New Old Forester Distillery Gets Its Big Copper Still Dropped In

One of the centerpieces of any distillery is the still upon which the whiskey is produced. With small stills it is usually a matter of just rolling up the garage door and bringing the parts in. With big stills however, such as the one just installed at the still under construction Old Forester Distillery in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, you’ve got to bring in the cranes.

The Old Forester Distillery’s new column still, while just 2 feet wide, is a massively tall 44 feet. It also weighs some 4700 pounds. Produced by Vendome Copper and Brass Works for Brown-Forman, it traveled down Main Street in Louisville from Vendome for installation. It was lifted from a flatbed truck by a crane built inside of the distillery footprint. It was then raised up and over the several story building facade into the distillery and affixed to the interior wall.

“We are very excited for the installation of column still – the focal point of our facility,” said Old Forester President Campbell Brown in a prepared statement. “This turning point brings us to a new chapter in the construction of the Old Forester Distillery allowing us to envision the future of this long term project more and more every day.”

The column still, should you not know already, plays a key role in bourbon making which focuses upon the separation of the fermented mash (corn, rye, malt and barley) to create ‘new spirit,’ essentially serving as the heart of the distillery. The location of the distillery being built around it is Louisville’s Whiskey Row, once a pivotal part of the whiskey industry. Plans call for the whiskey making facility to be up and running in late spring 2018.