Town Branch
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Lexington's first legal distillery since Prohibition, named after the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek that runs beneath the city's downtown. Founded by Irish-born entrepreneur Dr. Pearse Lyons (Alltech), who brought his background in brewing science and Irish distilling tradition to Kentucky bourbon. The distillery uses both pot stills (for its single malt and Kentucky Straight Malt) and column stills (for its bourbon). Uniquely positioned at the intersection of Irish and American whiskey traditions. Located on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in downtown Lexington, it is also home to Lexington Brewing Company. Dr. Lyons' vision was to combine the best of Irish and American distilling -- pot still craft with bourbon heritage.
Production Details
The Town Branch Tale
In the heart of Lexington, where limestone bedrock cradles the Bluegrass, water flows beneath downtown streets through the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek. For generations, this hidden waterway carried the city's secrets. In 2012, it finally whispered its name to Kentucky's first legal distillery since Prohibition.
Dr. Pearse Lyons arrived in the Bluegrass with Irish soil still under his fingernails and brewing science coursing through his veins. The Alltech founder saw something others missed—not just another bourbon distillery, but a bridge between worlds. Here, where limestone had been filtering water for millennia, he would marry the pot still traditions of his homeland with the column still heritage of Kentucky.
The Town Branch itself became his partner, its limestone-kissed waters rising from deep aquifers to feed both still and story. This wasn't just about water chemistry, though the minerals sang sweetly to any distiller's ear. This was about place—about a creek that had witnessed Lexington's birth, survived its silencing during Prohibition, and now flowed again toward legal stills.
Inside the stillhouse, copper pot stills stand alongside towering column stills like old friends from different countries sharing the same hearth. The pots speak Irish—patient, contemplative, drawing out the grain's deeper conversations. The columns answer in Kentucky bourbon dialect—efficient, bold, capturing the corn's bright proclamations. Dr. Lyons orchestrated this bilingual conversation, producing both Kentucky Straight Malt and bourbon under the same roof.
The limestone that filters the Town Branch also built Lexington's foundations, and now it anchors this distillery to both its underground water source and its above-ground mission. Positioned on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the operation shares space with Lexington Brewing Company, where beer and whiskey production dance around each other in complementary rhythms.
Steam rises from the stills like incense from two traditions finding common ground. The Town Branch flows on beneath the city, carrying its ancient minerals toward new expressions, while copper and fire transform grain into liquid bridges between Ireland's patient craft and Kentucky's bold innovation.