The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Kentucky’s Distilling Industry, 2024-2025

From https://kybourbon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/FINAL-KDA-Economic-Impact-Report-2.2.26.pdf

● Following several years of strong increases, Kentucky’s distilleries responded to market and other conditions and slowed production in 2024. (Production data for 2025 will not be available until fall of 2026). Distillers filled 3.03 million barrels of Bourbon in 2024, down from 3.2 million in 2023. Despite this slight decrease, 2024 production was still 12 percent higher than production in 2022, 25 percent higher than 2020 and 135 percent higher than 10 years ago. Production has risen dramatically since the turn of the century, up more than 560 percent.

● In 2024, there were a record-breaking 17.1 million barrels of spirits aging in Kentucky’s bonded warehouses, up 11 percent from the year before. Of that, 16.1 million are Bourbon, up 13 percent from the previous year. The total barrel inventory in Kentucky has increased 57 percent since 2020 and 175 percent in the last 10 years as distillers increased production to meet global demands.