Beattyvill Bourbon & Moonshine Festival 2025
09/27/2025 · Beattyville, Kentucky
We made the trip back to downtown Beattyville, Kentucky for the 2025 Beattyville Bourbon & Moonshine Festival, and it ended up being one of those events that just clicks. The heat wasn’t nearly as rough as the year before, the crowd stayed steady throughout the day, and the added competitions gave people a lot more ways to jump in and participate.
The town and event staff once again did a great job keeping everything running smoothly. Vendors lined the streets, classic vehicles were parked throughout the area, and it was easy to spend the day moving from booth to booth catching up with friends and meeting people who share the same interest in craft spirits and traditional equipment.
One of the things we appreciate most about this event is the mix of people who show up. You’ve got distillers, collectors, copper workers, and folks who simply enjoy the culture surrounding it all. That blend makes it easy to spend hours talking shop without even realizing how much time has passed.
Along the way we ran into plenty of familiar faces and spent a good part of the day catching up with friends from past events. At one point our buddy Big Eaze came walking through with a moonshine jug he was passing around the festival, collecting signatures from shiners and friends as a kind of roaming souvenir of the day. We were glad to add our names to the jug before he continued his rounds through the crowd.
There was also plenty of equipment on display, including some impressive copper work that drew crowds all afternoon. Seeing the range of still designs people bring out to events like this always sparks good conversations about technique, design choices, and the traditions behind them.
Still Will also spent some time checking out one of the larger air-cooled copper pot stills on display. Pieces like that always draw attention, and they’re a good reminder of how much variation there is in traditional still construction.
Of course the competitions are a big part of what makes Beattyville such a fun stop each year. Miss Kara Loveheart, also known as Still Will's better half, Shana, defended her title in the Hotter Than Liquor Legs contest, marking her second straight win. Our friend Kenny Taylor also took home the win in the Jug Art contest, giving the crowd plenty to cheer about.
For us personally, the highlight of the weekend came during the still competition. Other than briefly sharing booth space at Hillbilly Jam, this was really the first time we had brought our copper work out in public like this. We entered a build that combined several of our custom-built parts: A French milk-jug onion cap reflux chamber sits below our custom-built "Liberty Bell" tea pot still cap, feeding into our custom-built copper water bottle gin basket, and finishing with our custom-designed "inverted frame"-style six-gallon worm condenser.
To our surprise and excitement, the judges awarded it the trophy for Most Creative Still! Being able to bring something we designed and built ourselves and have it recognized by the community meant a lot to both of us.
Between the competitions, the people, and the chance to finally share some of our own work in person, Beattyville 2025 turned into a day we won’t forget anytime soon. Events like this are a reminder that the community around traditional distilling is just as important as the equipment itself.
Also in attendance
We also crossed paths with Uncle Drunkel’s Pure Kentucky Moonshine, Jeremy Stewart, Moonshiner Red, photographer Michael J. Bowen, Shawnda and Drew Adams, Jaime Mateer, Bruiser of Tigershine Copper, Donnie and Teresa of the Backwoods Moonshine Museum, and Master Distiller Douglas Taylor.
👕 Worn at This Event
“Malt Whiskey” Parody Tee
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Radical 80’s Moonshine Tee
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Event took place September 27, 2025 in downtown Beattyville, Kentucky. Original Facebook coverage for this trip was first posted January 26, 2026. Extra photos and community comments are available on Facebook: View the original post.