. Bourbon, both production and consumption, pours more than $235 million into state and local tax coffers annually.
In addition, there are $2.3 billion in capital projects completed or planned from 2019 to 2022, including new warehouses for aging and new distilleries in Kentucky. This will create an additional 1,800 jobs with $70 million in payroll, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.
Wild Turkey, for instance, is investing $2.2 million in a new warehouse that will hold 46,000 barrels.
Kris Comstock, senior marketing director at Buffalo Trace, said, “We’re investing quite a bit of money to double up our capability to make more. We’ll invest $1.2 billion over the next decade, increasing our capacity. More cookers, a new boiler, a new still, more warehouses, a new bottling facility–all in the hopes that people continue to be thirsty for bourbon for years to come.”
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The Wild Turkey distillery and visitor’s center is a scenic area filled with pastures, rolling green hills, tobacco barns, and horse farms.
Wild Turkey was established in 1850 by Austin Nichols and Co. and today, legendary master distiller Jimmy Russell works with his son, Eddie Russell, as the only father/son team of master distillers in the bourbon industry. The elder Russell is 85 years old, and he’s spent 65 years making bourbon at Wild Turkey.
