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Willett Distillery aka Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD) Timeline & History:
| Year | Event | Info |
| 1936 | Willett Distillery Founded | |
| 1937 | First Barrel Filled | Mar 17 |
| 1940s | Old Bardstown Released | |
| 1960s | Johnny Drum Released | |
| 1970s | Changed to Gasohol Production with Gas Shortage | Late 1970s |
| 1980s | Closed Distillery | Early 1980s |
| 1984 | Even Kulsveen and Martha Willet Purchased Company DSP-KY-78 | July 1 |
| 1990s | Kentucky Vintage & Pure Kentucky - Released | |
| 2008 | Willett Family Estate - Released | |
| 2008 | Willett Pot Still - Released | |
| 2010 | "Willet" Cursive Type Now whereas before it was Serif Font | 2010-2011 |
| 2012 | First Distillate Produced | Jan 21 |
| 2012 | First Barrels Stored in Wharehouse A | Jan 27 |
| 2014 | Willett Exploratory Cask Finish - Released | Oct 31 |
| 2015 | WFE Rye 2 Year - Released | From Copper Pot Still |
| 2016 | WFE Bourbon 4 Year - Released | From Copper Pot Still |
| 2017 | 80th Anniversary Edition - Released | Mar 17 |
WFE 4 Year Bourbon (Produced in 2016):
On January 18, 2012, Willett Distillery began the fermentation mash bill of 72% corn, 13% rye, and 15% barley. This was the stocks used to produce the first WFE Bourbon 4 Year Release in 2016. The initial distillation on January 21, 2012 was slated to run through the column still, but a balky pump led Drew Kulsveen to take the first fermentation to the pot still, where it was distilled one time, utilizing five trays in the column on the pot still. The resulting spirit of 110.3 proof — which was made of a narrow “center cut,” discarding the heads and the tails of the distillation — filled six barrels at 103 proof, on January 27, which would have been the 103rd birthday of Thompson Willett.
The brands owned and marketed by Willett / KBD include:
Some of the additional contracted brands that Willett / KBD bottled for include:
Willett / KBD does not identify specifically where the whiskies were distilled, although speculation is that some were from Stitzel-Weller, Bernheim, but the majority of their whiskies came from the Heaven Hill Distillery, also located in Bardstown. Additionally, Willett / KBD also released their whiskies through various fictitious distilling company names such as the Old Bardstown Distilling Company & Noah’s Mill Distilling.
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