Evan Williams Bourbon Experience

I don’t like bourbon. Yes I said it, a Kentucky girl and I’m admitting it. However, you don’t have to like bourbon to enjoy this experience.
Tour takes about an hour and is best for small groups due to the size of the rooms on the tour. I learned so much about the history of bourbon and the city of louisville. You feel like you are transported back in time during the interactive tour.
For the bourbon lovers the tour ends at the bar to not only learn about proofs in bourbon but also to taste three types of bourbon. Now I can say I’ve tried an over $ 100/​bottle bourbon without buying it. Ha! Unfortunately, no matter how expensive it is this Kentucky girl still doesn’t like bourbon.

Simply amazing. My lady and I are down here for the weekend just to get away thought we would enjoy this lovely town. While here we decided to do a few local things and since Kentucky is bourbon and Louisville is Bats we decided to do the bat factory and priced to the different bourbon distillery’s. We started here not only because of proximity to where we were but for the amazing history lesson over prohibition. The experience in the speak easy tour is well with the slight up charge that eventually turns into a steal. You get to sample 4 different bourbons they climb in quality as you try each hold their own on your pallet. I highly recommend this fantastic speakeasy tasting and I will most likely do it again.

The Speakeasy experience is awesome! It costs a little more than the traditional tour ($ 18) but it’s totally worth it. You get to taste four different bourbons inside of a speakeasy which is located in the basement of the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience building. The bartender is dressed like a bartender from the 20’s and tells great stories about the history of bourbon and the prohibition era. As someone who really enjoys history and a good cocktail every now and then, this was right up my alley. The inside of the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience building is pretty cool too and they have an awesome gift shop. In the gift shop, they sell everything from bbq sauces to candles. If you’re in the downtown Louisville area you should definitely check this place out!

Took a tour on a whim. My girlfriend and I were the only ones on the tour with Vicky and had a great time, on a Wednesday at around 12 pm. It seemed to be a slow day, but Vicky made it! Very impressive and modern exhibits. With only two people on the tour it was very intimate and relaxed. I highly suggest the tour.

Took the tour of the distillery and the experience was outstanding. had a great time. best bourbon in the country.

This was very interesting even If you do not drink bourbon. Here visiting from CA. Very informative

As a novice bourbon consumer I found the Evan Williams «experience» to be a great way to learn some bourbon history and get a chance to sample a few varieties of bourbon. The tour was about an hour long and it was pretty informative.
While this is not the main manufacturing site, they do small batch distilling onsite so you can get a feel for the process. Of course the tour ends in the gift shop offering tons of Evan Williams branded products, not just bourbon.
Lastly, it appears they rent the place out for corporate events as they have a large private room in the basement.

This is not a traditional distillery/​stillhouse tour. This is essentially a guided bourbon brewing museum. It’s fairly kitschy and if you have never been to an actually distillery you’ll miss something by doing this instead. The vast majority of what they show you is videos, diagrams, and museum-​like exhibits. You also get to look through a giant glass window at their mini distillery where they make a few barrels per day.
With that said, the «experience» is climate controlled, requires minimal walking, and is handicapped accessible. It’s also located in downtown Louisville within walking distance of most of the big hotels. So, if you have time, travel, or other limitations its is a quick and easy way to get a taste of Louisville’s bourbon history without having to trek out to a stillhouse. I would also recommend it in addition to visiting other sites on the bourbon trail because it adds some of the historical elements.
Also, the gift shop is pretty awesome. Its probably the best place in the city to buy Evan Williams products. Its worth the visit just to shop there.

