Heart of the Bourbon Business.

Innovative Technology Upgrades

Continuing a partnership of more than five years, Gray and Buffalo Trace teamed-up to renovate the mash house and construct a 4-story process building attached to the existing facility. The mash house project doubles Buffalo Trace Distillery’s capacity by focusing on a complete technology upgrade, including new process controls and automation.

The new facility includes state-of-the-art corn meal dust collection system to reduce debris and danger. The new system contains spark detection in the dust collection ducts and fast-acting gate valves that close instantly to isolate the bins and fire suppression cannons that activate in the duct. A new screw auger distribution system was integrated to move the meal to the cookers.

With the facility located directly on the Kentucky River, Gray utilized both a river barge operation to expand the structure and a tower crane to remove existing equipment through the roof before installing new process equipment and piping. Gray installed 216, 52’ deep micropiles on the bank of the Kentucky River as a part of this project.