The bourbon industry adds $9 billion to Kentucky's economy, according to numbers released by the Kentucky Distillers' Association Tuesday.
Industry and government leaders unveiled the latest numbers in Frankfort Tuesday afternoon. They said the industry accounts for more than 20,000 jobs, and its impact reaches far beyond just the distilleries.
In a reception room at the Kentucky State Capitol Tuesday, democrats and republicans alike gathered to celebrate the numbers.
"We like to say bourbon brings people together, but when's the last time you all saw this many leaders of Kentucky in one room, and we didn't even have to promise samples to get them here," said Eric Gregory, president of the KDA.
"We know bourbon isn't red or blue. It's brown. It isn't Democrat or Republican. These jobs are good and lift everyone up," said Governor Andy Beshear.
Senate President Rober Stivers discussed the growth of the bourbon industry after changes to the way distilleries are taxed.
"This is what we can do when you think through the system and think what a good business dynamic will do - more taxes, more jobs, greater base," Stivers said.
According to the KDA's numbers, the bourbon industry has more jobs, payroll, and tax revenue than ever before.
"More than 23,000 jobs with annual salaries and wages of $1.63 billion," said Jessica Pendergrass, KDA's board chair.
You don't have to work at a distillery to see the industry's impact.
"The demand here recently has been astronomical," said Rachel Fint, who has worked at Bourbon on Main in Frankfort for nine years.
As a bourbon-themed bar and restaurant, Fint said a lot of their business comes from people who are in town to see the distilleries.
"If it wasn’t for those tours and things like that, this place would not be nearly as busy as it is. 85% of our daily life is tourism," Fint said.
That tourism, she said, just keeps increasing.
"In the nine years that I've been here, it's just gone from semi-popular to just booming, to where there's tours all over the place," Fint said.
As Kentucky’s industry leaders reflect on what bourbon has meant to the Commonwealth, they’re also thinking about where it could still go far from Central Kentucky.
"There's all sorts of places all over the world that even if just one or two percent of their consumers switched to bourbon from scotch or something else, we'd be out of bourbon just like that," Gregory said.
The report also illustrated how Kentucky farmers see an impact. The KDA said distilleries bought 21 million bushels of Kentucky-grown corn and grains.
"That's about 70% of the purchases for the distilleries are coming from Kentucky-grown corn and small grains. What that means to me is that areas of this state that have a hard time with economic development, a hard time with gaining jobs and recruitment, this is an area in which they're able to help that with their local economies," said Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell.
