Kentucky Peerless Distilling

The minute you walk in you can smell the oak smell. Just completed a bad ass distillery tour! Love that it’s a family owned business.
Very enjoyable experience– to learn about the bourbon making process. If you stick around long enough you get to sample different flavors of their «moonshine». They are so smooth. Special shoutout to our guide was so knowledgable and funny!

I love moonshine. And I love half-​priced tours and tastings (thanks, Hometown Tourism Month!)
So on friday afternoon, I sauntered on over to the distillery for some entertainment and some deliciousness!
My only complaint is that the tour is all about bourbon, which they are currently in the process of aging, but all they currently have for production and tasting is moonshine. I would have liked to have heard more about their moonshine making, along with their bourbon-​ing.
That said, it was a great little tour. Located in downtown Louisville, with a free (?) parking lot across the street. The staff here are super friendly! We started our tour with Skip (I think), but following some technical difficulties in the bottling room, Elena took over for the rest of our tour. High energy, lots of fun, and a nice history.
The tasting that ended the tour was also a blast! Elena took care of the four of us from the tour, as well as an additional 6 or so people who came in to join us.
My favorites were the Chocolate Pie and the Coconut Cream. Delicious on their own, but upon suggestion from the guide, even better when mixed together to make an Almond Joy glass of deliciousness!
I would highly recommend giving them a visit!

This was by far my favorite tour of Louisville. Everyone was so nice and willing to answer questions. It was a true look inside a working brewery! I can’t wait for their Bourbons and Ryes be ready!
The tour is $ 12 and includes a tasting of their Lucky’s flavored Moonshine. I highly recommend the peach and green apple pie if you are wanting a fruity experience. If you are looking for a sweet experience I reccomend the coconut cream and chocolate pie!

Lovely experience… Great people… Fourth generation in business… Loved the moonshine flavors. Chocolate pie my favorite. they make great mix drinks. family run and very friendly.

We took a tour of Kentucky Peerless Distilling on 4÷27÷16 and it was great! Since they are recently reopened distillery they didn’t have any Bourbon or whiskey for us to try; but they did have this super yummy flavored moonshine! We took a tour of the distillery, learned the process of how Bourbon and whiskey are made and then we got a moonshine tasting. Since it was 2 of us we ordered 4 different flavors coconut, pineapple, apple pie and chocolate pie! Best flavor moonshine ever! We brought back home to Florida the apple pie and chocolate pie. The weekend after we came back we had a party and everyone loved both flavor! I’m sad to say my apple pie is gone and I’m holding on to the chocolate pie because they don’t sell it in Florida yet. That chocolate pie mixed with some coconut water is such a yummy drink — like eating and almond joy! Hopefully they will be able to ship soon so I can get some more. I will definitely go back if I find myself back in Louisville!

Just completed what was a very enjoyable tour of this new distillery. The tour guides took their time and gave us good details on all the production areas.
The whiskey and bourbon are currently casked so tasting was of their flavoured moonshines. Great selection of flavours.

Great distillery tour! Showed up minutes before a tour started and we were able to jump right in and tag along with the group. Very nice and knowledgeable staff. Great to see the family history. Best part of the tour was tasting 6 different moon shines!

I recently had a chance to tour the Kentucky Peerless Distillery on 10^th street. There were about 8 people in our tour group, surprisingly there was only one other couple from Louisville. As as proud supporter of the local bourbon industry I was a little surprised that there weren’t more locals.
The tour started with a history of the distillery and the Taylor family by the chairman, Corky Taylor. We were then handed off to one of the distillery’s employees who gave a very good tour of the facility ending with a tasting. The distillery uses a very automated system to ensure maximum consistency across the barrels of whisky and bourbon. They also purchase everything locally, from the still to the rye and corn they use in their products.
Sadly, Peerless currently offers only flavored moonshine, as their whiskey and bourbon is still in the process of aging. The first batch of Peerless rye whiskey will be available in 2017 and the Bourbon will available in 2019. However, they do currently offer numerous flavors of Lucky’s flavored moonshine. You could try two ½ oz pours of their flavored moonshines. I had a chance to try apple pie, lemon drop, peach, chocolate pie (because my wife and I each shared our pours). They were all very tasty, but the chocolate pie was my favorite of the four we tried. I was a little disappointed we couldn’t try all the flavors.
The entire tour takes about an hour and begins and ends in their gift shop which contains numerous Peerless branded products including t-​shirts, hats, pickles, art eatables chocolates and their moonshine.
Peerless is a welcome addition to the Louisville Bourbon trail and recommended for anyone looking for a fun outing.

