Are Jeptha Creeds Festivals On Your Bourbon Trail Itinerary?

By Richard Thomas

Among bourbon nerds, Jeptha Creed Distillery is best known as the craft-scale farm distillery that was an early revivalist of the Bloody Butcher strain of corn. The distillery is built around the Nethery family’s farm properties in Shelbyville, and since part of the problem with using exotic grain varietals is persuading a farmer to grow them, takes advantage of that farm access by growing some of their own grain for making spirits.

From the point of a view of a bourbon tourist, Jeptha Creed’s status as a relative newcomer operating on a much smaller scale than the “Kentucky Majors” makes them relatively obscure. I imagine many a traveler plying the Kentucky Bourbon Trail only became aware of Jeptha Creed because of a drive along Interstate 64 between Lexington and Louisville, because the distillery is located in plain sight of that highway near Shelbyville.

But Jeptha Creed has some features that few or none of the other distilleries in Kentucky share: a spacious indoor and outdoor veranda bar, a rolling lawn extending off that back veranda, and an events stage across from that veranda. This combination of elements obviously makes the distillery a rental venue, but four times a year it gives them the means of throwing their own festivals. It’s the latter that should be on the agenda of anyone intending to ply the Bourbon Trail next year.

In Summer 2024, Jeptha Creed held three concerts as part of its Jammin at Jeptha series. Then came their Fall Harvest Festival in early October, which combined the concert and vendors of the summer series with a corn maze. Events like these add a spark to the usual bourbon itinerary, which is so often limited to distillery tours and tastings plus maybe some bar hopping and bottle hunting, as well as making bourbon tourism a little more approachable for the non-enthusiast. Any of the concert events can include a regular tour of the distillery and tasting, but these build on that by adding some live entertainment and a festive atmosphere.

In terms of bourbon, Jeptha Creed’s flagship is their Bottled in Bond Bourbon, made with 75% bloody butcher corn, 20% malted rye and 5% malted barley. They also have a 6 year old wheated bourbon and a straight four-grain bourbon in their standard inventory.