America's Lost Distilleries: Prohibition and After

More than 200 commercial distilleries operated in Kentucky before Prohibition. Only 61 reopened afterwards, according to University Press of Kentucky.[5] Repeal changed the law; it could not restore an entire industry.

Nor did the losses end in 1933. Stitzel-Weller, founded in 1935 and closed in 1992, belongs to a later chapter: a distillery born after repeal that became part of America's lost whisky landscape.[9] To understand what disappeared, it helps to follow the stills, the companies and the brands separately.

How Prohibition changed American distilling

The squeeze began long before national Prohibition. Between 1905 and 1917, states across the United States passed laws against making and selling intoxicating drinks. In 1917, the House of Representatives moved towards a constitutional amendment. Enough states approved it within 13 months, comfortably inside the seven years allowed for ratification.[2]

The 18th Amendment was ratified on 16 January 1919. It prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”. Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, better known as the Volstead Act, on 28 October 1919 to enforce it.[1]

The law targeted manufacture, sale and transportation, rather than simply declaring drinking forbidden. For distilleries, the restriction on manufacture struck at the heart of the business. Yet some stills continued to work under authorised arrangements.[1][8]

Medicinal whiskey kept part of the industry alive. Permissions covered both the sale of existing whiskey and authorised new production. Those were different activities, and the distinction matters: a list of companies licensed to sell whiskey is not a roll call of every distillery that made it.[7][8]

America's lost distilleries and the six-company story

Six licence holders did not mean six working distilleries. Whiskey writer Chuck Cowdery reports that ten medicinal licences were authorised, but only six entities applied for and received them: Brown-Forman, Glenmore, Frankfort Distilleries, Schenley, American Medicinal Spirits and A. Ph. Stitzel. In his account, these licences allowed the holders to sell whiskey made before Prohibition.[7]

A separate trade account, published by Dram Devotees, draws on testimony to the US Senate Committee on Finance in 1935. Howard T. Jones told the committee that “something like 26 or 28” distilleries had operated during Prohibition.[8] His estimate concerned distilleries that operated, rather than companies holding medicinal licences.

Jones named Old Taylor, Old Crow, Overholt at Broad Ford, Bernheim and Hiram Walker at Peoria among his examples. The account also records medicinal whiskey production in Pennsylvania and Maryland. This was an American story, not solely a Kentucky one.[8]

Claim: Brown-Forman used the Stitzel Distillery's stillhouse to make its whiskey in 1929.

Verdict: Documented

What the record shows: The trade account distinguishes the company making the whiskey from the stillhouse it used.[8]

Evidence gap: No independent verification beyond the supplied trade account is recorded.

Earliest known source: Not established from the supplied record.

Source: Dram Devotees, publication date not supplied.

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not documented.

There was authorised new production, too. The account reports that, in June 1929, Prohibition Commissioner Dr. Doran announced that six companies would produce bourbon and rye for medicinal purposes.[8] Authorised activity therefore extended beyond selling stocks laid down before Prohibition.

Verdict: Disputed

Claim: Only six distilleries made whiskey during Prohibition.

What the record shows: Cowdery identifies six licence holders; Jones estimated 26 or 28 operating distilleries. The accounts count different things.[7][8]

Evidence gap: The licence count does not give the number of producing sites.

Earliest known source of the claim: Not established from the supplied record.

Sources: Chuck Cowdery, March 2014; Dram Devotees, publication date not supplied.

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not documented.

Repeal was a turning point, not a reset

On 20 February 1933, the United States House voted 289 to 121 for the repeal resolution. The 21st Amendment remains the only United States constitutional amendment ratified through state conventions.[4]

Claim: Utah's ratification completed repeal, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately proclaimed.

Verdict: Documented

What the record shows: On 5 December 1933, Utah became the 36th of the 48 states to ratify the 21st Amendment.[4]

Evidence gap: None identified in the supplied record.

Earliest known source: Not established from the supplied record.

Source: US House of Representatives, publication date not supplied.

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not documented.

Kentucky's recovery was incomplete: University Press of Kentucky records more than 200 commercial distilleries before Prohibition, but only 61 reopening after repeal.[5]

The recovery brought reversals of its own. America's Native Spirit: Prohibition and the Consolidation records an expansion after repeal, followed by a fading boom from 1938. Smaller distilleries were bought out or closed.[6]

Repeal removed the constitutional prohibition; it did not end consolidation and closure.[4][6] A distillery could open after repeal, work for decades and then fall silent without ever having been a Prohibition casualty.

