With an 8-year continuous thread, nothing is off-topic. I can only speak to Heaven Hill's process. They are the largest privately held distiller in the world so their practices are probably typical. The corn and other grain products are brought in by truck not rail. The Louisville Bernheim distillation plant produces the raw bourbon for all of their different brands. They produce other spirits at different plants throughout the country (vodka for example). The distilled raw spirits are transported by stainless steel tank trucks from Louisville to the massive barreling and ultimately bottling operation at Bardstown, KY. I took this outside their Louisville Distillery. They use their own dedicated trucks and sent multiple tank fulls a day to Bardstown.
The distillery was originally co-located at Bardstown until a catastrophic fire in the mid-90s. Burning alcohol was pouring into the local creek and the distillery was destroyed. They bought the old Bernheim site in West Louisville and created a state-of-the-art modern, computer controlled facility. Two years ago they finished a $50mm expansion. The company is family owned and the owners live next door to my daughter. They are understated people and the CEO drives a Buick LaCrosse. The family's owned the company since the early 1930s at the end of Prohibition.
That said, distilleries consume vast quantities of grain. On my railroad I have a number of grain handling cars to do the job. There are RR tracks in that area of Louisville and Brown Foreman has a huge facility just around the corner and may bring product in by rail.
Another update about the Rick House. My drawings and pictures were forwarded by Nick Morris to the head of Buzick IT's department. They're working on a 3D printed working model of the their rick house design to use as a developmental tool. They were impressed with what I'm doing and are offering any additional help I need. Word's getting around...
I'll be working on finishing first floor planking, 2nd level joists and 2nd level rick construction. I've just 3D printed my second barrel attempt. The first was a little too narrow and a bit too thick. The second iteration is on the machine and finished, but I haven't gone down to the shop to get it yet. I'll report of all this later.
