Drive onto the property of Hard Truth Distilling Co., and it’s like you’ve crossed into another world. Located on a 325-acre, wooded campus in Brown County, Indiana, it spreads across a region renowned for natural beauty and rolling hills that’s attracted famous American impressionists like T.C. Steele (who loved it so much he established his art colony there) and avid bikers who inspired the local state park to install new mountain bike-only trails. But whereas artists and cyclists are obvious fixtures in this kind of environment, Hard Truth breaks new ground here: Part distillery and part amusement park, it’s a gigantic spirits oasis where Indiana rye, sweet mash whiskeys, and coconut rum are the main attractions.
The Most Magical Distillery on Earth
On the property, which was opened in 2017, you’ll find a distillery, a man-made lake, a guest cabin, tour center, and a restaurant. You’ll even see guests floating by in pontoons on a tiki cruise through the property’s stunning hardwood forests, tropical drinks in hand.
If all this sounds out of step with what you’d expect from a distillery, that’s kind of the point. Before taking shovel to soil, Hard Truth’s five co-owners and business partners — including Jeff McCabe and master distiller and co-owner Bryan Smith — planned to supply immersive guest experiences, something lacking in the tours of their neighbors down south on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
“On those tours you get to see a rack house, you get to see barrels of bourbon whiskey, you
