Hidden Barn

Royce Neeley is an eleventh generation Kentucky distiller who opened Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta in 2015, and he makes Hidden Barn's bourbon there. Founding blender Jackie Zykan came to the 2022 launch from seven years as master taster at Old Forester.

Neeley catches his own yeast. Once a year he hangs steel buckets near wild blackberry bushes in the Kentucky hills, leaves them three days, then isolates and grows what lands inside. That yeast ferments in cypress tanks before a double copper pot run and a 110 proof barrel entry. Yeast drives much of a bourbon's fruit and spice, so no competitor can order this character in.