The Lone Star State’s Milam & Greene Whiskey recently completed an extensive expansion of its Blanco, Texas-based distillery.
A statement from the distiller notes that the multi-million-dollar project brought in all operations of the Milam & Greene Whiskey distillery, including new distilling equipment, increasing the distillery’s footprint and new warehousing facilities, as well as updating its tasting room.
In fact, Milam & Greene threw a grand re-opening party and ribbon-cutting ceremony at the distillery on March 4th to mark the occasion.
“These updates to the Milam & Green facilities in the Texas Hill Country were critical in realizing our long-term business plans,” said Milam & Greene Whiskey CEO and Master Blender Heather Greene. “We have grown, on average, more than 70 percent each year since we introduced the brand just before the pandemic, at the end of 2019.”
She said their production, which is managed by 30-year whiskey veteran and master distiller, Marlene Holmes, has increased more than seven times since they launched, done so in order to meet national demand for their bourbon and rye whiskies.
The expansion includes the installation of a new, 1,000-gallon Vendome copper pot still. It sits alongside an existing 300-gallon Vendome copper pot still, new boilers, fermenters, and mash tuns in an additional 1,600-square-feet of space that was added to the existing distillery footprint.
“It was Vendome or nothing,” Holmes said. The Milam & Greene Whiskey team distills in both the home distillery in Texas and at Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky using the same mash bill and yeast recipe.
“Our small-production Vendome copper pot still will yield a rich and robust character that will eventually be bottled as our Distillery Edition Bourbon, in addition to being used to marry with our whiskey from the larger column stills in Kentucky for our Triple Cask Bourbon,” the master distiller noted.
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The new still will increase their Texas-based production to more than a thousand barrels a year on one shift.
“Anything larger than that would create too much of a change in the organoleptic profile,” Greene said. “While still a relatively small production by Kentucky standards, the bespoke pot still is a lot of where our magic lies and we can’t wait to play with it.”
Milam & Greene now ages its bourbon and rye barrels in a second new, non-climate controlled rickhouse that spans 4,0000-square-feet and will house an additional 2,000 barrels.
The new rickhouse is used to age Milam & Greene’s Kentucky and Texas distillate, as well as sourced whiskey barrels from two other states. The Port wine puncheons that age the Port Cask Finished Rye will also be transferred to the new warehouse.
Along with increasing production, Milam & Greene added jobs at the distillery to handle the expansion. Seasoned industry veteran, Rikk Munroe. joined the team as the new distillery manager working closely with Holmes.
He’s responsible for overseeing everything from inventory, barrels, mashing, fermenting, distilling, and aging, with a focus on quality assurance to consistently produce the highest quality whiskey, Holmes explained.
The team also added two distillers to run mashing, fermentation, and distillation, as well as new staff members to help with barrel management and movement, bottling, and labeling.
The Milam & Greene tasting room also received a makeover with an extension built onto the existing tasting room to create more seating, and a new merchandise area.
Brenda Fisher was promoted to tasting room manager and is responsible for cocktail ideation, menu creation, staffing, special events, management of the bartender team, and engaging customers.
The expansion was celebrated with the release of the Distillery Edition Batch 4 Straight Bourbon Whiskey. They only made one barrel of this limited-edition bourbon, and bottles are now available exclusively at the Milam & Greene Whiskey distillery, while supplies last.
“We’re excited about the growth of Milam & Greene Whiskey and our ability to satisfy the thirst of whiskey drinkers around the country … from casual sippers to hardcore whiskey collectors,” Greene said. “Our new facilities are focused on delighting our customers near and far by creating the best whiskey possible.”
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