This is the second distillery my husband and I visited in Kentucky. We were visiting Louisville and literally stumbled upon Evan Williams on a leisurely, aimless stroll downtown. Being the bourbon junkies we are, we looked at each other, A distillery? Downtown? Duh, were doing this! He got in free being Active Duty Military, which is rad. Thank you for honoring them.
The tour begins in a room with a movie on the History of Evan and how the distillery came to be. As you walk through, you travel through different time periods and learn about the evolution of how things have progressed over the years. Very interactive. We learned the process of how they make their bourbon. Got to do a tasting in the coolest 1960’s themed speak easy. Ended the tour with delicious Bourbon balls, if you haven’t had these you must find them. Of course the gift shop at the end had everything you could ever want including all those specialty items you cannot find anywhere else. Our guide was awesome. He knew his shit and answered every obnoxious question with ease and patience.
Definitely a memorable stop on our trip. Its cheap and informative and totally something you should check out if you are downtown and have an hour to spare.

I have been trying to get my husband to go to Evan Williams since April. We finally made it last week and he kiddingly said «I told you for months we should have come!»
We loved it. It was an informative, historical tour. The tour starts with a short film as replicated from Evan Williams perspective with the colonization of the river in Louisville. The films they used along with a live narrator were well thought out and both informational and humorous at the same time. The guide taught us many things about prohibition, the falls on the Ohio along with the history of bourbon. For example, we had no clue that bourbon can only be made in the U.S.
The structure is designed beautifully and only enhances the timeline of our bourbon history. The tour, of course, ends with bourbon tasting in a speakeasy type bar which again enhances the entire experience. We loved all the bourbons we tasted. Our tour guide (Charlie? I think) was very knowledgable about the different nuances of the bourbons

Interesting interactive type tour of the Evans Williams Distillery. History and process of bourbon is detailed by a knowledgeable tour guide. Best part is the tasting of three types of bourbon with explanation of the qualities along with a sampling of their delicious bourbon chocolate truffles. Right in downtown Louisville near the water makes it a memorable stop.

By far the most interactive tour of the entire KY bourbon trail. Several guided walk-​throughs and exhibits take you through historical Louisville from its early settlement, up and past prohibition, and in to a modern tasting. Some of the exhibits even included movie productions — which almost gave the feeling of a professional and fun grown up amusement park (with bourbon!)
This is definitely worth the stop in Louisville — highly recommend, however, you stop in as soon as they open in the morning (especially on weekends) or get them online ahead of time to reserve a spot in an upcoming tour, as they can sell out rather quickly…

We really enjoyed the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. Jordan was a very good and humorous guide. We learned a lot about Evan Wiiliams as well as the history of bourbon making. You also learn a lot about Louisville history.
When you get to the tasting you get 3 samples. Jordan told us how it should look, smell and taste. The bourbon ball sample was good also.
The gift shop at the end has a wide selection of Evan Wiiliams bourbons, bourbon balls, glassware, sauces, jams and other gifts.

I don’t know if this tour was awesome or cheesy as hell so I’m giving it five stars.
Owen, our tour guide, was awesome. He was super chill and seemed to enjoy himself without the pretentiousness we’ve seen in other tour guides. Heck, I even saw him sneak an extra bourbon ball for himself during the tasting.
The tour itself is multimedia. There’s some movies, there are some rooms decorated to feel like you were in town hall meetings or by a river, there were some opportunities to look at distilling equipment. On some other tours, I felt like we were being shuffled around just to be shuffled around. That never felt like the case here — everything flowed, the story was solid, and I was engaged.
The tasting was great. Owen gave some tasting tips throughout, but otherwise we were left to taste the bourbon (and bourbon ball) in peace.
Solid experience. Highly recommend.

