Kentucky Bourbon Experiences Where You Fill, Dip or Thieve It Yourself

Quick Facts

• You Do Bourbon, Heaven Hill: taste four barrel-proof expressions, then fill, cork, band and label your own 750ml bottle.
• Knob Creek bottling line, James B. Beam: about 30 minutes filling a bottle of Knob Creek and sealing it with your thumbprint; the bottle is bought separately.
• Wax dipping, Maker's Mark: the visit is covered by our rate, and the bottle you dip is the guest's to buy.
• Rickhouse Barrel Thieving, Bardstown Bourbon Company: a one-hour tasting from three individual barrels, Wednesday through Sunday, with no bottle to take home.
• Barrel to Bottle, Woodford Reserve: 90 minutes in Warehouse C, thieving whiskey straight from an active barrel.
• Whiskey Thief, Frankfort: the tour and tasting are covered, and the bottle you fill by hand from the barrel is one you buy.
• Tickets: we book distillery tickets once your tour is confirmed, and they are included in the rate.

The Best Interactive Bourbon Experiences

#1: You Do Bourbon, Heaven Hill (Bardstown)

You Do Bourbon suits a group that wants to make something. You spend 40 to 60 minutes in the lab tasting four barrel-proof expressions, then move to the bottling room, where you fill your own 750ml bottle, cork it, band it and hand-label it. Allow 90 minutes in all.

Best for: groups who want to taste at barrel proof and leave with something they made.

See the Heaven Hill distillery guide

#2: Knob Creek Bottling Line, James B. Beam (Clermont)

The hands-on option at James B. Beam is about 30 minutes on the Knob Creek bottling line. What leaves with you is a bottle of Knob Creek you filled yourself and sealed by pressing your thumbprint into the warm wax. It can sell out on weekends and in peak seasons. The bottle itself is bought separately.

Best for: groups who want an activity together and a bottle that carries their own mark.

See the Jim Beam distillery guide

#3: Red Wax Bottle Dipping, Maker's Mark (Loretto)

Maker's Mark's red wax seal is iconic, and you can do it yourself. The Signature Tour with wax dipping runs about two hours and ends with you lowering a bottle neck-first into warm red wax, rotating it as the excess drains, then walking out with it. The red wax on production bottles goes on by hand too, so you are repeating a step the distillery does on every bottle that leaves. The visit is covered by our rate, and the bottle you dip is one the guest buys.

Best for: couples, photographers, anyone who wants a memorable photo moment.

See the Maker's Mark distillery guide

#4: Rickhouse Barrel Thieving, Bardstown Bourbon Company (Bardstown)

Rickhouse Barrel Thieving is a one-hour guided tasting inside a working rickhouse. A guide draws whiskey from three individual barrels, the group tastes each one straight from the barrel, and the hour ends with a pour of one of Bardstown Bourbon Company's own expressions. It is a tasting, not a distillery tour, and there is no bottle to take home. It runs Wednesday through Sunday.

Best for: groups who have already walked through a distillery, or who would rather taste than tour.

Read about Rickhouse Barrel Thieving

#5: Barrel to Bottle, Woodford Reserve (Versailles)

Barrel to Bottle runs 90 minutes and takes you into Warehouse C, a 19th-century limestone aging warehouse, to thieve whiskey straight from an active barrel and taste it against the finished expressions.

Best for: groups with a specific interest in how the barrel shapes the whiskey.

See the Woodford Reserve distillery guide

#6: Fill Your Own Bottle, Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. (Frankfort)

Whiskey Thief is a craft distillery on a working farm outside Frankfort. Guests taste bourbon poured from the barrel with a thief, then fill a bottle by hand from the barrel they like. The tour and tasting are covered by our rate, and the bottle you fill is one you buy. It makes a good last stop of the day.

Best for: groups who want a single-barrel bottle they drew themselves.

See our Whiskey Thief page

Hands-On Experiences Comparison

We book every one of these once your tour is confirmed, against your actual date.

Which Hands-On Experience Is Right for You?

Choose James B. Beam if

• You are with a group that wants an activity together.
• You want a bottle you filled yourself, with your thumbprint in the seal.

Choose Maker's Mark if

• You want the iconic photo moment.
• You are traveling as a couple.
• You also want the setting: 1,100 acres of Star Hill Farm, a National Historic Landmark.

Choose Heaven Hill if

• You want to taste at barrel proof and make something with your own hands.

Choose Bardstown Bourbon Company if

• Your group has toured a distillery before and would rather spend an hour in the rickhouse.

Pro tip: combine them. James B. Beam and Maker's Mark both sit in the Bardstown and beyond cluster, with Bardstown in between, and Heaven Hill to Bardstown Bourbon Company is about 5 minutes. Custom tours typically run three stops, and we can add or subtract on your planning call.

Build a Hands-On Day

Tell us which experiences matter to your group and we build the day around them, inside one driving cluster, with the bookings made and the driving done for you.

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