Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson has had a distinguished and fulfilling career in the distilling and spirits industry. He was a bourbon enthusiast, an incredible resource and knew his craft. Distilling was his life and passion. Stephen was a creative thinker, innovator and pioneer has multiple degrees from Cali Poly, Stanford and University of Hartford.
Stephen’s multi-faceted career began as President of Brown-Forman Distilling (1987 – 1995), responsible for production and R&D for Jack Daniels, Early Times, Canadian Mist and Southern Comfort. His crowning achievement was reacquiring and leading the construction of the Labrot & Graham distillery in Versailles Kentucky, now known as Woodford Reserve Distillery.
Upon retiring from Brown-Forman, Stephen started RF Industries, a railroad and food industries company that created pumps, filters and steel fabrications. . He later retired to Hawaii to initiate Hawaii Island Spirits in 2007, producing rum, vodka and Okolehao-Hawaiian whisky. Throughout his career, Steve Thompson consulted with many distilleries and brands to help educate owners on how to be successful. Co-Founder of Kentucky Artisan, Chris Miller, met Thompson in 2005 when both were working at Brown-Forman and in 2010 the two of them along with a third co-founder Mike Loring, began seriously discussing opening their own distillery. Upon returning to Kentucky in 2012, he co-founded Kentucky Artisan Distillery which was originally called Kentucky Co-Operative Distillery.
The original plan for what would become Kentucky Artisan Distillery was to create and open a distillery that would specialize in helping other people pursue their own dreams of opening a small distillery or a bourbon brand themselves.
Kentucky Artisan Distillery (KAD) is located in Crestwood, Kentucky in the former Kentucky Ice Cream Distributors building. KAD can be described as a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of distilleries. They offer a wide range of operations, from contract distilling, farm-to-bottle, to barrel storage – the first of its kind in Kentucky. Additionally, their brands include Whiskey Row Bourbon, Billy Goat Strut Whisky and home to Jefferson’s and Jefferson’s Reserve Bourbon. Whiskey Row bourbon was named after Main Street (Whiskey Row) in Louisville, Kentucky where the bourbon industry got its start.
Stephen has been nicknamed “The Dr. Frankenstein of Distillation”. He earned this moniker via often seen wondering around Vendome Copper and Brass Works, looking for items for his new distillery. This included collecting pipes, tanks, equipment and anything he could get his hands on, always snatching random parts. Somehow, he would always make it work. This often led to his distillery’s stills, mash tub cooker and fermenters being out of sync.
Thompson was able to tell people if a brand would thrive or fail before even leaving the drawing board, Miller said, and he’d always give people an honest critique of it regardless if it’s what they wanted to hear. It could hurt people’s feelings sometimes, but it saved them a lot of money and hassle in the long run.
Kentucky Artisan Distillers joined the Kentucky Distillers’ Association as its 18th member in 2013. Their sweet spot was to “produce its own brands and serve as a cooperative for guest distillers” says Thompson. Furthermore, “our dream is to create opportunities, offering everything for people to distill their own unique spirit without great expense” according to Thompson.
Stephen Thompson, founder of the Kentucky Artisan Distillery passed away 79 years young on September 6, 2021 and was awarded the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award in August, 2022.
Contributed by: Joe Grimoldi, Memphis, Tennessee
SOURCES:
https://kentuckyartisandistillery.com/about-us/
