Southern Kitchen | Nelson's Green Brier Distillery: How 2 brothers revived their family's century-old whiskey business in Nashville

In 1909, statewide Prohibition shut down production at all of Tennessee’s distilleries, including Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, which in the early 20th century was one of the country’s largest whiskey producers and distributors, easily outselling the likes of now-household names like Jack Daniels. Today, brothers Andy and Charlie Nelson, the great-great-grandsons of the distillery’s founder, Charles Nelson, are reviving their ancestor's business — and his whiskey recipe.

Photo Credit: Jason Myers

While the original distillery had over 30 products, Nelson's Green Brier Distillery's most popular and successful was always its Tennessee whiskey. As the history of the distillery goes, back in 1885 when there were hundreds of legal whiskey makers in the state, Charles Nelson's business was far ahead of competitors, selling close to 400,000 gallons of their popular product that year to buyers from Paris to San Francisco. It was obviously good stuff.