Blending Bourbon and Technology: The Maker’s Mark Expansion Journey

Out in Loretto, Kentucky on a 1,000 acre farm, sits Maker’s Mark Distillery. Maker’s Mark was planning for a major expansion of the Distillery - a third still. With an expansion like this, needs to support unit processes and utilities infrastructure become crucial. Clif Slaton served as the Plant Engineer for Makers at the time and had the initial vision and planning insight of where the facility needed to go in order to meet there growth demands. Maker’s needed a controls provider and reached out to our belated founder, Mark Walk. Being fans of the bourbon brand and understanding their dedication to their 1953 tradition, we gathered a team of engineers, architects, and programmers, to complete this project over the next couple of years.

Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky.

The first task was to replace an obsolete PLC5 with a ControlLogix PLC. Our principal architect, Greg Quilling, laid out all of the existing I/O, as well as additional I/O to improve the process monitoring and for the future third distillation train.

In addition to the hardware upgrade, our team developed the new PLC program to support the existing operations and ongoing expansion.

Other parallel work included a new ControlLogix PLC for a new processing building, where aged bourbon is filtered and proofed for bottling. Additional ControlLogix PLCs were implemented for control of 62 Fermenters. This involved new ControlLogix I/O for 21 new fermenters, as well as new I/O adapters to connect to existing I/O previously managed by a SLC processor.

Another new processor was installed to control a grain handling system and yet another new processor was installed and programmed to control utilities, including a cooling tower, related fans and pumps, as well as a reverse osmosis water plant. Several of these systems involved peer communication to both new and legacy systems for interlocking purposes. 

While one part of the team was busy working the PLC installations, the other was busy developing several Wonderware HMI applications. The plant had previously relied on some obsolete Panelviews, and our principal programmer, Pedro Garcia’s, graphics took all of the aforementioned process HMIs to the next level. He facilitated the implementation of a system that had redundant terminal servers supporting about a dozen thin clients across the facility.

Most importantly, our team got to know the operations people of Maker’s Mark and worked closely with them to ensure the work they did met their needs, expectations, and preserved their traditional process.

Cheers!