Ramblings from an amateur booze geek.
Old Fourth Distillery has been a regular topic on this blog, and it looks like the saga of its sale has finally come to a conclusion. This week they announced the sale of their brand and inventory to Shortbarrel, an Atlanta-based independent bottler.
Back in September I wrote a bit about Atlanta’s Old Fourth Distillery hitting the market. I was afraid that this news might mean that the distillery would close (and my Spidey-senses started tingling when they posted that the distillery would be closed for a few days after the sale notice went online), but they’re still open and released a new finished bourbon last month.
Continue reading “Old Fourth Distillery selling equipment”
We’ve now come to the Kentucky portion of my distillery road trip. I’ve been to Kentucky many times in my life, but this is my first trip into bourbon country. And I’ll never forget the first breath I took when I stepped out of my car in the Bardstown Bourbon Company parking lot. There’s nothing like the sweet smell of aging bourbon, and I had a huge grin on my face as I walked across the parking lot to the distillery. Now you know what I meant by the title – enjoying the breeze!
Continue reading “Enjoying the breeze at Bardstown Bourbon Company”
This morning I saw that Atlanta’s Old Fourth Distillery has hired a consultant to try and broker a sale. It’s sad to see but not terribly surprising. This is actually the second Georgia distillery to go on the market this month – Savannah’s Ghost Coast distillery is also up for sale through the same consultant. You can read (and see) more about what I saw at O4D this summer if you’re not familiar with them.
Continue reading “A hot take on the Old Fourth Distillery sale”
After a disappointing unplanned stop at another tasting room, I really needed a beer. Fortunately Corsair Distillery’s Marathon location was able to help, as they have sixteen taps of beers (and ciders) from Nashville craft breweries in addition to their own spirits! This is the next stop on the roadtrip.
Continue reading “Beer and whiskey at Corsair’s Marathon taproom and distillery”My next stop on the tour wasn’t planned, and I’d never heard of this distillery before. I was actually at Marathon Village to visit Corsair Distillery’s first Tennessee location, but I got there quite a bit earlier than I expected and saw a sign for another distillery in the same building. Of course, I couldn’t resist checking it out.
Continue reading “Tennessee Legend Distillery at Marathon”The next stop on this summer’s roadtrip is in Nashville, and is the first of two visits to Corsair Distillery locations. This is their HQ location, the newer of their two Nashville distilleries and home to, well, their HQ offices as well as their whiskey and gin stills, bottling line, lots of cask aging space, and a cocktail bar. I’ll make a separate post about their Marathon location later.
If you’re keeping count (and you’re not), this is the third stop on my trip, and the first distillery outside of Georgia. Chattanooga Whiskey is another favorite distillery of mine. They call their bourbon style “Tennessee High Malt”, with each batch containing a minimum of 25% malted grain. They also produce rye and a series of limited edition spirits that have included amaros, aquavit, gin, single malts, infusions, and barrel finishes.
Continue reading “Stopping in at Chattanooga Whiskey’s experimental distillery”
Atlanta’s Beltline project has driven some new developments in Atlanta, and the Lee & White warehouse redevelopment project near Adair Park is an example of the kind of thing that Beltline supporters hoped to see. This isn’t a real estate or urban planning blog, so rather than digging into those aspects of the development, I’m going to talk about some of the distilleries and breweries you might find there. Hop City calls Lee & White “Malt Disney”, and with three breweries, a bottle shop, a distillery, a kombucha brewery, and many restaurants and bars on site (along with open containers allowed on the property), it’s understandable.
Continue reading “A taste of Lee & White in Atlanta’s West End”The first stop on my distillery tour (here’s a full list of all the stops) was Old Fourth Distillery in Atlanta. Opened in 2014, they’re the first legal distillery to open in Atlanta in the post-Prohibition era. They’re in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, hence the name. Interestingly, they helped fund it in 2013 with a Kickstarter campaign, though with a low goal of $40,000 I think the crowdfunding campaign was probably more about marketing and outreach than raising funds, and I’ll have to remember that if I’m ever in the position of opening my own distillery.
Continue reading “Visiting Atlanta’s Old Fourth Distillery”