Basil Hayden
Basil Hayden Sr. was a Maryland Catholic who led a group of twenty-five Catholic families from Maryland into what is now Nelson County,
Kentucky (near Bardstown) in 1785. After the American Revolution. Basil Hayden Sr developed the high-rye mash used to create the family’s first bourbon in the year 1792. Later Hayden’s grandson Raymond B. Hayden founded a distillery in Nelson County and named his label “Old Grand-Dad” in honor of his grandfather. In 1992, Beam Suntory began producing the Basil Hayden Small Batch line using the original recipe.
