The bourbon industry is in turmoil. Can technology provide the shot you need?

If you’ve never taken a whiskey distillery tour, the experience may be uncommonly old-fashioned. While newer distilleries are thriving with automation, many still tout their “manual” operations as a hallmark, a legacy that gives them street cred. Many distilleries are quite cavalier about not having computers or even climate control in any aspect of their operations – even if it means things don’t always go according to plan. Easily avoidable mistakes are classified as a cost of doing business, which can further romanticize whiskey making while draining the budget.

Although the impact of an experienced master distiller is significant, there is a real danger in sidestepping technology when it comes to the final product, Mandel says. “What many other people get is inconsistent, because they have less control over the process,” he says. He adds that this contradiction can often be felt in the quality of the whiskey they serve.

Contract negotiations

Like many industries, whiskey is very taboo, and the distillery listed on the label may not make the liquid inside the bottle. In fact, this distillery may never exist at all. For example, you can’t visit the Redemption Whiskey Distillery, because there isn’t one; The brand sources all of its MGP ingredient inventory in Indiana.

There are two basic ways to obtain whiskey without distilling it yourself. Sourcing usually involves purchasing barrels that have already been manufactured by someone else. Contract distilling occurs when whiskey is distilled to the customer’s specifications. Both are common.

Mandel is a veteran of the Bardstown Bourbon Company, a highly regarded operation he helped launch in 2014. Bardstown made (and continues to make) its own whiskey, but like many distilleries it also produces for others under contract. These contract distilling services are where quick money is made. Whiskey produced today will only be sold after it has been properly aged – for years – but unlike consumers, contract customers have to pay up front. Bardstown has managed to thread the needle and do both aspects successfully — although without a thriving contract production business and hiring Hargrove (who now leads the Whiskey House production team) to fix some quality issues, Mandel points out that Bardstown may not have been so fortunate in its early days.

When Mandel and Hargrove left Bardstown around the time of a private equity buyout a few years ago, they began working on a new project almost immediately. The idea was simple: “What if we could start over, take everything we’ve learned, and create the distillery and system from scratch,” Mandel says. “What is needed there? What problems can we solve?”

It turns out there are a lot of problems to solve, and a lot of demand. After all, many so-called non-distillery brands – including most of the “popular” whiskeys now crowding the market, such as Beyoncé’s Sir Davis – have to be made somewhere.