This review is based on a visit during a special event, so some areas or elements of the tour may be different for the general public.
I’ve had the opportunity to visit many bourbon distilleries in KY and I was so impressed with this new, Heaven Hill venture! I attended a New2Lou event held at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience this week and had a chance to do a self-​guided tour (I believe this is normally with a guide), sample four products, and enjoy cocktails in their private room which is reminiscent of a speak easy.
The building has been designed beautifully with so much attention to detail. The lighting is perfect, the signage and videos are informative (& attractive), and the bar spaces are roomy & comfortable.
I only have two small quibbles with this attraction. The first would be that they are unable to offer the accompanying audio with all the video because of noise levels in adjacent rooms. This is quite distracting as you see the actors’ mouths moving, but no sounds come out.
The second is that they didn’t offer their seasonal products at the bar. I wanted to try the fall, apple cider bourbon but didn’t want to buy an entire bottle before tasting. I wasn’t able to sample it or buy a cocktail. This seemed like a lost opportunity to get people excited about specialty flavors not often found at bars and restaurants for purchase.
I’ll definitely be taking out of town guests that dunt have time to venture down the bourbon trail to this convenient and lovely spot downtown!

The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience was the wife and my first official stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Located in Downtown Louisville in a recently renovated old building along Whiskey Row, the Experience opened in 2013 and it was obvious to me that a lot of thought was put into its concept and construction to do proper justice in telling the story of Evan Williams. We had tickets ($ 12/​adult) for the 1:30PM tour on a Thursday afternoon. Our tour group was medium-​sized, approx. 20 people, a good size that allowed for us to still move efficiently through the Experience while also being able to hear our excellent tour guide, Jean, as she led us around. Jean was friendly, knowledgeable, and seemed like the cool girl that you’d like to hang with who really knows her bourbon and only drinks it neat or with a splash of water.
As for the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience experience? Admittedly, I’m torn about it. Depending on what you want from a tour of a Kentucky Bourbon Trail distillery, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience may leave you wanting. I learned a lot about Evan Williams the man and why he was important to Kentucky’s bourbon heritage. It was quite interesting and the information from this tour was foundational for the other distillery tours we made. While there was a working craft distillery on premises, the Experience was more an immersive museum tour rather than full-​blown distillery tour replete with the sights, sounds, and smells of distillation in progress. The tiny on site rickhouse left me wondering how the bourbon barrel aging process would work in a climate-​controlled building. For the people that would just rather skip the tour and go straight to the tasting, the tasting rooms and the opportunity to sample Evan Williams product was a definite strength and capped off an informative visit.
In the end, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience met my expectations. It offered a slick, well conceived, presentation. As a bourbon geek, however, if I had time for only one Bourbon Trail tour, I would pass on this one since it doesn’t offer the true distillery experience.

Great staff and amazing bourbon! Can’t ask for more if you like whiskey! Nice location and clean.

Best. Time. Ever.
Brought my husband here for Father’s Day, and it was quite the hit. There’s not much I can add that hasn’t been said already. Thanks Unilocalers for steering me to this entertaining place.

This was the first of our stops on the bourbon trail, as we decided to visit a local distillery first. We did the speakeasy tour and it was like a step back in time complete with samples of the most expensive and best bourbon in the house! Definitely recommend this tour for anyone doing the trail for a different approach to a tour.

Loved it! I came to Louisville for work and decided to pop in this distillery before I drove to the airport on a Friday afternoon. The people that work here were all super nice; I went with the $ 12 prohibition tour (30 min tour) as I didn’t have an hour for the other tour. While waiting for the tour to start I went upstairs and checked out the gift shop, which was really cute. I ended up buying a delicious bourbon smelling candle. After a few minutes, I went back downstairs and embarked on the prohibition tour.
There was about 8 of us on the tour, and we walked downstairs into a room that resembled your grandfather’s basement, very 1920s looking. The tour guide then said to one of the guys on the tour, knock on the door and ask for Jack, tell him ‘so and so’ sent you. So cool. Jack then let us into his fairly large «Prohibition style» bar. What a cool older guy, so friendly, and knowledgeable. He chatted about what the 1920s were like and how people used to sneak alcohol and how Bourbon was made and the tour finished with three samples. I was told we could have another free sample at the gift shop, but I had to leave after the tour.
I would hang out at this beautiful wooden circular bar all day if I could, awesome bar.
All in all, a fun time and I highly recommend it!