Distilleries are a dangerous places. Distilling is an industrial process. If you look at history many, many distilleries and rickhouses have caught fire and burned to the ground. Distillery fires and explosions are fewer these days, but they do still happen. On July 2, 2019, a barrel warehouse at The Old Crow Distillery, now owned by Jim Beam, in Woodford County, Kentucky, caught fire and burned to the ground. 45,000 barrels of Kentucky bourbon were lost that day in a massive fire. That was a total loss.
Two more Old Crow Distillery warehouses, now owned by Glenns Creek Distilling, caught fire and burned to the ground. The date on historic Old Crow Distillery says 1835 but this distillery was actually built in 1872, 16 years after the death of Dr. James C. Crow. Crow is credited with perfecting the sour mash process that is used in most distilleries today. The distillery was built by Gaines, Berry & Co. and operated until Prohibition. After Prohibition, the distillery was purchased by National Distillers. Jim Beam purchased the distillery, rickhouses, and property in 1987 and has mainly used it to store aging barrels of bourbon.
In 1997 Beam sold the distillery and some of the buildings to a salvage company for scrap. On side note, we discovered some of the reclaimed heart pine salvaged from the property made its way to Beaufort, South Carolina. That heart wood was used for flooring in the home of 4th generation wine maker Robert Mandavi, Jr. and his wife Lydia (photo below).
In 2013, David Meier purchased the actual Old Crow Distillery, surrounding buildings including several bourbon barrel rickhouses, on 16 acres of land. He started his distilling journey two years later in 2015 under the name Glenns Creek Distilling. If you have not been there, do yourself a favor and go. If you are looking for fancy it may not be for you. If you are looking for hard working distillers making great bourbon and rye whiskey, using yeast captured from one of the Old Crow tanks, by all means, go visit.
Fire Breaks Out at the Old Crow Distillery, Now Glenns Creek Distilling
On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 30, 2026, a fire broke out the distillery. Two c. 1900s bourbon barrel warehouses were burned to the ground. The good news is no one was injured. These two-barrel warehouses were quite worn down, close to falling down on their own, and did not house any bourbon or distilled spirits of any kind. These were beautiful buildings, but they were no longer in use. For the most part, if you looked up inside the buildings, you could see the sky.
How to Read the Sanborn Map Rickhouse Legend
- Parapet: This is the parapet height above the roof line. Likely 36” parapet. Parapet walls continue vertically past the roofline to increase the height of the building.
- Shutters / Levels: The curved line indicates shutters and the 5 lines represents 5 levels of windows with shutters.
- Wall Thickness: The numbers are masonry wall thicknesses in inches as they go up the wall. The 20 inches at the bottom level, 16 in at the 2nd level, etc.
- Pink = Brick or masonry tile wall construction.
- Rick Levels: 1 large open story with 5 mezzanines (rick levels) open to each other.
- Building Height: 51 feet tall from ground to roof.
- Roof Material: This indicates the roof material, in this case noncombustible roof covering.
- Building Dimensions: In this case 79′ 5″ x 83′.
- Capacity: 9,000 Barrels
- Sprinklers: 744 sprinkler heads.
- Heating: None
Thanks to the folks at Joseph & Joseph Architects for deciphering 100+ year old legend elements in about 30 seconds.
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A Statement from Glenns Creek Distilling
Glenns Creek Distilling owner and head distiller David Meier released the following statements.
“I don’t know how to write this so I’ll just say that we are all ok but lost several buildings. I wanted to make sure you heard it here first. And there was no loss of product or anything but the buildings.” – Wednesday, September 20, 2026
“I am a firm believer in every cloud having a silver lining. When something “bad” happens, I start looking for the silver. Kind of like a scavenger hunt. Sometimes it takes a while to recognize the silver, and you can’t expect the amount of silver to equal the amount of the cloud. It the case of the fire no one was injured so that is good news. We did not have any barrels or any material stored in the buildings. The buildings were a bit of a hazard and were in danger of collapse and someone could have been hurt.
“I want to extend a thank you to all of the emergency responders who came out and handled the situation. I will get a list of all the companies who came out so I can send them my thanks.
“We are open for business and visitors because none of our operation was impacted.
“Thank you to all of our wonderful visitors and friends who sent their well wishes and prayers. We are very blessed to have so many wonderful people who care about us.” – Thursday, October 1, 2026
How to Support Glenns Creek Distilling – Go Visit
We have visited David and team at the distillery several times over the last 10 years. We’ve pulled together several photos from our visits and shared them here. The Old Crow Distillery is one of the few remaining old distilleries that’s still standing. If you want to take a walk back in time to the 1800s, please visit the distillery. You’ll be glad you did.
Glenns Creek Distilling is open for business and welcoming visitors. It’s a few miles from Woodford Reserve Distillery where Dr. James Crow got his start in the U.S. and only a few hundred yards from Castle & Key Distillery.
Go visit, take a look, take a tour, talk to David, taste some whiskey made the old-fashioned way, and buy a bottle or three to support David and team.
Related News – Distillery Fires
- Massive Fire Strikes Jim Beam Barrel Warehouse – 45,000 Barrels of Bourbon Destroyed [VIDEO] Jul 2019
- Fire Crews Put Out Massive Fire on Louisville’s Historic Whiskey Row [Video]
- Louisville’s Whiskey Row Fire Determined to be Accidental
- Jim Beam Barrel Warehouse Fire Burns Itself Out – Effort Shifts to Clean Up of Grounds and River [PHOTOS]
- Vintage Aerial Coverage of Massive 1996 Heaven Hill Distillery Fire That Destroyed 2% of the World’s Bourbon
Learn more about Glenns Creek Distilling.
View all Frankfort Distilleries.
View all Kentucky Distilleries.
View all U.S. Distilleries.
A big thank you goes out to Craig Blanton News Network for the amazing drone footage surrounding this event.
Before, During, and After the September 30, 2026 Fire
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