Bourbon And More Part One
Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the Bourbon Capitol of the World! You might know it better as Bardstown, KY. 95% of all bourbon sold today is made in Kentucky.
We did so much during our two weeks in this area, I’m going to break it up into two different posts. Let’s get started with post one!
There is an official Kentucky Bourbon Trail that includes ten distilleries spread out all over Kentucky. If you pick up a KBT passport you can get a stamp at each distillery as you visit it. When you’ve got all ten stamps you can turn in the passport at the old court house in Bardstown to receive a free shirt! We hadn’t planned on doing the whole trail, but who can pass up a free shirt?
Some of the distilleries were in town, but several were out in the country. The road in the picture above is very typical of the roads we traveled while in Kentucky! Very windy and very narrow…pretty much one lane. I’m so glad we didn’t have to take the RV down all of these roads!
To legally be considered bourbon, a whiskey must be made from a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn. We ended up going to twelve different distilleries. We didn’t do tours at all of them. We skipped tours at three due to timing.
Whiskey used to be so valuable that it could be traded for goods and services, just like money. We were able to see different parts of the brewing process at the different distilleries. At the one in the picture above, we were able to taste the mash while it was brewing. It was kind of like a tasteless soggy oatmeal…not very good.
To be considered bourbon, the whiskey has to be distilled to no more than 160 proof. The percentage of alcohol that evaporates during the aging process is called “the angel’s share”.
My favorite part of the distillery tour is getting to visit the rick houses. The rick house is where the bourbon barrels are stored to age. Each distillery has their own way of aging a barrel. In fact, each distillery usually has several different ways depending on the type of bourbon they’re working on.
A standard bourbon barrel holds 53 gallons of whiskey.
During Prohibition, the Government Revenuers who were tasked with finding illegal moonshine stills could look in the forest for trees that were starting to turn black. Check out the tree in the right picture above. The bark is completely black with a sugar mold that’s the bi-product of the distilling process. Due to the tale-tell black sugar mold giving away their locations… the moonshine distillers would have to constantly move their operation because of the black sugar mold that grew on everything near the still. And I do mean everything…check out the lamp in the left picture above. I can’t imagine living close to one of these big distillers and trying to keep the sugar mold off my stuff!
A bourbon barrel can only be used once to age bourbon, but distilleries ship used bourbon barrels to Scotland and Ireland for the use in the maturation of Scotch and Irish whiskey. Most of the rick houses are painted black to help hide the sugar mold.
During Prohibition, the only way to get whiskey was to get a prescription from your doctor. Whiskey is good for what ails you. *wink, wink* Before Prohibition there were around 2,000 distilleries in Kentucky. During Prohibition six distilleries obtained a license to make medicinal whiskey. During the years of Prohibition, Kentucky saw some of it’s sickest days on record. There were right around 6 million prescriptions written for “medicinal” whiskey in thirteen years for a population of less than 1 million. During World War II the government used bourbon distilleries to make fuel alcohol and penicillin.
Did you know: All bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.
Maker’s Mark Distillery is one of our favorite tours. The grounds are nice, the tours are interesting and the tasting is fun.
A bourbon barrel has to made of oak. Most of the trees come from the forests of Missouri.
My favorite part of the Maker’s Mark tour is this hallway! The whole ceiling in that hallway is filled with Chihuly glass! It’s absolutely gorgeous!!
Each bottle of Maker’s Mark is hand-dipped in red wax. The other very cool thing about the Maker’s Mark Distillery is getting to dip your own bottle! Jerl was pretty excited to dip a bottle and then he was torn between saving the whole bottle or drinking it. Ha!
Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon, but it’s not the only state that makes it. Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries fill over 1 million barrels with bourbon a single year.
The Jim Beam Distillery is another one that stands out for us. The campus is set up like an old farm stead. The tasting at Jim Beam was different from all of the other tours. Have you ever seen a bourbon dispenser? It was a first for us too. While the dispenser was cool…I liked the other tasting better because you were given information about what you were tasting and tips on how to taste it.
Did you know: Bourbon barrels must be charred in order to be compliant with the laws of making bourbon. We ended our Bourbon Trail Adventures with a trip to the Kentucky Cooperage where most of the barrels are made. The picture above is actually from the Bulleit Distillery. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures at the cooperage. But Guys…it was really cool! If you ever get a chance to go visit one…do! We got to see the barrels made from logs to barrels…we got to see them getting charred and then tested to make sure they weren’t going to leak! The cooperage was one of the highlights of our entire time in Kentucky!
Un-aged bourbon goes by many names here are a few: white dog, moonshine, hooch, and white lightening. Every distillery we went to we ended up with something…as you can imagine, we accumulated quite a collection of souvenirs. Now to figure out where we’re going to store all of these souvenirs. Ha!
Rebecca Ruth is said to be the original maker of the bourbon ball. There are a few different varieties of them, but the chocolate is my favorite. And…not all bourbon balls are the same. They vary in taste and texture quite a bit. I, of course, had to try them every time they were available and let me tell you…some are amazing and some are…well…not.
Each year almost 120,000 mint juleps are sold during the two-day event known as the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby. I’ve always been curious about mint juleps and at one of the distilleries we came across a mint julep mix in a small bottle. I had high hopes…I’ll let my face tell you what I thought about it. I’m so glad it was just a small single serve bottle. Maybe a mix from a different distillery would be better? It’ll be awhile before I get the urge to try it again.
September is National Bourbon Heritage Month…it’s also my birthday…if anyone is looking for gift ideas…I did find this little gem. Bourbon Cream by Buffalo Trace is…well, it’s a little magical. I like a little of this in some root beer…it’s soooo good! It’s like a grown up root beer float!
Kentucky cows are very happy cows. The grain mash that’s left over after the distilling process is called distiller’s grain (slop) and is given to farms to feed their cows.
And…then there’s the ice cream. It’s mine. Aaaallll mmmiiinnnne!!! *insert evil laugh here* But seriously, the bourbon ball ice cream should be illegal.
That’s it for the Kentucky Bourbon Trial! Stay tuned for Bourbon and More Part Two!!
See y’all down the road!
#minieasterntrail2017
