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At one of Kentucky’s most modern distilleries, the barrels were aging, the sensors were watching and I was on my third tasting of the day.

By the time we arrived at Bardstown Bourbon Company, I was still capable of walking, listening and making fermentation jokes. Asking thoughtful questions about artificial intelligence, however, had apparently fallen outside the scope of the research.

Which was unfortunate, because Bardstown may be one of the most technologically advanced distilleries in Kentucky.

I just did not realize it until the bourbon wore off.

A tech guy decides to make bourbon

Our guide joked that we would not have to sit through the usual speech about generations of family history.

That is because Bardstown Bourbon Company was not founded by a seventh-generation master distiller. It was founded by Peter Loftin, a telecommunications entrepreneur who apparently looked at bourbon and thought: How hard could this be?

Harder than it looks, as it turns out.

Loftin recruited Steve Nally, a former Maker’s Mark master distiller, to return to Kentucky and help oversee the project, according to an interview with Nally published by American Whiskey.

After Loftin’s death in 2019, Chicago-based Pritzker Private Capital acquired the company in 2022.

Nothing says Kentucky tradition quite like Chicago private equity.

Please do not fall into the bourbon

Our guide took us past enormous fermentation tanks and warned us not to fall in.

The last time it happened, he joked, was on Halloween. It turned into the zombie mash.

Because this was my sixth tasting tour in less than 48 hours, I responded with a joke borrowed from an earlier stop on the bourbon trail, “At least it was full-bodied.”

Bourbon jokes, like bourbon barrels, apparently get reused.

The guide then let us taste the liquid fermenting inside the tank. It was kinda yeasty, kinda sweet and kinda like cornbread—somewhere between unfinished beer and a bad decision.

It was not good.

It was educational.

From there, we entered the distilling area, where we watched low wine become high wine as the spirit moved through different stages of distillation.

The room was 106 degrees.

Most people looked uncomfortable. I enjoy a good sauna, so I considered it a bonus feature.

Still, I did not ask about the AI.

Straight from the cask

The warehouse was bright, modern and lined with glass, including a massive window overlooking rows of aging barrels.

Traditional rickhouses are darker, enclosed buildings where Kentucky’s temperature swings slowly shape the whiskey. Bardstown’s looks more like someone designed a bourbon operation for Architectural Digest.

The glass is beautiful. What the sunlight and heat might eventually do to the nearby barrels is another question—one the distillery is probably tracking.

This was also where we tasted bourbon straight from the cask.

Bourbon enthusiasts call it a Kentucky hug. I apparently skipped straight to the Kentucky throat punch.

I should probably admit that I am not much of a bourbon drinker, which is a minor flaw when touring Kentucky’s bourbon trail.

Still, drinking it straight from the barrel was undeniably cool.

Then we went to the gift shop, because the bourbon trail has mastered the ancient tradition of placing merchandise immediately after alcohol.

At no point did I ask whether artificial intelligence was involved.

The computer was there the whole time

It turns out Bardstown built much of its operation around automation and integrated production data.

Its digital control system provides real-time monitoring across grain operations, mashing, fermentation, distillation, processing, inventory and finished goods. Before the system was installed, much of the recordkeeping was completed by hand or in spreadsheets, according to an Inductive Automation case study.

The AI story requires a little more careful wording.

In 2020, Bardstown said it hoped to eventually use machine-learning algorithms to connect laboratory taste-profile data with the production information it was already collecting. The goal was to identify patterns that could help produce more consistent, better-tasting whiskey, according to Automation World.

What remains less clear is how much of that vision is operating today—or whether an algorithm currently influences the bourbon aging behind those glass walls.

The computer is definitely collecting the data.

What happens next is harder to see through than the rickhouse.

Final Bot Thought

Bourbon sells a story of barrels, patience and human instinct.

What is changing is that the people making it have better tools than they used to.

The bourbon still takes years.

Humans still taste it.

The computer is just paying closer attention than it used to.

And next time I tour such a modern distillery, I'll try to remember to ask about the AI before the gift shop.

Coming up next week …

Yes, this was supposed to be today’s story. Then bourbon happened.

Next week, the bot is done waiting for instructions. Now it wants to make a few decisions for you.

What could possibly go wrong?