Distillery to Release Bourbon 102 Years After It Last Did

The last time the Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company produced a barrel of bourbon, America had just entered World War I—and Prohibition was looming. The revived Louisville distillery says its first bourbon in 102 years will be released in limited quantities on June 22, WLKY reports. Corky Taylor, great-grandson of Henry Kraver, who founded the distillery in 1889, tells the Louisville Courier-Journal that he chose the date because it is the birthday of his father, Roy Taylor Jr. The bourbon has been maturing since the distillery opened in 2015.

"As a team, we have been waiting four years and we're ecstatic to release the first Peerless Bourbon in 102 years," Taylor says. The new Kentucky Peerless bourbon uses sweet mash instead of the more common sour mash, reports Louisville Business First. The distillery produced around 200 barrels of rye and bourbon a day until Karver closed it to help conserve corn for the war effort, according to the distillery's history page. During the closure, the 18th Amendment was passed and Prohibition began. (Last year, thousands of whiskey barrels crashed into a heap in a Kentucky distillery warehouse collapse.)