A short timeline of United States Prohibition

Stitzel-Weller: a lost distillery born after repeal

Stitzel-Weller opened on Kentucky Derby Day in 1935, according to VinePair.[10] Its beginning belongs to the years after repeal, not to the distilling world that Prohibition interrupted.

According to Whisky Advocate, spirits distributor W.L. Weller & Sons and the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery founded the Shively distillery that year. Arthur P. Stitzel, Alex T. Farnsley and Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle Sr. led the venture.[9]

Its brands included W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still. All used wheat in the mash bill, the mixture of grains from which the whiskey was made.[9][10]

Pappy Van Winkle died in 1965. In 1972, Julian Van Winkle Jr. sold Stitzel-Weller to Norton Simon. The site subsequently passed through Distillers Company Limited, Guinness and United Distillers, which closed the distillery in 1992.[10] A small still opened at the site in 2014, adding another chapter to a history that began after repeal.[9]

Story box: a post-repeal beginning

The brands followed separate paths after the distillery closed.

Claim: After Diageo was formed in 1997, the Stitzel-Weller brands went to three different owners.

Verdict: Documented

What the record shows: VinePair records Old Fitzgerald and Cabin Still going to Heaven Hill, Rebel Yell to Luxco, and Weller to Buffalo Trace.[10]

Evidence gap: These transfers do not establish where the brands were subsequently distilled.

Earliest known source: Not established from the supplied record.

Source: VinePair, publication date not supplied.

Last checked: November 2026; exact day not documented.

The premises gained another chapter in 2014, when a visitor centre and a small hybrid still opened, as recorded by Whisky Advocate.[9] That opening sits alongside the 1992 closure: neither event erases the other. Production, buildings and brands each have their own chronology, even when they share a famous name.

What “lost” means in this history

Start with three questions. Did distilling stop? Did the business or its brands continue elsewhere? Did the original premises find a new use? At Stitzel-Weller, those questions lead to different parts of the story.[9][10]

A familiar name, an old site and a new production chapter may be connected, but dated evidence shows what continued, what moved and what changed. That is the useful distinction behind “closed” and “revived”. America's lost distilleries span both the disruption surrounding Prohibition and the closures after repeal: Kentucky's incomplete reopening and Stitzel-Weller's later closure belong to the same wider history, but not the same event.[5][9]

Where to go next

• Ghost Distilleries of Scotland: The Lost, the Silent and the Reborn: compare closure and revival in another distilling tradition.
• Ireland's Lost Distilleries: What Happened to Them: follow the Irish branch of the Lost Places route.
• Castle & Key and the Revival of Old Taylor: explore a separate American distillery revival in greater detail.

Sources

References below follow the supplied source list's numbering, with claims matched to the documents that support them.

1. Library of Congress. 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents in American History. Research guide, publication year not supplied. https://guides.loc.gov/18th-amendment

2. US National Archives. The Volstead Act. Educational resource, publication year not supplied. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act

3. US House of Representatives, History, Art and Archives. The Ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment. Historical highlight, publication year not supplied. https://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/25769819008

4. University Press of Kentucky. The Birth of Bourbon: A Photographic Tour of Early Distilleries. Publisher's description, edition and publication year not supplied. https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813165547/the-birth-of-bourbon/

5. JSTOR. America's Native Spirit: Prohibition and the Consolidation. Study, author, journal details and publication year not supplied. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48827635

6. Chuck Cowdery. Who Had Medicinal Whiskey Licenses During Prohibition? Trade commentary, March 2014. https://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2014/03/who-had-medicinal-whiskey-licenses_7.html

7. Dram Devotees. An argument to rethink the 6 distilleries during prohibition myth. Trade historical account, publication year not supplied. https://www.dramdevotees.com/an-argument-to-rethink-something-we-believe-to-be-true/

8. Whisky Advocate. Stitzel-Weller Is for Sale, But Not Its Name or Its Stills. Trade reporting, publication year not supplied. https://whiskyadvocate.com/Stitzel-Weller-Is-for-Sale-But-Not-Its-Name-or-Its-Stills

9. VinePair. No Bourbon Defines the Tater Era More Than Weller. Trade reporting, publication year not supplied. https://vinepair.com/articles/weller-in-the-tater-era/

This desk-researched article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing institutional histories from trade accounts and keeping company, brand and distillery-site histories separate.

Last checked: November 2026