Barton
In 1889 the distillery was founded by Tom Moore under his name. It was closed down due to prohibition in 1920. Later after the 21st Amendment in Dec. 1933 the distillery was reopened by his son Con Moore. But he had to sell the distillery in 1944 and so the distillery was renamed to the Barton distillery. In 2008 the now fully grown company Barton Brands chose to rename the distillery to its former name Tom Moore distillery.
| Information about the Distillery | |
|---|---|
| USA, Kentucky | |
| -85.477330 37.805695 | |
| Active | |
| Sazerac Company | |
| http://www.bartonbrands.com/ |
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Whiskeys
The Barton distillery only has two major Bourbons and many other smaller brands that are associated with the distillery. The first is the 1792 Ridgemont Reserve, which is their small batch premium Whiskey. The other is the 'very old Barton', it is a typical 4-6 year old Bourbon.
Production
The Production is in some ways special for a normal Kentucky Straight Bourbon. First of all the distillery is a bit more traditional in their production of the process steam. They still fire their boiler with coal. Due to new regulations they had to install some new filters on top of their chimney and this tradition will certainly become more expensive over the years.
Another speciality are the outside fermenter. Some of the fermenter stand right behind the distillery. These large stainless steel tanks are not inside a house and therefore exposed to the heat and cold of the seasons.
The Stills
Barton uses column stills. The distillery has a few stills in their still-room. Some of them are insulated and some are pain metal on the outside. All of the stills are quite tall so the alcohol has a lot of room to separate into a fine raw Whiskey.
Mashing
Barton uses only corn, rye and malted barley for their mash. Before mashing the grain is crushed in a hammer-mill before it is processed in the mash tub. Before the fermentation some of the residue of the still is added to the mash to provide a lower (better) pH-value for the yeast. This residue is sour, so the Americans call it the sour mash process.
Warehouse
The Barton distillery stores its Whiskey in normal unheated rick-houses. The warehouses are seven stories high with three ricks on every level. This is very tall for warehouses and the difference of the maturation from the top to the bottom is significant. Each of their warehouses hold about 19,000 barrels. Following the rules of Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Barton only uses fresh American white oak barrels.
History
In 1889 the distillery was founded by Tom Moore under his name. It was closed down due to prohibition in 1920. Later after the 21st Amendment in Dec. 1933 the distillery was reopened by his son Con Moore. But he had to sell the distillery in 1944 and so the distillery was renamed to the Barton distillery. In 2008 the now fully grown company Barton Brands chose to rename the distillery to its former name Tom Moore distillery.
In 2009 the Sazerac Company purchased the distillery and changed the name back to Barton distillery. In June 2018, part of the American distillery's warehouse collapsed, destroying most of the approximately 18,000 barrels stored there. Just two weeks later, the rest of the warehouse also collapsed, leaving only a few of the remaining barrels saved. No people were injured, but the leaking Whiskey got into adjacent waters and caused the death of about 800 fish. The distillery took this serious accident as an opportunity to completely redesign its storage concept. Three new warehouses were built, which were completed in 2021 and now offer 25% more capacity.
Visitor Centre
The Barton distillery opened to the public in 2012 and offers the visitors a small tour around the distillery and into one warehouse. The tours are still free of charge and you even get to taste two of their products.
Fun Fact
There is a picnic area at the campus with the worlds largest barrel on it.
User Notes about the Distillery
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