Old Forester Distilling Co

Few names in American whiskey carry the weight of Old Forester. It has been on the market longer than any other bourbon, sold by the same company before, during, and after Prohibition, and it was the first bourbon sold exclusively in sealed glass bottles. When Old Forester Distilling Co opened its doors on Louisville's Whiskey Row in 2018, the brand returned to the very block where it did business before Prohibition, a homecoming nearly a century in the making.

History & Heritage

In 1870, a young pharmaceutical salesman named George Garvin Brown had an idea that seems obvious now and was radical then: sell whiskey in a sealed glass bottle so the customer knows exactly what is inside. At the time, whiskey was sold by the barrel and too often adulterated along the way. Brown batched bourbon and sealed it in glass, signing each bottle as his personal guarantee of quality. That signature built Brown-Forman, the Louisville company that still owns Old Forester as of July 2026, with the Brown family holding a controlling interest.

When Prohibition arrived in 1920, Brown-Forman secured one of only six federal licenses permitting the sale of medicinal whiskey, which is how Old Forester became the only bourbon sold continuously by the same company through the dry years. In June 2018, Brown-Forman opened Old Forester Distilling Co at 119 West Main Street, inside a Whiskey Row building the brand occupied until 1919. The 45 million dollar, 70,000 square foot facility holds a 44 foot copper column still built by Louisville's Vendome Copper & Brass Works, adding roughly 100,000 proof gallons of annual capacity alongside Brown-Forman's larger distillery in Shively, Kentucky.

The Whiskey

Old Forester's signature bourbon mash bill runs 72 percent corn, 18 percent rye, and 10 percent malted barley, noticeably richer in rye than most bourbons and the source of the brand's spicy backbone. The Whiskey Row Series translates the brand's history into the glass: Old Forester 1870 Original Batch Bourbon recreates Brown's practice of batching barrels, Old Forester 1897 Bottled In Bond honors the Bottled-in-Bond Act, Old Forester 1910 Old Fine Whiskey takes a second trip through heavily charred barrels, and Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style Bourbon lands at 115 proof, echoing the strength of medicinal-era whiskey. The series grew in January 2024 with Old Forester 1924, a 10 year age stated bourbon at 100 proof built on a different mash bill of 79 percent corn, 11 percent rye, and 10 percent malted barley, marking 100 years since the brand bottled barrels acquired from distilleries closed by Prohibition. The lineup also includes Old Forester Rye 100 and the annual Birthday Bourbon, released each year since 2002 to mark George Garvin Brown's birthday.

Why It Matters

Old Forester is living proof that bourbon history is not a marketing invention. The sealed bottle, the medicinal permit, an unbroken run of more than 150 years: these are documented facts, and the whiskey still earns its keep at the price. For those who appreciate good whiskey, the Whiskey Row Series offers one of the clearest side-by-side lessons in how proof, barrel char, and batching shape a single mash bill. That is why The Sentinel Room keeps seven Old Forester expressions in its Reserve Whiskey Library.

Visiting the Distillery

Old Forester Distilling Co welcomes visitors at 119 West Main Street in downtown Louisville. Tours walk guests through fermentation, distillation, and the on-site working cooperage, the only distillery experience in Kentucky that includes a working new-barrel cooperage, where visitors watch coopers raise and char barrels. The distillery is also the primary home of the Old Forester 117 Series, a limited line of experimental expressions introduced in 2021 and sold mainly at the distillery and select Kentucky retailers. George's Bar serves cocktails, flights, and whiskey by the glass, and a bottle shop operates on site.