Elijah Craig Distillery Co

Elijah Craig is one of Heaven Hill's flagship bourbon and rye whiskey brands, produced in Kentucky and carried in The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library for those who appreciate good whiskey.

History & Heritage

Heaven Hill was founded in 1935 by the Shapira family in Bardstown, Kentucky, and the family has led the company ever since. The Elijah Craig brand itself was introduced in 1986, named for the Baptist minister often credited in bourbon folklore with charring the first oak barrels, a story more legend than verified history but central to how the brand tells its own origin. After a 1996 fire destroyed Heaven Hill's original Bardstown production facility, the company acquired the Bernheim Distillery in downtown Louisville from United Distillers in 1999, and Bernheim has been the cornerstone of Heaven Hill's production since. In 2024, Heaven Hill brought a second facility online, the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown, adding production capacity alongside Bernheim as the company continues to grow. Conor O'Driscoll has led Heaven Hill's distilling and warehousing teams as Master Distiller since 2019.

Elijah Craig is owned, as of July 2026, by Heaven Hill Brands, a family-owned house of brands still under Shapira family control. There is no independently operating company legally named "Elijah Craig Distillery"; the brand's whiskey is distilled and matured entirely within Heaven Hill's own production system.

The Whiskey

Elijah Craig bourbons draw on Heaven Hill's standard mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley, while the rye expressions use a mashbill built around 51% rye grain. Every Elijah Craig bourbon ages in Level 3 charred new oak barrels, fired for 40 seconds to reach that char level, a detail Heaven Hill points to as central to the brand's flavor profile. Bernheim Distillery in Louisville runs three column stills and 17 fermentation tanks, producing roughly 400,000 barrels a year and covering nearly every major style and type of American whiskey. Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown opened with one column still, a 60-foot column, and 10 fermentation tanks, an initial capacity of 150,000 barrels a year built to scale toward 450,000 as the site matures, and is designed to produce a range of American whiskey mashbills alongside Bernheim.

The current lineup spans Elijah Craig Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey at 94 proof, Elijah Craig Straight Rye Whiskey at 94 proof, Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel Bourbon (fully matured Small Batch finished a second time in a custom toasted barrel), Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon (bottled uncut and non-chill-filtered, with proof and age statement varying by batch), and aged single barrel expressions at 18 and 21 years. The 21-Year-Old Single Barrel returned in spring 2026, Heaven Hill's first release at that age since a limited 2019 run.

Why It Matters

Elijah Craig has built a reputation as one of the more decorated widely available bourbon and rye lines on the market. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof won Whisky Advocate's Whisky of the Year in 2017. Elijah Craig Small Batch won Best Small Batch at the 2018 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and Double Gold there in both 2021 and 2023. Elijah Craig Straight Rye earned a spot in Whisky Advocate's Top 10 of 2020 and also took Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2021 and 2023, while Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel won Gold there in both years as well. That consistency across batches, styles, and years is a large part of why the brand remains a benchmark pour for both bourbon and rye in the Reserve Whiskey Library.

Visiting the Distillery

There is no standalone Elijah Craig visitor center. The official Elijah Craig site directs visitors to the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience at 1311 Gilkey Run Rd., Bardstown, Kentucky, where guided tastings cover Elijah Craig alongside other Heaven Hill whiskeys, and the site includes exhibit galleries, Five Brothers Bar & Kitchen, and a retail shop. All tours depart from the Bourbon Experience; visitors do not get direct access to the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery production floor itself.