The Pepper family brand of whiskey is an iconic Kentucky whiskey brand initially produced during the American Revolution and continued through 1958. The family built and operated two main distilleries: the site that today hosts the Woodford Reserve Distillery and later, the James E. Pepper Distillery. In the late 1950s the bourbon industry hit hard times, and both the brand and distillery in Lexington were abandoned for over half a century.

In 2008 the brand was relaunched by whiskey entrepreneur Amir Peay. To initiate the relaunch of the brand, partnerships with existing distilleries were formed. Today the whiskey sold under the 1776 line of whiskeys was distilled years ago in collaboration with the historic Lawrenceburg Distillery in Indiana.

Following those 50 years of neglect, a multi-year construction effort was launched to rebuild and restore the the site and in December 2017, the distillery once again began distilling whiskey.