Barrel Farm LLC operates a premium spirits storage facility in the birthplace of bourbon. The privately-owned business operates two six-story warehouses, each capable of holding 24,000 barrels, with plans to develop a further 15 warehouses across their 100-acre site in Garrard County, Kentucky.
Ambitious growth plans in the birthplace of bourbon
We spoke with Justin Thompson, General Manager, at Barrel Farm about his passion for managing bulk barrel inventory in Kentucky’s thriving bourbon industry, and why they chose DRAMS software to support their ambitious growth plans.
“Growing up in Kentucky, we know exactly how important it is to care for bourbon casks. You have to be really dedicated. I actually live on the farm, so I can watch over the barrels 24/7. We needed a solution that could pinpoint the exact location of each barrel daily – and scale seamlessly with our business in the future” shared Justin.
Bulk barrel tracking and reporting challenges
“Managing the sheer volume of barrel inventory that we processed each day was one of our biggest challenges. It’s difficult when you are receiving thousands of barrels and we wanted to avoid any manual paper-based data entry, which is prone to error.”
“We’re a small crew here at Barrel Farm and we also wanted to streamline the monthly administrative load, while ensuring accuracy of reporting to satisfy our customer’s inventory requirements and remain compliant with the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)”, added Justin.
“We also wanted to gain greater visibility of our stowable warehouse space to help maximize utilization, so we could trigger our expansion plans at the right time.”
These challenges led Barrel Farm to seek advice from distilleries in Kentucky who have deep knowledge of warehouse and inventory management software.
Conversations with DRAMS users at the Wild Turkey Distillery, operated by Campari, left a strong impression. Justin said: “they explained how easy it was to manage a large barrel inventory using the software, and that there would be no way to operate effectively without having a system like DRAMS in place”.
Software built exclusively for the spirits industry
In 2024, Barrel Farm implemented the core DRAMS warehouse management application and DRAMS Scan module.
“We love that DRAMS is built exclusively for the spirits industry. There are a lot of ERP and inventory management systems available, but it’s just not the same. DRAMS understands our processes straight out of the box”.
The core DRAMS application streamlines warehouse operations by capturing essential inventory data for every barrel — including age, location, and ownership — and analysing warehouse utilisation to help optimise the use of storage space. The DRAMS Scan module uses handheld scanners to record real-time barrel movements and locations, enabling faster tracking and significantly improving inventory accuracy.
“The implementation process was smooth and fast – just a few weeks. The DRAMS team has a vast amount of knowledge and was able to handle everything we threw at them” said Justin.
Managing thousands of bourbon barrels stress-free
“Today, we are using DRAMS to track the lifecycle of a barrel from the day it is rolled in to when it is shipped out”.
“And this includes tracking repairs if we identify any damage to barrels caused during transportation to the farm”, added Justin.
“When you are processing thousands of barrels manually, it’s easy to make mistakes – but with DRAMS Scan, we’re able to accelerate tracking and allocation operations, managing barrels more efficiently and with less margin for error,” said Justin.
“The core DRAMS warehouse application helps us to utilize all our stowable space. DRAMS supports Barrel Farm to make sure everything’s mapped out correctly – with barrels positioned in the right location within each warehouse.”
“We manage the bulk barrel inventory for multiple owners on the farm, so in one rack we could store bourbon barrels belonging to four or five different owners. Precise barrel tracking is our top priority. We always want to quickly show our customers exactly where their bourbon barrels are stored when they come to visit. DRAMS enables us to do that – it tracks the exact position of every barrel – right down to the position within a rail.”
“With DRAMS, we’re also able to quickly automate TTB reports, detailing how many barrels we received that month, and produce bill of lading documentation when shipping barrels onto bottling facilities with relative ease. We’re also planning to use DRAMS warehouse rent functionality to support with our customer invoicing requirements at a later date.”
“In the meantime, knowing exactly where each barrel is going, and mapping out the history of any movements, makes managing the inventory of thousands of bourbon barrels stress free”, said Justin.
“DRAMS enables us to operate at the highest level with confidence. And there’s people from across the world using the system too. Being part of the DRAMS User Group Community has helped me tap into wider industry networks and make connections with spirits producers to take the success of Barrel Farm forward”.
