Farm Distillery Days at Historic Locust Grove
Locust Grove is the circa 1792 mansion and estate of William and Lucy Clark Croghan in Louisville. William had settled and surveyed the Kentucky territory with George Rogers Clark. Agriculture was an important part of Locust Grove back in the 18th century and this included a distillery.
Brian Cushing (L) and Alan Bishop (R) working on the mash.
The distillery’s appearance doesn’t resemble what we think of as a distillery these days. It also filled a very different purpose back then, too. A distillery was a normal part of the agricultural process, not a separate entity of its own. While the science of distillation used two centuries ago is recognizable, the tools, techniques and processes are fascinatingly different.
Locust Grove program director, Brian Cushing and the team there have honored the history of distillation through the Farm Distillery Project. Brian came into Locust Grove to preserve and promote the history of the place and the era. When the Farm Distillery Project was launched, authenticity was essential for Brian. To make sure the equipment, tools and techniques being used in their recreations and reenactments, Brian immersed himself in training. “I was able to spend considerable time with Steve Bashore (director of Historic Trades at George Washington’s Mount Vernon).” Every day, Steve works with tools and processes used in 18th century milling and distillation. Brian continued, “There was no better training than getting to work with and learn from Steve”.
Brian also called on Alan Bishop, head distiller at Spirits of French Lick and historian of regional distillation. “Alan has been able to teach me so much about distillation, in general, but also about the unique nature of pre-prohibition distilling in Indiana and Kentucky”.
Working the mash until it is smooth is a labor-intensive process
Farm Distilled White Whiskey
A Farm Distillery Project event was held on September 12 at Locust Grove. Cushing and Bishop teamed for the day to create a mash to be used for as Alan described it, “true representation of early Kentucky farm-distilled white whiskey”. The two built a fire to heat the water to be used in the mashing process and manually combined the grain with the hot water. The mash bill was 70 pounds of corn, about 8 pounds of wheat and 8 pounds of barley. The mash will be shipped to Kentucky Artisan Distillers where yeast will be added.
“KAD has been a great partner in our endeavors”, Alan said. “They will handle the distillation phase of the whiskey project as Locust Grove isn’t licensed to do this. The end product will be a white whiskey as true to type as we can actually make it”. The white whiskey will be served at Locust Grove functions and, if they get a license, it could be sold on site”.
I asked Brian about other events held at Locust Grove and he shared, “We have two Revolutionary War reenactments each year. We hold antique shows, cooking courses, concerts and other events. Unfortunately, COVID restrictions have prevented any of these from happening in 2020. The Farm Distillery Project days are about all we can do now because these are held outside and it is easy to keep a distance”.
The Absinthe Project
The next Farm Distiller Project event will be at Locust Grove on Saturday, September 26. The project that day will involve absinthe. Alan described this project, “This project is a joint venture between Locust Grove, Musee de Venoge, and Spirits of French Lick to re-create the historic style of Absinthe made by Swiss settlers near Vevay, Indiana in the 1830's”.
Musee de Venoge is an historic home and farm in Switzerland County, Indiana and will be the source for the botanicals used in the absinthe. “The mash will be distilled by KAD and we will transfer in bond the raw spirit to Spirits of French Lick to be distilled into Absinthe”, Alan added.
For more information and tickets to the September 26 Farm Distillery Day visit the Locust Grove website or call 502-897-9845.
