LEXINGTON SIDING PROBLEM
That Black Film on Your Siding? Lexington’s Bourbon Industry Might Be the Reason
That black, sooty film showing up on your siding, fence, or car isn’t mold, and it isn’t dirt. It’s bourbon fungus, a real
organism that feeds on evaporating alcohol from nearby distilleries. Here’s what’s actually growing on your house
and how we get rid of it for good.
If you live anywhere near a distillery in Lexington or the surrounding counties and you’ve noticed a black, sooty film creeping across your siding, fence, car, or mailbox post, you’re not imagining things and you’re not alone. It’s called bourbon fungus, or whiskey fungus, and it’s one of the strangest side effects of living in bourbon country. It’s not mold. It’s not dirt. And regular house washing usually doesn’t get rid of it for good.
So What Is Bourbon Fungus, Exactly?
Its real name is Baudoinia compniacensis. Scientists first found it growing on buildings near a distillery in France back in 1872, and it’s been showing up near whiskey, bourbon, and scotch warehouses ever since. It looks like a thin, dark, almost velvety crust. On light-colored siding it looks like soot. On brick or stone, it can look like your house just hasn’t been washed in years.
A lot of homeowners assume it’s the same thing as regular mold or mildew. It isn’t. Mold and mildew feed on moisture and organic material. Bourbon fungus feeds on something else entirely: alcohol.
Why Bourbon Country Grows This Stuff
When bourbon ages in a barrel, some of it evaporates straight through the wood. Distillers have a nice name for this — they call it the “Angel’s Share.” What they don’t always mention is that this evaporating alcohol drifts into the air around the warehouse, and Baudoinia fungus has basically evolved to eat it.
Lexington sits in the middle of this. James E. Pepper Distillery and Town Branch Distillery are both inside the city itself, and Bluegrass Distillers isn’t far off either. Drive twenty or thirty minutes in almost any direction and you’ll hit more of it:
- Woodford Reserve in Versailles, one of the oldest distilleries in the state
- Buffalo Trace in Frankfort
- Wild Turkey and Four Roses, both near Lawrenceburg
If your property sits within a few miles of any warehouse where barrels are aging, especially a big one, you’re in the zone where this fungus tends to show up. Properties closer to the warehouses usually get hit harder and faster than properties farther away.
Does this only happen right next to a distillery? Not always. Baudoinia has been found growing on cars, fences, and road signs more than a mile from the nearest warehouse. Wind and humidity carry the vapor farther than most people expect.
Why It Keeps Coming Back After You Wash It
This is the part that frustrates a lot of homeowners. They rent a pressure washer, blast the siding, and for a week or two it looks fine. Then the black film starts creeping back.
Here’s why that happens. Baudoinia doesn’t just sit on top of your siding like dust. It grows a thin root structure into the surface, and it produces a protein that helps it survive heat, dry spells, and getting blasted with water. Plain water, even under high pressure, mostly knocks off the surface growth. It doesn’t kill what’s underneath. Give it a few weeks of humidity and evaporating alcohol, and it’s right back where it started.
Will pressure washing alone get rid of it for good? No, not by itself. Pressure alone knocks the visible growth off the surface, but it leaves the roots behind. Without a treatment that actually kills the fungus, it grows back.
How We Actually Remove It
Blasting your siding with a high-pressure wand isn’t the answer, and it can actually damage vinyl siding, wood, or older brick and mortar. We use a soft washing approach paired with a biocide treatment that’s built to kill fungus at the root.
Here’s roughly what that looks like on a typical Lexington property:
Step | What Happens |
1. Inspection | We check how far the growth has spread and what surfaces are affected |
2. Pre-rinse | A low-pressure rinse to clear loose debris before treatment |
3. Biocide application | A fungus-specific treatment applied to kill the growth at the root |
4. Soft wash | Low-pressure rinse that lifts the dead growth without damaging your siding |
5. Follow-up recommendation | Guidance on how often you’ll likely need treatment based on your distance from |
Plain chlorine bleach might kill some surface growth, but it’s harsh on your landscaping, your grass, and anything metal nearby, and it usually doesn’t reach the roots either. That’s why we stick with treatments built specifically for this kind of fungus.
Will It Come Back After Treatment?
Probably, eventually, if you’re close to an active distillery. That’s not a sales pitch, it’s just how this fungus works. As long as the “Angel’s Share” keeps evaporating nearby, there’s fresh food source in the air for it.
How often do I need to have it cleaned? It depends on how close you are to a warehouse and how much bourbon is aging there. Properties close to a large rickhouse sometimes need attention every year. Properties farther out might go two or three years between treatments. We can give you a realistic timeline once we’ve seen your property.
Homeowners in places like Lincoln County, Tennessee, have reported spending thousands of dollars a year fighting this on their own with rental equipment and store-bought bleach. A proper soft wash and biocide treatment usually lasts far longer than DIY methods, which means less frequent cleanings overall.
Is Bourbon Fungus Dangerous?
This is one of the first questions people ask, and it’s a fair one. As of now, health researchers haven’t found evidence that Baudoinia causes illness in people or pets. State health departments that have studied it, including Indiana’s, haven’t documented health risks from being around it.
That said, we still treat it the way we’d treat any mold-like growth. Our crews use proper protective gear during removal, and we follow label directions on every product we apply.
A Real Problem Across Bourbon Country
Bourbon fungus has made national news over the years. Homeowners in Kentucky counties like Henry, Franklin, and Anderson have raised concerns about property values as distilleries expand. Court cases involving major distillers have made their way through Kentucky’s legal system for over a decade. None of that changes what you need day to day, but it’s worth knowing you’re dealing with something real, well documented, and common across bourbon country; plenty of other homeowners are seeing the exact same thing.
What To Do If You’re Seeing It
If your siding, fence, or driveway has that dark, sooty look and you live anywhere near one of the distilleries around Lexington, Versailles, Frankfort, or Lawrenceburg, there’s a good chance you’re dealing with bourbon fungus rather than regular mold or algae. The good news is it’s treatable, and treating it the right way the first time saves you from doing it again every few months.
Contact us for a free look at your property, or check out our soft washing service to see how we handle jobs like this without damaging your siding. We serve Lexington and the surrounding distillery towns, including Versailles, Frankfort, and Lawrenceburg, so if you’re anywhere near bourbon country, we already know what you’re dealing with.
Bourbon fungus is one of 5 common problems we run into on Lexington homes and driveways. See the other 4 in our full guide to Common Pressure Washing Problems in Lexington.
Get Your House Looked At, Not Guessed At
You don’t have to figure out on your own whether that’s bourbon fungus, mold, or just dirt. Give us a call, tell us what you’re seeing, or send us a picture, and we’ll tell you straight what’s going on and what it’ll take to fix it. We’ll walk your property, point out anything that’s spreading, and give you a real number before we touch a single wand.