Corsair Artisan Distillery

Distillery

Darek Bell and Andrew Webber founded Corsair in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2008.^1,2,3 In 2010 it opened in Nashville as the city's first craft distillery since Prohibition.^1,2,4 It is known for unusual grains such as quinoa and buckwheat, and for whiskey made from smoked malt.^1,3,5 In 2018 it closed the Kentucky site and moved all production to Nashville.^2,3,6

Latest bottlings

View all 16 bottles

Four Kings Malt Whiskey Finished in Scotch Barrels
4 distilleries
2020 Craft Whiskey Collaboration2020 release50.7%
Four Kings Rye Whiskey Finished in Brandy Barrels
4 distilleries
2019 Craft Whiskey Collaboration2019 release50.7%
Four Kings Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Tequila Barrels
4 distilleries
2018 Craft Whiskey Collaboration2018 release50.7%
Four Kings Blended Whiskey
4 distilleries
2017 release50.7%

A start in Kentucky

Tennessee law did not allow a distillery in Nashville, so the friends began an hour's drive away, in a 2,400-square-foot space.

1

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Before 2009, only three of Tennessee's 95 counties allowed distilling, and that year a new law opened 44 of them.^5,7

Bell said Corsair spent a year changing the state law and another 9 months changing a local ordinance.^5,7

Nashville and Ashland City

Its 5,000-square-foot first Nashville distillery, in a former Yazoo Brewery building in Marathon Village, now holds a 1920s pot still, condensing stills and a gin still.^1,2,4 By 2014 Nashville made the whiskey, while Bowling Green focused on white spirits like gin.⁵ In January 2016 it opened a second Nashville site in Wedgewood-Houston, which became its headquarters.^1,2,8 The new site added offices, more barrel storage and whiskey making on a larger scale.^1,2,8 On 31 August 2018 it closed the Bowling Green distillery, planning a large new production facility in Nashville.^2,3,6 In March 2021 Ashland City's council approved Corsair's plan for a distillery at Trinity Road, with a rickhouse for storing barrels as they age.^9,10 Corsair's site now says it recently built a distillery near Nashville to make spirit under contract, with a 24-inch Vendome column still, and names Ashland City.^9,10

Unusual grains and smoke

2008–today

Bell said Corsair chose from day one to make untraditional whiskeys, making about 100 new recipes a year.^1,3,5 In 2013 it aged spirit in barrels of 15 to 30 gallons, smaller than the 53-gallon barrels at big distilleries.¹¹ The WKU Herald reported this cut ageing from five years to less than 12 months.¹¹ In 2014 it built its own malting facility on the Bell family farm to make many more smoked malts.^1,5 By then it had made 80 smoked whiskeys, using smoke from woods from alder to white oak.⁵ By 2022 it focused on American single malt and malted rye.¹²

Sources

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