Four Roses Distillery working to preserve what sets Kentucky bourbon apart

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — Four Roses Distillery employees are working to preserve a vital resource that sets Kentucky bourbon apart.

On Thursday, employees came together for its annual Salt River Cleanup, a day set aside to preserve the riverbank that supplies the distillery’s “essential water source.”

“The Salt River’s water is essential to our bourbon-making process. Its clean, limestone-rich
quality has been a key component in our whiskey production for decades,” said Brent Elliott,
master distiller at Four Roses. “We have a responsibility to ourselves and to the broader
community to ensure the continued pristine condition of this crucial resource and the beloved
area around it.”

The distillery said that the limestone-rich water is a key player in every step of its distilling process, from fermentation, steam production, and cooling.

For the 2024 cleanup, Four Roses partnered with the Kentucky Waterway Alliance, an organization that works with communities to protect its natural waterways, which educated organizers on how to nurture the Salt River’s health.

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Since 2017, Four Roses Distillery has cleared over 4,000 pounds of debris from a 150-mile
stretch of the Salt River. On Thursday alone, a total of 1,380 pounds of debris were cleared.

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