James E. Pepper Distilling Co. (independent)

Historic bourbon brand founded by the Pepper family in 1780, whose distilling roots trace to the American Revolution. Colonel James E. Pepper nicknamed his whiskey 'Old 1776' after his grandfather's original recipe. The brand's Lexington distillery, built in 1880, was once the largest and most technologically advanced whiskey distillery in the US. After closing in 1967 and sitting abandoned for 50 years, the brand was revived by Amir Peay in 2008, and the historic distillery site on Manchester Street in Lexington was restored and began distilling again in December 2017.