Old Forester appoints head of visitor experience

Kentucky Bourbon brand Old Forester has named Erik Brown as the visitor experience manager for its new distillery, which will open later this year.

Erik Brown previously worked as vice president and chief development officer at the Kentucky Derby Museum

Brown joins the distillery from the Kentucky Derby Museum and will be responsible for managing tourism programmes at the Old Forester Distillery.

Having previously worked as vice president and chief development officer at the Kentucky museum, Brown will now oversee events, tours, visits, and retail sales for the Bourbon brand.

Campbell Brown, Old Forester Distillery president, said: “Erik brings a passion for creating memorable experiences making him a great fit for our dynamic distillery and bourbon experience on Whiskey Row.”

During his time at the Kentucky Derby Museum, Brown developed Fan Fest, the single largest annual admission day for the museum, and served as director of sales and special events.

Plans to build the first stand-alone distillery for Old Forester were announced in September 2014 and whiskey fans were given their first look at the proposed site two years later.

While the project was set to be completed by autumn 2016, a fire spread across the distillery’s proposed site in Whiskey Row, Louisville, causing Brown-Forman to delay opening by “several months”.

After naming Juan Merizalde Carrillo as distillery manager, Brown-Forman announced last year that the opening of the new distillery would be pushed back further to late spring 2018.