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Milam & Greene expands Texas distillery
Texas-based Milam & Greene Whiskey has completed a multi-million-dollar expansion of its distillery, increasing production to more than 1,000 barrels per year.
The expansion included new distilling equipment, increased distillery footprint, and new warehousing facilities, and an updated tasting room.
The site, based in Blanco, Texas, was expanded by an additional 1,600 square feet.
“These updates to the Milam & Greene facilities in Texas Hill Country were critical in realising our long-term business plans, as we have grown on average more than 70% each year since we introduced the brand just before the pandemic at the end of 2019,” said Milam & Greene Whiskey CEO and master blender, Heather Greene.
“Our production, which is managed by 30-year whiskey veteran and master distiller Marlene Holmes has increased more than seven times since we launched in order to meet national demand for our prized Bourbon and rye whiskies.”
The extension includes the installation of a new 1,000-gallon Vendome copper pot still, which will sit alongside an existing 300-gallon Vendome copper pot still, new boilers, fermenters, and mash tuns.
Milam & Greene distills whiskey at both its Texas distillery and at Kentucky’s Bardstown Bourbon Company using the same mash bill and yeast recipe.
The brand’s range includes Triple Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey and Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Casks
Master distiller Marlene Holmes explained: “Our small-production Vendome copper pot still will yield a rich and robust character that will eventually be bottled as our Distillery Edition Bourbon, in addition to being used to marry with our whiskey from the larger column stills in Kentucky for our Triple Cask Bourbon.”
The new still will enable the distillery to produce more than 1,000 barrels per year.
“Anything larger than that would create too much of a change in the organoleptic profile,” Greene added. “While still a relatively small production by Kentucky standards, the bespoke pot still is a lot of where our magic lies and we can’t wait to play with it.”
The distillery is ageing Bourbon and rye in a new, second, non-climate controlled rickhouse that spans 4,000 square feet and will house an additional 2,000 barrels.
New hires
Milam & Greene has also made several new appointments, including Rikk Munroe as distillery manager, and two distillers.
Munroe is responsible for overseeing everything from inventory, barrels, mashing, fermenting, distilling and ageing.
The distillery has also hired new staff members to help with barrel management and movement, bottling and labelling.
Brenda Fisher was promoted to manager of the tasting room, which has been extended to include more seating and a merchandise area.
The distillery held a reopening party on 4 March, and revealed the release of its ‘grain-to-glass’ Distillery Edition Batch 4 Straight Bourbon Whiskey, an ‘extremely limited’ Bourbon with only one barrel created.