Alltech To Break Ground On Pikeville Distillery This Week

By Richard Thomas

Alltech, owners of Lexington, Kentucky’s Town Branch Distillery, intend to break ground on their Pikeville distillery on Thursday morning.

Readers of The Whiskey Reviewer first learned of Alltech’s desire to build a legal moonshine distillery in Pikeville, located deep in southeastern Kentucky’s coal country, via a Facebook bulletin in April 2014. The following July, the state of Kentucky pledged $13 million in road infrastructure projects to support Alltech and other economic projects.

The new distillery will be located in downtown Pikeville, at 745 Hambley Blvd., adjacent to the Jenny Wiley Theater. Plans for the distillery have evolved since The Whiskey Reviewer was first informed of it, however, and the new concern is now a “brewstillery,” similar to Alltech’s other alcohol-making projects. In Lexington, the Kentucky Ale brewery is paired with Town Branch, and in Ireland the Carlow Brewing Company was paired with a whiskey distillery as well. The Pikeville distillery is now slated to make the original moonshine, a bourbon and an ale.