Remember the first time you tasted whiskey straight from the barrel? There’s nothing else quite like it. Usually, it’s a privilege reserved for distillers and their pals. But at Whiskey Thief Distilling Company, even casual visitors can experience the incredible aromatic and flavor density of uncut, unfiltered whiskey directly from the cask.

Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. was founded in 2012 by Ross Caldwell on his family’s 127-acre grain farm outside of Frankfort, Kentucky. Walter Zausch, a Bay Area architect who missed his Kentucky roots, started his own non-distiller producer bourbon brand in the 2010s and hired Whiskey Thief to make his products. When Caldwell decided to retire in 2020, he wondered if Zausch might be interested in taking over. “He said, ‘I think most days you like this place better than I do,’” laughs Zausch. So Zausch agreed, and in 2021, he became the official owner of Whiskey Thief Distilling Co.