Buffalo Trace Keeps Growing And Growing And Growing

by Nino Kilgore-Marchetti
September 8, 2022

Buffalo Trace, in an ever expanding effort to keep up with heightened consumer demands for its various bourbons, recently announced it has increased supplies to consumers by 50% due to increased distillation and aging warehouse capacity. This is all part of a massive and ongoing $1.2 billion expansion.

The increase in supplies, according to the brand, has occurred over the last five years. This is, of course, despite the fact many Buffalo Trace whiskeys remain on allocation. It is a constant moving target for the Kentucky bourbon powerhouse, beginning some nine years ago via expansion plans to its various facilities.

What this exactly plays out to is a new distribution center and bottling operation, each of which came online in 2015 and 2019, respectively. More recently, the distillery added 14 new barrel warehouses, 12 additional fermenters, additional cookers, a new cooling system and tripled the size of its visitor center.

In 2022, Buffalo Trace’s additional dry house, hammer mill, additional still house and wastewater treatment plant have been constructed and will be operational by the end of this year.

Buffalo Trace 2022 — Buffalo Trace, in an ever expanding effort to keep up with heightened consumer demands for its various bourbons, recently announced it has increased supplies to consumers by 50% due to increased distillation and aging warehouse capacity. (image via Buffalo Trace)

The newly constructed still house will begin operating in December 2022 and allows Buffalo Trace to double its production. The second still house is located adjacent to Buffalo Trace’s existing 1930s still house and contains a duplicate still of Buffalo Trace’s existing still, standing 40 feet tall and having the capacity of 60,000 gallons a day.

“We’re finishing the electrical work in the new still house now, and then will move into commissioning it for test runs in the next few weeks,” said said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller at Buffalo Trace, in a prepared statement. “If all goes as planned, we will start production before the end of this year. We are excited to double our distillation capacity so we can bring more bourbons to our fans.”

“We appreciate our fan’s patience as we’ve been laying down the foundation to produce more American Whiskey than we ever have before,” added Sara Saunders, vice president, Buffalo Trace Distillery. “We are still catching up to consumer demand and though our bourbons can be hard to find at times, more is coming! When our new still starts early next year we will double our production…. And then we wait for it to age because one thing we will not do is cut any quality corners by lowering proof or age.

“We are committed to maintaining the highest quality whiskey at fair prices.”