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Bill Allowing Drink Sales at Kentucky Distilleries Advancing

Kevin Willis

Visitors can sip tea or soda — but no bourbon — at the Jim Beam Distillery's restaurant in central Kentucky. The drink menu could add the distillery's famed whiskey if a bill that advanced Wednesday becomes state law.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a nice Knob Creek on the rocks while you're enjoying a ... barbecue sandwich?" Kristin Meadors with the Kentucky Distillers' Association said after the bill cleared a House panel.

The measure would allow Kentucky distilleries to sell their own products by the drink on their premises. Visitors could sip a small-batch bourbon or a mint julep at special distillery events or after taking tours.

Distilleries now are limited to offering two one-half-ounce free samples per guest.

Kentucky wineries and microbreweries can sell their products by the drink, Meadors said. Distilleries would gain that same privilege under the bill approved by the House Licensing and Occupations Committee.

The bill sailed through without any opposition.

Ken Lewis with New Riff Distillery in Newport said the bill would give an important boost for craft distilleries that include his startup venture in northern Kentucky.

Those distilleries have to wait several years before some of their products mature and go on the market.

"This is a simple way that the state ... can help us have at least a minor income stream by selling by the drink," Lewis said.

Bourbon tourism has become big business in Kentucky. Tourists made nearly 725,000 visits to distilleries along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour last year.

Those visits were up 14 percent from 2013. The association counts each stop at a participating distillery as a visit and projects tourist visits will reach 1 million in 2018 if double-digit growth continues.

The big distilleries could capitalize on the whiskey-by-the-drink proposal to offer drinks featuring their lineup of premium whiskeys, Lewis said.

The bill would apply to distilleries in wet territory — where alcohol sales are legal.

The legislation is House Bill 198.

The measure would set no limits on by-the-drink alcohol sales at the distilleries, Meadors said. Association President Eric Gregory has said safeguards would be in place to make sure no one consumes too much whiskey.

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