Silver Trail Distillery Explosion Report Released

By Richard Thomas

Following a three-month investigation, the Kentucky Fire Marshall’s office has released its findings on the April explosion and fire at Silver Trail Distillery, a Western Kentucky-based legal moonshine-maker.

The report, released on July 24, indicates that “the event directly involved the over-pressurization of the still with subsequent failure which resulted in it being propelled out the north end of the structure.” It cites that the safety release valve, which might have prevented what the report described as a “blow-out,” was made for use on ordinary water heaters and not with distillation equipment.

The still at Silver Trail was built by Revenoor Stills in 2011, and the report further remarked that the still’s design used marbles in the column to increase surface area and improve condensation, speculating that these might have jammed and clogged the still.

Following the accident, Revenoor filed for “administrative dissolution” on the same day as the Silver Trail fire,  subsequently took down its website (but not its Facebook page, as The Whiskey Reviewer discovered), and was reportedly not responding to calls from either the media or authorities. The company’s Terry Wilhelm eventually responded to inquiries from the Fire Marshall’s investigation, and gave an interview to Whiskycast. It’s website is now up and running again. Silver Trail filed suit against Revenoor in May.

The accident killed Kyle Rogers and severely injured his father, Jay Rogers, both employed at Silver Trail.