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Distillery Production/Storage Capacity


FasterHorses
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Is there a discussion comparing the major and midsize distillery production volume and rickhouse capacities?

I was thinking of how much larger Beam and WT must be to consistently bottle oceans full of significantly aged bourbon (not to mention extra aged store picks). These two in my mind have got to be at the top of the list. Ive been to BT and it must be like a craft distillery compared to  the others based on the availability of their >7 year old bourbons. Maybe not.. but was just curious if Beam/WT had a 2:1, 5:1, 10:1 ratio compared to BT, FRHH etc.

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So of it is demand too.  Beam is a massive operation so you have both.   But even Beam's Small Batch offerings weren't exactly flying off the shelf.  At Turkey, I feel that they've been underappreciated for a long time by the general consumer.  They consistently just make damn good bourbon.  But even they've had to drop age statements and change the age mix of their offerings in the past.  I think that what we may be seeing is Beam and Turkey finally getting the benefit of capacity changes, etc. that we all hope BT can see in 5+ years.   But we've also been hoping for that for the last five years so.....

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In Montana, a clerk told me that they couldn't keep BT in stock because it is "made at a really small distillery that can't keep up with demand." We have been to the distillery several times and it never occurred to me that it is "really small." Compared to Beam and WT, though, I guess you could say that.

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2 hours ago, VAGentleman said:

Here's some good reading on still size capacity by the big boys and mid majors

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2017/09/bourbon-distilleries-ranked-by-capacity.html

 

Here is some old info with some barrel info

https://www.kentucky.com/lexgoeat/bourbon/article44427909.html

It would be interesting to see an update on the Cowdery article, as there have been more expansions since that was written in 2017. Also interesting that he lists the different locations of the same companies separately. So to get a true idea of, say, Beam Suntory versus Brown Forman, you’d have to add up all the different locations involved. 

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Capacity is as much if not more of a function of fermenters versus stills. Most fermentation takes anywhere from 3 to 7 days depending on the yeast strain. The column stills (which most of the big guys use) can run continuously. Barrel availability and warehouse space is of course an issue. Over the past few years these capacities have increased greatly. 

Unfortunately supply can also be a function of the bean counters and the marketing department. 

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