With 2025 officially here, the new year marks a major milestone for Buffalo Trace Distillery – the completion of the Distillery’s $1.2 billion expansion! This expansion project began back in 2015 and they are in the final days. With the expected completion on track for the end of January, 2025 is likely to be another record year for the Distillery as Buffalo Trace is making more whiskey than ever before.
As we look ahead for 2025, another milestone will be the filling of Buffalo Trace’s 9 millionth barrel – a milestone the Distillery has reached in record time thanks to the expansion project.
Latest details on the expansion project:
- The Distillery’s $1.2 billion expansion is more than 90% complete, with the final phase of the expansion going live by the end of January. This final phase includes construction of eight new 95,000-gallon fermenters and a new boiler house featuring two new steam boilers standing 38 ft long, 12 ft wide and 16 ft tall.
- Once the final phase is complete, Buffalo Trace will be able to increase its whiskey making capacity by another roughly 25%. That is in addition to the increased capacity that came with the new Still House, which went live in December 2022. In total, Buffalo Trace has increased production capacity by roughly 150% since the expansion project began in 2015, going from around 200,000 barrels per year to now an estimated 500,000 a year.
- As production capacity grows, so does the number of team members. Currently, Buffalo Trace Distillery has more than 800 employees. We are quite proud to be the largest private employer in Franklin County. In comparison, the Distillery had around 400 employees when the expansion project began in 2015. In 1992, we employed less than 65 people.
As a whole, the expansion project has consisted of the following:
- New distribution center
- New bottling operation
- Expanded visitors center
- New Boiler House
- New Still House
- New Dry House
- New Mill House
- Upgraded Cistern Room
- 3 new 75,000-gallon Cistern tanks
- 20 additional fermenters
- 3 additional steam boilers
- 4 new cookers
- New process cooling systems
- New Wastewater Treatment Facility
- 19 new aging warehouses