I’m no Kentucky Colonel, nor am I a native, but I’ve lived here long enough that I’m starting to think I could conduct my own bourbon tour.
«America’s only native spirit…»
«brand new, charred white oak barrels…»
«after primary distillation, called low wine…»
So I’ve given these tours a lot of thought. In general, my biggest pet peeve is that tour guides tend to emphasize history and marketing at the expense of science, but if you pepper your tour guide with questions sometimes you can get somewhere on that. Of course, not everyone is going to agree about what’s interesting in a bourbon tour. For the novice, I offer a simple checklist of stuff that pretty much everyone agrees is fun:
1. You want to see a working still. Peerless hits a home run here. Stills are almost always custom made for bourbon producers, and they are always fun to look at. I particularly love the design of this one. Vendome (another Louisville company) put a lot of windows in the design to let you watch it go.
2. You want to get to dip your finger in the mash. Again, Peerless gives you great exposure to several mash tubs, which are likely to be at different stages in the process.
3. You want to see the rackhouse. The Peerless operation won’t awe you in the same way that the rural producers can, with their tall buildings packed with barrels, but you get to see all of it right here on site, which is impressive for a tour in the heart of downtown Louisville.
4. You want to have a good and educational tasting. Here’s where the jury is out. Peerless is coming along nicely, but all they can sell you for the next couple of years is their Lucky Moonshine. I’m sure there are people who will enjoy their Lucky tastings, but for the bourbon lover, it’s not much more fun than a slightly more sophisticated Jolly Rancher tasting would be. You can’t even taste the straight moonshine, free of the Flavorman ingredients. It’s only flavored neutral spirits.
It’s to Peerless’s credit that they aren’t simply bringing in someone else’s bourbon or rye and marketing it as their own. They are staying with the flavored drinks until their own product is properly aged. But that means the rest of us have to be patient.
On the whole, I’m delighted that such a good tour is offered in downtown Louisville. Any tourist will enjoy it. You’ll just have to wait a couple years to taste the real thing.

We recently took a tour of Kentucky Peerless Distilling with a couple of friends, and we loved it! The tour is pretty short, but very fun and very educational. We learned so much about the family that owns Peerless and the history of Peerless Distilling and their products.
Peerless is currently producing and barreling bourbon and rye; but, unfortunately, those products won’t be ready for a few more years. Their bourbon has to age for four years and their rye for two, so currently there’s no bourbon or rye to sample during the tour. I think it’s pretty awesome what they’re doing there though. Instead of taking someone else’s product, to have something to sell for now, they’re taking their time to manufacture their own product; even though it’s causing their marketing to be delayed.
So, since there’s no bourbon or rye, at the end of the tour you get two one ounce tastings of Lucky Moonshine, which Peerless manufactures. Now, let me start by saying that the product Peerless makes is delicious! It’s very drinkable, great for mixing, and they have some fun and interesting flavors. But, as someone who spent approximately a decade of their life living in Eastern Kentucky, and who still has family there, I’ve got to say that this product is not what I consider to be moonshine. Sure, it’s made with corn, and it’s technically made the same way moonshine is made, but this is more like a liqueur beverage than a true moonshine. It’s still enjoyable, and I still recommend taking the tour and trying it out, but if you’re looking for authentic moonshine this isn’t going to be it.
The only real downfall of the product for me is the price. I love the bottles, and I love the flavors, but one bottle will run you between $ 20-​$ 26 depending where you buy it. The gift shop at Peerless is awesome, they have so many cool products, and you can get any flavor of the moonshine there; however, I have access to real moonshine for $ 15 a quart in E. KY, so it’s much easier for me to just stick with that. For me, personally, Lucky Moonshine is more of a novelty item; something to have on hand for a social gathering or to make a mixed cocktail on a warm summer evening (like the Green Apple Pie and Cranberry, which is delicious! — And, speaking of cocktails, definitely check out their website, they have tons of recipes there!), or maybe to use as a gift.

Corky, the owner and family descendant, greeted us and gave a family history. The tour included standing next to the open vats and getting to taste the liquid at each phase. Their bourbon won’t be ready for a few years, so you can only get their moonshine at this point, but it’s delicious! I recommend the chocolate pie and the pineapple. This is a fantastic place, full of history, and will grow to be a top destination in downtown when their bourbon is ready. Speaking of which, you can get on their list to be contacted when their first barrels roll out. Great place, great atmosphere, great experience! Thank you, Corky and family!

