A Fort Worth landmark property is getting a new lease on life, becoming the largest whiskey distillery west of the Mississippi.
"It's been an unbelievable ride. We never thought we would be this scale, this quickly," said Troy Robertson, co-owner of Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company.
Award-winning TX Blended Whiskey and TX Bourbon — now produced near downtown Fort Worth — will soon be produced at the historic Glen Garden Country Club, where golf greats Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson learned the game as caddies.
"Our current facility produces about three barrels a day. What this facility allows us to do is up to 40 barrels a day," Robertson said.
The distillery will be known as "Whiskey Ranch."
"Texas is the second largest consuming state of whiskey," said co-owner Leonard Firestone. "So when we started the business, we realized that at that time nobody was producing it here. So we thought there was a real opportunity."
The country club closed three years ago, and when Firestone & Robertson Distilling bought it, the company promised to keep the 18-hole golf course.
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"The intent is to open it up at times to charities and private events," Firestone said. "We kept 18 holes — we had to reconfigure the course a little bit — but it was really important to us to preserve the history, because it's unlike any in the golf world."
After adding five new buildings, Firestone & Robertson Distilling expects to begin production in December.
"This concept, the company, was a business plan literally seven years ago. So it was on piece of paper," Firestone said. "We're just really grateful that people have supported us."
