Trolley House Distillery sits in a restored early 1900s building on Commercial Street in downtown Emporia, Kansas, where founders Chad and Jamie Hanson transformed a former trolley maintenance facility into one of Kansas’s most authentic craft distilleries. The Hansons opened their doors in 2018 after Chad, a former machinist, and Jamie, who worked in healthcare administration, decided to chase their shared passion for traditional American whiskey production. The 4,000-square-foot space maintains much of its industrial character with exposed brick walls, original hardwood floors, and vintage trolley memorabilia that nods to the building’s transportation heritage. They focus exclusively on bourbon and rye whiskey, using a 500-gallon copper pot still manufactured by Vendome Copper & Brass Works, the same company that built stills for some of Kentucky’s most legendary distilleries. The operation reflects Chad’s engineering background with precise temperature control systems and custom-built fermentation tanks that allow for consistent small-batch production. You’ll find them running a true grain-to-glass operation, sourcing corn from local Kansas farms within a 50-mile radius and handling every step from milling to bottling on-site. The Hansons didn’t just want to make whiskey – they wanted to bring authentic distilling back to Kansas, which had a rich pre-Prohibition distilling tradition that died out for nearly a century.
