At Thornton Distilling Co., the oldest standing brewery in Illinois becomes a destination for modern spirits and slow craftsmanship.
The air feels different in Thornton. Step below street level into the limestone cellar at Thornton Distilling Co., and the temperature drops; the light softens to a mossy green. There’s a hush, the kind that belongs to old places. From deep underground, a pressurized artesian well still murmurs — the same one that fed a frontier brewery here in 1857.
For nearly two centuries, this building has seen every chapter of Illinois drinking culture: the German brewing boom, Prohibition’s cat-and-mouse games, and now a full-circle revival as one of the region’s most ambitious craft distilleries.
The New Era
When head distiller Ari Klafter joined the team, he brought more than a résumé — he brought a shift in perspective. A Heriot-Watt University graduate (a Brewing & Distilling Science Program in Edinburgh, Scotland), he arrived with a plan to make American single malt whiskey the focus.
It’s a bold choice. Bourbon may be America’s sweetheart, but single malt is its introspective cousin — subtle, complex, slow to reveal itself. The distillery rebuilt its systems from the mash tun up to match that approach. “We’re not chasing volume,” Co Founder, Andrew Howell says. “We’re chasing flavor.”
The whiskey process starts with : a 500-gallon mash tun, local barley, water drawn from the same limestone-fed well that’s been here since before Chicago had paved streets. Most distilleries ferment for three days. Thornton goes for seven or eight, trading efficiency for depth. The spirit is distilled twice in copper pots — once to strip the alcohol from the beer, and again to refine it. All that work yields roughly one barrel per day. “Kentucky does our annual capacity before lunch,” Andy jokes.
The Water That Built It
If Kentucky’s secret ingredient is limestone water, Illinois has it too — right here. Thornton sits on the Silurian aquifer, an ancient underground river flowing 1,500 feet below the surface.
The limestone filters out heavy metals and infuses the water with minerals yeast love. The result? Cleaner fermentation, brighter spirits, and a geological bragging right no one else in the state can claim.
That same limestone made Thornton famous in another way — its quarries are the largest in the Western Hemisphere, visible from space. The distillery’s bar upstairs is carved from those very stones, 50,000 pounds of local bedrock polished smooth.
The Spirits
If whiskey is the house philosophy, gin is its playground. Their small-batch London Dry Gin starts with neutral spirit and builds flavor in layers: hardy botanicals like juniper and angelica steep hot in the still, while delicate ones — lavender, hibiscus, grapefruit, and 75 pounds of hand-zested rhubarb — infuse through vapor. The result is fragrant, citrus-bright, and remarkably smooth.
In the experimental corner, a five-gallon pilot still keeps things interesting. There’s a Coffee Cherry Gin collaboration with Dark Matter Coffee, a tiny run of absinthe made with real wormwood, and more than a few quiet projects in the works. “It’s not complicated once you understand it,” Andy says. “It’s just about knowing when to stop.”
A Story Beneath the Floorboards
Before the whiskey and gin came the beer. This is, after all, the oldest standing brewery in Illinois. The first brewer, a German immigrant named Beifeldt built the brick structure in 1857 to take advantage of the clean water and cool underground temperatures. His operation survived fires, tornadoes, and the temperance movement. During Prohibition, federal agents reportedly raided the place and dumped barrels into Thorn Creek — though newly discovered photos suggest the beer kept flowing anyway, perhaps with the quiet blessing of Capone’s network.
Thornton’s team doesn’t lean too hard on the lore. “The truth’s interesting enough,” they’ll tell you on a tour. “No gangsters required.”
Back Above Ground
Upstairs, the tasting room balances industrial grit with easy charm — brick, steel, reclaimed wood, and the low hum of conversation. Locals pull up to the bar for a pecan-finished bourbon, a rhubarb-bright gin, or a pour of absinthe that feels equal parts science and séance.
Soon, there’ll be something new on the shelf: a six-year-old American single malt, the first release under the distillery’s own label. It’s been aging quietly in those stone-walled rooms while the rest of the world moved fast. “We don’t want to recreate Kentucky,” Andy says. “We just want to remind people that Illinois has been doing this a long time too.”
Why It Belongs on Your Map
Thornton Distilling Co. isn’t nostalgia — it’s continuity. A place where water, grain, and time are still treated like collaborators. The limestone still filters, the well still flows, and the work still happens by hand.
You don’t need to be a whiskey nerd to appreciate it. You just need to walk downstairs, feel the temperature shift, and realize you’re standing inside a living piece of Illinois history — one that still knows how to make a good drink.
If You Go
Thornton Distilling Co.
400 E. Margaret St., Thornton, IL
Tours: Fri–Sun
Try: Pecan Bourbon, Rhubarb & Grapefruit Gin, Small-Batch Absinthe
Coming Soon: 6yr American Single Malt
—Nkosi
Pressurized Artisan Well
Illinois Brewing Co
