Whiskey Lore's Travel Guide to Experiencing American Whiskey: 2026 Edition

Learn. Plan. Taste. Tour.
LISTS 1,000 WHISKEY DISTILLERIES IN 50 STATES
Details on tours, tastings, and on-site experiences

America’s whiskey renaissance is booming—and so is the number of distilleries ready to welcome you behind their doors. But with more than a thousand distilleries scattered across 50 states, planning the perfect whiskey adventure can feel overwhelming.

That’s where Whiskey Lore's Travel Guide to Experiencing American Whiskey comes in. Written for travelers, whiskey lovers, tasting-room explorers, and road-trip dreamers, this annual guide gives you everything you need to confidently plan your journey, deepen your whiskey knowledge, and experience the best distillery hospitality America has to offer.

Your Roadmap to America’s Whiskey Culture

Inside, you’ll discover over 1,000 American whiskey-producing distilleries, each listed with quick-reference details including:

• The styles of whiskey they produce
• Whether they offer tastings, tours, or cocktails
• When tours are available
• Their location and contact information
• A website companion for bookmarking and tracking your favorites

Plus, 227 detailed distillery profiles give you a closer look at standout distilleries across the country—their history, personality, and what sets them apart from the rest.

This isn’t a rating book. It’s a travel companion designed to guide you toward the distilleries that fit your interests, schedule, budget, and flavor preferences.

Travel Confidently With Expert Planning Tips

Whether you’re designing a five-day whiskey road trip or squeezing two distillery visits into your next vacation, this book walks you through:

• How to build your distillery itinerary
• How many distilleries you can realistically visit per day
• Navigating tour schedules, reservations, and tour types
• How to use regional and state indexes to plan efficiently
• Safety tips, travel considerations, and pacing strategies
• Choosing between rental cars, guides, and travel agents

You'll also learn how to avoid common pitfalls and how to build a flexible, stress-free plan that leaves room for discovery—and a few surprises along the way.

Explore the Seven American Whiskey Regions

America’s whiskey landscape is vast. To make planning effortless, the book divides the country into seven logical whiskey regions, each with its own color-coded section:

• Appalachian
• Deep South
• Great Lakes
• Great Plains
• Northeast
• Rockies
• Western

Each region leads into detailed state pages featuring maps, trail information, local flavor, top side trips, whiskey specialties, and quick-reference state “rules” for tours, tastings, bottle limits, and more.

A Living Guide for a Changing Industry

American whiskey is evolving fast. Distilleries open, close, expand, and reinvent themselves every year. That’s why this guide is designed as an annual—fully updated each edition, with new profiles, new state changes, new experiences, and new stories from across the whiskey world. Use it as a trip planner, a tasting journal companion, and even a yearbook—collect signatures and stamps from the distilleries you visit and build a record of your travels.

America’s whiskey is waiting. Get the information you need to plan your next adventure.

Why This Book Is Different

This is not a marketing directory.
Only distilleries that distill whiskey on site are listed. Profiles are written independently, without promotional language or paid placement.

It’s built for travelers.
Clear tour information, tasting availability, cocktail access, and logistics make this a practical guide you can actually use on the road.

Firsthand research matters.
Extended profiles are informed by direct conversations, visits, and careful verification—capturing each distillery’s focus, personality, and visitor experience accurately.

It teaches you before you arrive.
The guide prepares you with whiskey basics, production insight, and tasting context so tours make sense once you’re there.

It evolves annually.
Released as a collectible yearly guide, it reflects the rapidly changing American distilling landscape—updated, verified, and refined with each edition.