Important note for anyone planning a visit to Peerless Distilling:
THE TASTING DOES NOT INCLUDE MOONSHINE.
Okay, with that out of the way, here’s the review:
The tour of Peerless Distilling started well. The facilities are beautiful, and it’s cool to be able to see the mash actually percolating in front of you. No MGP here. This is the real deal. That was nice to see.
But the tasting was awful. Though billed as a «moonshine» tasting, the only things they have on offer were overly sweet, artificially flavored, fru fru concoctions (topping out with an alcohol content of about 30%). Now look, I know that the definition of «moonshine» is, much like the product itself, unregulated and imprecise. But by any reasonable definition, what they had available for sampling was a «liqueur».
Worse still were the tourguides, who were nice enough, but, like the wares they served, insipid and stupid. Asked why the raw material (the unaged whiskey, or moonshine, or whatever you want to call it) wasn’t available for tasting, one guide (a middle-​aged lady) said: «I don’t know. I just work here.» The other (a beef-​headed, young guy with all the personality of Ted from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) said something like: «That’s just not really our thing. Lots of other places in Kentucky have cornered the market on that kind of thing, so we’re trying something different.» — which would have been reasonable enough, if only it weren’t such an obvious lie: After all, the facility is packed with aging barrels of all kinds of things for which the market is already «cornered», among them, bourbon.
Look, I wouldn’t have minded if the guy was just honest with me. (Or knowledgeable enough to understand the difference.) But throughout the tour, and on the promotional material (and on the existing Unilocal reviews), we were promised a moonshine tasting. And sweet, syrupy, low-​octane, drinkable candy is just not that … except, apparently, at Peerless Distilling.

My husband and I just took the tour of the distillery and fell in love with them. Every employee we met was so passionate about their product and very nice and friendly. They’re doing flavored moonshine now and will bottle their first bourbon in 3 years (patience make the heart grow fonder). They have a really cool story of revitalizing the family business after the prohibition and it is totally worth taking a tour.
I recommend trying the peach moonshine. It also is incredible when mixed with iced tea!

Great historic story. The partners are a class act and treat their guests very well. Definitely worth a visit

Came here for a tour after getting a coupon for 50% (thanks Unilocal!) and loved it! This is a very small company with only 8 employees and they all support every function (including Tour Guide duties) which is pretty awesome. The first thing I liked about the tour was the fact that the owner was there to greet us and to give an introduction about the business; this is not something you see in many businesses and it demonstrated his passion for the business. We were able to see the entire bourbon-​making process from start to finish, and all the machines were up and running so you could see how everything actually worked. The tour concludes with a tasting of their ‘moonshine’ and I add the quotation marks so that you aren’t discouraged to try it because it is delicious! People, including myself before the tour, hear the word moonshine and think about a burning taste but Lucky Moonshine is the complete opposite. They have 7 different flavors but my two favorites are definitely the chocolate and the coconut flavors (and if you mix them together they taste like an Almond Joy!!). Also, did I mention everything is made in the USA? :)

If you are in Louisville looking to spend half an hour touring a small operation distillery this is the place. I recently visited Kentucky Peerless Distillery with a group of friends and we had a good time. They have a very interesting tower copper still, and if you’re curious about whiskey making they answer any questions you have. Their rye and bourbon are still a few years away from market, but you can see it aging in barrel at the on site rack house. They currently have an awesome selection of flavored low alcohol moonshine. It tastes great, so be sure to buy some. It’s worth the visit, only costs a few bucks, you’ll have fun and you might learn something.

What a great place the tour was awesome!!! The tour guide whom manages the bottling was very knowledgeable. Their moonshine flavor a were awesome. Lots of cool stuff in the gift shop! I bought the chocolate pie and the apple pie Corky introduced himself to me in the gift shop. Very friendly and I cannot wait to come back and try their bourbon. This is a family owned place so all please come by and check them out.

My first trip to Louisville and Peerless Distilling Co. I was so excited to visit the distillery. It was a pleasure and joy to meet the owners and the staff. I was happy to be able to take the tour during my brief visit. I love the moonshine and hope you’ll able to sell it in Los Angeles

A wonderful family owned and operated distillery. Super cool to see all the workings start to finish and the moonshine was amazing!

I had a great time. Visiting from virginia and waiting on my personalized bat to be done, I saw an old truck and thought I would check it out. Very accommodating to us being walk ins. It was a very friendly place with everyone stopping and answering questions. My favorite part was that it’s all local and family owned. It was my first time at a distillery and will recommend to everyone! Great job guys keep it up!