Nelson’s Green Brier Has a New Head Distiller

After Charlie and Andy Nelson sold their majority stake in their family’s namesake business, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, to Constellation Brands in 2019, the brothers subsequently left the venture to pursue new opportunities. After Andy exited the head distiller role — he joined beverage marketing and consulting firm Big Thirst earlier this year — the operation had been ably run by a team of talented distillers familiar with NGB’s process and products. But now a new head distiller has been named, one who brings plenty of experience to the job.

That newcomer is Brandon O’Daniel, who has one of my top three names for a distiller in the entire industry. I first met O’Daniel almost a decade ago when I visited him at Louisville brandy and absinthe distillery Copper & Kings, where he managed the distilling process on three gorgeous brass pot stills. In fact, he still does, because NGB parent company Constellation also owns Copper & Kings, and they have asked O’Daniel to oversee both production operations.

While this is bit unusual, it’s only little more than a two-and-a-half-hour drive between the facilities, and O’Daniel will gain an hour of clock time whenever he comes to Nashville. Copper & Kings is a relatively small specialty operation, and Nelson’s Green Brier already has a pretty deep bench of distilling and blending talent, so I anticipate the only difficulties might come from within the O’Daniel household. As Brandon told The Spirits Business website, “The wife raises some eyebrows every now and then about where I’m at. But no, it’s good.”

O’Daniel's experienced hand as a master distiller should only improve the quality and consistency of Nelson Greenbrier’s products, both the spirits manufactured in house and those sourced from contract distillers. I look forward to welcoming O’Daniel to town and finding out what he has planned next for the distillery. (As long as his wife is cool with him getting home for supper a little later.)