A “distillery” is a place where beverages such as alcohol are produced, concentrated, and otherwise processed. While today’s distilleries mostly use machines and other technological advancements to accomplish the work of distilling alcohol, older methods involved more physical labor and were sometimes aided by large, strong animals.

Horses were the main animal used to do work in the distilleries of old. In Scotland, there was a saying, "as hard working as a distillery horse." The saying was meant to be ironic, as distillery horses only worked occasionally, when there was work to be done, while farm horses worked every day.