Heaven Hill Announces $25M Distillery Expansion

Heaven Hill Distillery today announced plans for a $25-million expansion of its Bernheim facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

The company says this will create the single largest bourbon production site. Acquired in 1999 by Heaven Hill, the site is now home to the Evan Williams Bourbon, Larceny, Elijah Craig and Henry McKenna, among other brands.

The current expansion will bring capacity to 400,000 barrels per year.

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Major components of the expansion include four additional fermenters, another distillation set of a thumper and 66-inch beer column, a drop tub to increase number of mashes per day, a 50,000 pph boiler, a new grain handling and storage upgrade, a cooling capacity upgrade and an operations software upgrade.

Two prior expansions have completed at Bernheim since 2006. The first brought capacity to 200,000 barrels per year in 2007, and the second to 300,000 barrels per year in 2014. Since 2016, Heaven Hill has opened four warehouses at the new Cox’s Creek barrel warehouse location, where each warehouse holds almost 57,000 barrels of the more than 1.3 million barrels (approximately 25% of the world’s bourbon supply) aging across Jefferson and Nelson Counties.

“As an American-owned and operated company, Heaven Hill Distillery is proud to be on the forefront of the American Whiskey movement and embark on the latest iteration of distillery technology and innovation,” says Heaven Hill President Max L. Shapira (pictured atop, during the announcement ceremony). “The Bourbon distillation project combines the latest of distilling techniques with the ability to produce our brands using traditional methods as we have for more than 80 years.”

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Shapira also introduced a partnership with Dare to Care to support hunger relief within the area. A $10,000 donation will support a mobile pantry unit for West Louisville and purchase six freezers for partner agencies within the area to distribute fresh food and produce.

To celebrate the achievement, a commemorative barrel was signed by Heaven Hill employees and local dignitaries.

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