I knew that Southern Grace Distillery was located in an old prison. However, when I drove up, saw all the barbed wire, and heard the loud music, I thought the inmates had taken over! It turns out that the owners wanted to retain as much of the prison as possible so they left the barbed wire enclosing the grounds. And the loud music was from the rickhouse (a converted prison dormitory) where they blast music to help in the ageing process. Okay, this might just be marketing, but what the heck, it doesn’t hurt to play The Rolling Stones while the bourbon is ageing!.

I was fortunate to talk with their master distiller, Sebastian Correa, who took me through the operation. Sebastian has a degree in Fermentation Science and Chemistry. As you can imagine, the setup of the prison does not lead to efficiency in production but it does make it an interesting place to work (and visit). As you might imagine given their still size, they produce in small batches only (about 200 gallons per batch). The distillery sells only single barrel, cask strength products. They want their consumers to experience the unique flavors that each barrel provides to the bourbon.

They have two pot stills, a 100 gallon with two 25 gallon thumpers, and a 330 gallon with two 50 gallon thumpers. This gives them essentially a triple distillation of their spirits. It’s simple but it works!

The distillery is planning on releasing three new finished straight bourbons (Cognac, Sherry, and Amarone) in the fall of 2021 as well as a straight Double Oaked bourbon.