Blue Run Spirits to Build Innovative High Tech Distillery

Blue Run Spirits has unveiled it's innovative new solar powered distillery to be built in Georgetown, KY. Blue Run Spirits was founded in 2020 but has already won some major accolades in that short time with wins at the 2021 San Fransisco Spirits Competition for their 14 Year Old Small batch Bourbon, and 13.5 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon.

The $51 million expansion will break ground this year and be open in 2025. The project, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), will include a 35,000 ft² distillery, 20,000 ft² rickhouse, as well as blending and bottling processes in a unique design called "Meander," which is meant to reflect the path of the Royal Spring winding it's way through Georgetown.

“We are thrilled to be able to reveal an early look of Bjarke Ingels Group’s design for the new Blue Run Spirits distillery in Georgetown, giving everyone a glimpse at where we are heading in developing a welcoming, unexpected and modern facility with a true focus on sustainability,” said Blue Run Spirits CEO and co-founder Mike Montgomery. “This will be a game-changing addition to Blue Run’s long-range business plans, allowing us to meet forecasted and unforeseen demand, while also giving our Whiskey Director Shaylyn Gammon and Liquid Advisor Jim Rutledge a home base of operations.”

“Design is at the center of everything we do at Blue Run – from our liquid to our bottle to our new distillery,” continued Montgomery. “The design BIG has developed is in dialogue with the landscape, the meandering path to making whiskey and a manifestation of the bold, distinct and inviting ethos that signifies Blue Run Spirits.”

“For Blue Run, we have boiled the entire process of whiskey-making down to a single linear sequence - from distilling to maturing to bottling. The half-mile long process meanders through the gentle hillsides creating bends and banks, inlets, and outlooks. A single shingled roof of photovoltaic tiles twists and turns to maintain optimal orientation even as the activities underneath require grandeur or intimacy. In the same way the Royal Spring is shaped by how the water flows through it, Blue Run Distillery is shaped by the flow of the whiskey and the processes and people who make it,” said Founder & Creative Director, BIG, Bjarke Ingels.

Blue Run Spirits has seen sales grow by 300% per year since opening in October 2020. They have released 13 bourbon and rye whiskeys in that short time, and have recently announced expanded distribution in New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington, Minnesota and Ontario.