PCS Distilling Company

Prohibition Craft Spirits Distilling Company, known to most through its NULU Whiskey and Hazelbaker labels, occupies 436 Baxter Ave in Louisville's NuLu neighborhood, a stretch of East Market Street whose "New Louisville" nickname gave the whiskey brand its name. It is a working distillery built by a family that stepped in to save a struggling startup, and it now turns out everything from barrel-strength bourbon to gin, rum, vodka, moonshine, and barrel-aged tequila under one roof.

History & Heritage

PCS Distilling Company traces to 2016, when Keith Hazelbaker was approached for business advice by two craft distillers running a fledgling operation. Rather than simply consult, Hazelbaker purchased the company outright that same year and took it over as President, a role he still holds. What began as a rescue became a family business: his sons, Carson and Chase Hazelbaker, later joined the team, and the Hazelbaker name now anchors the distillery's flagship bourbon line. The distillery's location in Louisville's NuLu (New Louisville) district, along East Market Street, gave rise to the NULU Whiskey brand name in 2019, tying the label directly to the neighborhood where the spirits are distilled, blended, and bottled.

The Whiskey

PCS Distilling Company runs two related but distinct whiskey programs. Hazelbaker is the house bourbon line, built around expressions such as the Hazelbaker High Proof Bourbon Private Barrel 7 Yr, a barrel-strength Kentucky straight bourbon released through an exclusive single barrel program, and a Hazelbaker Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon, a 6-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon blended and bottled at the Louisville facility. Some Hazelbaker single barrels, including a "Cookies & Creme" release, are distilled by MGP and then blended and bottled in-house by PCS, a sourcing-and-finishing model common among younger Kentucky brands still building out their own aging stocks.

NULU Whiskey, launched in 2019, is the distillery's broader sourced-bourbon platform: a lineup of single barrels, blends, and special finishes built from aged bourbon that PCS acquires and then reworks under its own hand. Select NULU expressions are aged seven years in new American oak, with more than a year of that maturation spent in the distillery's heat-cycled Louisville warehouse, and are bottled non-chill filtered to preserve mouthfeel and character. Filtration across the portfolio relies on Kentucky's alkaline limestone water, the same regional resource that shapes much of the state's whiskey character. Harrison Hyden serves as Master Distiller, overseeing both the sourced-whiskey programs and the distillery's house-made spirits, which include vodka, gin, rum, moonshine, and a barrel-aged tequila, an unusually wide production slate for a single Kentucky address.

Why It Matters

PCS Distilling Company is a useful example of how a small Kentucky operation can build a credible whiskey identity without owning decades of rickhouse inventory. By pairing sourced MGP barrels for Hazelbaker with its own blending and finishing program for NULU Whiskey, the distillery has assembled two labels with distinct personalities from a single facility, while still distilling a full slate of white and aged spirits on-site. The distillery's work has been recognized with multiple MicroLiquor Spirit Awards, and its NuLu address puts it in the middle of one of Louisville's most walkable dining and shopping districts, adjacent to Actors Theatre and a short walk from Whiskey Row.

Visiting the Distillery

Tours are available at the Baxter Avenue facility, which also houses The Prohibition Bar and offers a Barrel Pick Experience for guests who want to taste and select from multiple barrels on-site. The NULU Room's regular hours run Wednesday through Saturday from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM and Sunday from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM.