Corky Taylor and his son Carson launched Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. in 2013 and began making whiskey in downtown Louisville in 2015.1,2,3 In 2014 Taylor revived the Peerless name and DSP-KY-50, the plant number of his great-grandfather Henry Kraver's distillery in Henderson, Kentucky.4,5,6
The Taylors' 2013 plan put the distillery at 10th and Main Streets.1,7,8 Taylor said he fought for a year and a half to win back DSP-KY-50, the federal plant licence that showed Peerless was Kentucky's 50th registered distillery.4,5,6 Caleb Kilburn joined the Taylors in 2014; with no family recipe, he said, he started from scratch to create a bourbon.5,7 The Taylors renovated a 100-year-old building and began barreling there in March 2015, using a 25.5-foot Vendome column still.1,2,3 Its spirit is double-distilled.2,3 The distillery held its grand opening on 3 June 2015.1,9 It filled its barrels at 107 proof.1,9
In October 2018 it completed a one-story rickhouse, or barrel warehouse, for 5,300 barrels in Henry County, on land bought in 2017.2 Until then it had kept its barrels in a rickhouse at the Louisville distillery.2 In January 2019 Peerless named Kilburn master distiller, crediting him with its sweet mash and with distilling at no higher than 132 proof.10,11 A sour mash adds part of an earlier batch to the next one; a sweet mash skips that step.10,11 In June 2023 Kilburn and chief operating officer Cordell Lawrence said they would leave to found Eastern Light Distilling.7,12 Both planned to stay on while the project got under way, and both later left Peerless.7,12
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