(Wine-Searcher) - A Kentucky-based brewer and distiller is opening his first stills in his native Ireland – in an old church.

A Kentucky-based brewer and distiller is expanding his empire to include a distillery in Ireland, just yards from the famous Guinness Brewery.

Alltech's $6.5-million Saint James' Distillery is set to bring 20 new jobs to Dublin when it opens next year and it will also bring distilling back to an area where it historically thrived.

The facility will occupy the old St James' Church in James Street, close to the Guinness Storehouse. Founded in 1707, the former Church of Ireland church, which was de-consecrated in 1961, is also home to a graveyard where up to 300,000 people are buried.

Alltech boss, Irish-born billionaire Pearse Lyons, whose distiller grandfather is buried in the cemetery, said his long-term goals for the project are twofold: along with the distillery, the company plans to open a visitor center that will "tell the story of the Liberties, coopers and entrepreneurs".

In addition, Lyons said the facility will become a tourist attraction. He said he hoped to attract at least half of the 1.2 million visitors who go to the Guinness Storehouse each year.

Billionaire Lyons, who made his fortune by starting the Alltech animal feed company, said the move to open a new distillery in Dublin was spurred by the expanding craft beer market. His company produces its Kentucky Ale and Town Branch Bourbon in Lexington, Kentucky, and craft beer is now outselling Guinness in the U.S.

"When I saw the church, I thought why not have a distillery, not a brewery, close to Guinness," he said.

"We now have whiskey that is already matured and nearly ready. I needed a home for it, and where better than the heart of the Liberties, which was originally the distilling part of Dublin? In the United States our beer has been a huge runaway success, as have our whiskey, Bourbon and malt whiskey."