Old Forge Distillery, LLC

Old Forge Distillery is the Pigeon Forge, Tennessee craft operation embedded within the historic Old Mill complex — and the modern Pigeon Forge distillery whose location at the literal geographic and cultural center of the city's tourism corridor makes it one of the most physically integrated distillery-and-tourism-property combinations in the United States. Founded in 2014 by the Holiday family (longtime owners of the Old Mill restaurant and shopping complex), Old Forge sits within the Old Mill historic district at 161 Old Mill Avenue — the Old Mill itself dates to 1830 and is one of the oldest continuously operating grist mills in the United States, still grinding corn and flour on its original grindstones a few buildings down from the distillery operation.

The integration with the Old Mill complex shapes everything about the production identity. Old Forge sources much of its grain from the Old Mill's own grinding operation, giving the distillery an unusually short grain-to-still pipeline (the cornmeal that goes into Old Forge mash is being ground a few hundred feet away from the fermentation tanks). The distillery's flagship Tennessee Wheated Whiskey uses wheat as the secondary grain rather than the standard rye — a softer, more dessert-forward flavor profile aligned with the Old Mill's broader baking and pancake-house product line, which has been the Holiday family's main commercial focus for decades.

The product range covers the Old Forge Tennessee Wheated Whiskey flagship, the Tennessee Bourbon (standard high-rye mash bill), the Tennessee Rye Whiskey, a Tennessee Bottled-in-Bond release, several moonshine variants (Apple Pie, Peach Cobbler, Blueberry — all branded to align with the Old Mill restaurant's regional dessert program), and a rotating range of seasonal releases. The Old Forge production uses pot stills sized for the small-batch production volume that the Old Mill complex can support through on-site retail.

The Pigeon Forge visitor experience makes Old Forge one of the most accessible craft distillery stops in the Smoky Mountains region. The Old Mill complex includes the original 1830 grist mill (still operational and tourable separately), the Old Mill Restaurant (one of the highest-volume restaurants in the entire Tennessee tourist economy by total annual covers), a candy kitchen, multiple retail buildings, and the distillery tasting room — all within walking distance on a single property. Visitors can tour the active distillery, watch the grist mill at work, and have lunch at the restaurant in a single two-hour stop, which is the strategic integration the Holiday family has built across decades of Pigeon Forge tourism property ownership.