An eastern Kentucky distillery has hired Gray Construction as general contractor for their 230-acre operation. Cordell Lawrence is the CEO and co-founder of Eastern Light Distilling in Morehead. He said work is underway and they’ll be fully operational by the second quarter of next year, with most of their products made for other companies.
“We're a contract distillery, similar to like a Bardstown Bourbon Company. So the majority what we do is make spirits for other people, specifically bourbon in particular, and sell it to that third party the day we fill the barrel, and then we put it away and mature it and charge a rent check in exchange for that.”
Lawrence said they’ll build nine rickhouses, a gift shop and offer tours. Their goal is to produce more than 100,000 barrels of bourbon and other whiskeys annually. He said despite ongoing financial problems at two Kentucky distilleries, Eastern Light is in the right place at the right time.
“Cave run Lake, it’s a little known fact that it's the cleanest raw water source in Kentucky, so it's excellent for distilling. And there's a brand new water treatment facility that just opened up (under) the Morehead Utility Plant Board name, and that became operational just about a month ago.”
Lawrence said they’ll get most of their grain from a surrounding five-county area and have deals with area farmers to accept their leftover mash at little or no cost.