Barrel House Distilling Co opened its doors in 2013 in Lexington’s Distillery District, founded by Peter Wright and Jeff Wiseman who transformed a former bourbon warehouse into Kentucky’s first urban distillery. The 10,000 square foot facility at 1200 Manchester Street sits in the heart of Lexington’s historic bourbon corridor, where Wright, a former pharmaceutical executive, and Wiseman, who came from the beer industry, decided to try their hand at craft spirits. They started with a 500-gallon copper pot still and big ambitions to prove that bourbon didn’t have to come from massive operations to be exceptional. The distillery produces bourbon, rye whiskey, vodka, and gin, with their bourbon being the clear flagship that put them on Kentucky’s craft distilling map. What began as two friends with zero distilling experience has grown into a legitimate player in Kentucky’s competitive whiskey scene, though they’ve kept the operation intentionally small-scale and hands-on. The building itself tells part of Kentucky’s bourbon story—it previously stored barrels for larger distilleries before Wright and Wiseman gave it new life as a production facility where visitors can watch the entire process from grain to bottle.