Keener Shanton

“Forging a Good Life”

Keener Shanton is the Head Distiller at Old Forge Distillery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where he has been shaping the distillery’s whiskey and moonshine identity for over a decade. He is known inside the company and on the Tennessee Whiskey Trail for pairing deep respect for Appalachian tradition with a willingness to tinker, improvise, and re-engineer equipment if that’s what it takes to get the spirit right.

As one might expect, Sevierville native Shanton’s story both begins and remains in East Tennessee. Before distilling became a career, Shanton worked as a firefighter. His schedule in those days ran in 24-hour shifts, followed by 48 hours off, and that rhythm was the opening that allowed him to get serious about distilling. With two days at a time away from the firehouse, he began hobby distilling as a technical and creative outlet. That step of moving from interest to practice increasingly lines up with a common path in modern American whiskey, where the craft is no longer inherited as part of family tradition, but starting off as a hobby and learned experimentally.

Before long, Old Forge Distillery brought Keener in, essentially at the ground floor. The facility opened in Pigeon Forge in 2014 as part of The Old Mill family of businesses, a historic cluster that traces its identity to an iron forge and a working grist mill dating to the 19th century. Shanton stepped in directly into leadership as Head Distiller, so that from the earliest phase of Old Forge’s commercial life, the way the spirits tasted, the proof levels chosen, and the direction of product development all ran through him. Over time, his job at Old Forge has further broadened, and he now oversees all components of the production process from grain to the glass.  In practice, that includes sourcing grain, managing mashing and fermentation, distilling, deciding cuts, proofing, and bottling, as well as developing new products and limited releases. Yet at the still, Keener has been described as funny, high-energy, and obsessed with process, “A mixture between a comedian and a mad scientist,” as one tourism podcast host put it.

Old Forge Distillery positions itself as a bridge between old Appalachian methods and modern craft distilling. The distillery sits beside The Old Mill which was built in 1830 and is still in continuous operation.  The grain used in Old Forge spirits is stone-ground using power from the Little Pigeon River, and in doing so, the distillery honors early Tennessee distilling traditions. This is not marketing fluff in Shanton’s case; it’s an opportunity to pivot when necessary; since the physical production space at Old Forge is relatively compact, the distillery uses minimal automation which requires Shanton to improvise solutions to get the spirit profile he’s aiming for, very similar to how East Tennessee distillers did nearly 200 years ago.

From the start, Shanton’s portfolio has leaned heavily on Tennessee heritage moonshine and on whiskey. Old Forge emphasizes a lineup of moonshines, some traditional, some clearly designed for approachability to visitors passing through Pigeon Forge, and including Coffee, Vanilla Bean, Apple Pie, Peach, Oatmeal Cookie, and Bananas Foster. There is also a surprisingly smooth high-alcohol content unflavored shine that can reach 140 proof, “straight from the still.” The products are pointed at the Smoky Mountains tourist who wants to taste legal flavored moonshine in a place that still feels close to the old illicit culture, but also the more contemplative whiskey drinker who is curious about grain character, fermentation, and cut quality at high proof. At the same time, Shanton has released bourbons and Tennessee-style whiskeys that lean into story and place. In July 2020, Shanton announced “Cyclone Jim,” a 12-year-old, single barrel Tennessee bourbon bottled at 110 proof and non-chill filtered. Cyclone Jim is more than a label; it references a legendary and beloved local working drafthorse, known around the Old Mill property for powering clay processing, who became an early tourist attraction in Pigeon Forge in the 1940s, long before mini-golf, helicopter rides, and waterslides were commonplace.

Within the Tennessee whiskey and moonshine landscape, the gregarious Shanton is not just as “Head Distiller,” but the personality of Old Forge. That matters in a small distillery, because not only is he the filter for what does and doesn’t get bottled under the Old Forge name, but he is effectively the face of Old Forge. In the tourism-driven environment which is Pigeon Forge, authenticity is not only required, but it is currency. By using ingredients milled steps away from his stills, leaning openly into fantastic high-proof shine, and re-telling stories rooted in local people and work animals, Old Forge distinguishes itself from flavored novelty moonshine on one side and corporate whiskey portfolios on the other.

Meanwhile, family and community remain the centerpiece of Keener’s life. Shanton still makes his home in East Tennessee, close to where it all started. So when people talk about the Old Forge Distillery now, they mention the shine, but they also talk about the man behind it: the former firefighter with a laugh that echoes across the Forge, the hometown kid who never forgot where he came from, the distiller who turned East Tennessee folklore into liquid stories. Kids wave at him from across the market; visitors swear he’s the most welcoming face in the complex. And as he walks his own two children across the same streets he once rode on his bicycle, he can’t help but feel that life has folded in on itself in the best way, because what started with a curious search bar and a few clumsy first runs has become a craft, a calling, and a celebration of the place he loves. In every bottle, there’s a little smoke, a little sweetness, and the steady heartbeat of home. And people can clearly see that THAT is what makes Keener Shanton tick.

Sources:

  1. Old Forge Distillery official homepage, August 2021, oldforgedistillery.com

  2. WVLT-8 News (Knoxville, TN), “OFD Celebrates Hometown Figure”, July 6, 2020, www.wvlt.tv

  3. Explore the Smokies podcast 4, “Old Forge Distillery…”, explorethesmokies.com

  4. Blue Ridge Motorcycling Magazine, “The Tennessee Whiskey Trail”, Sarah Merrill, June 4, 2020, blueridgemotorcyclingmagazine.com

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee