It's not my fault I'm awesome!: May 4, 2012 - Bourbon Trail part 1: Barton's & Maker's Mark

We left Tennessee for Bardstown, KY with Jalaire still singing 'Apple Jack'. One of our goals in Kentucky was to see the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. They give you a passport for 6 distilleries (there are only 8 open to the public) and you can get a stamp at each one. Then you send the passport in and they mail it back to you with a free t-shirt!

Ok, so I learned on this trip (because Jalaire believes that vacations should be educational as well as fun) that all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. There are 7 requirements for bourbon to be called bourbon. They started regulating these after prohibition - they are:

Made in the U.S.A. - bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States but its currently only produced in Kentucky. This is mostly due to the amount of limestone in Kentucky. It provides clean, fresh, filtered water that is known as "sweet water"
No additives
Max of 160 proof coming off the still
Max of 125 proof when barreled
Virgin charred oak barrel (typically White Oak) single use
Minimum of 51% corn in the mash
Must be stored at least 2 years in the barrel

Our first stop was Barton's, they are not in the passport but we still wanted to see them. (and by we I mean Jalaire put it on the itinerary so I went too.)

Barton's Visitor Center
They were very pricey!

We took their free tour of the distillery and luckily there were only a few of us on the tour so we got good information without being bothered by lots of people's silly questions. They also only produce in the winter (it's too hot in the summer) so the distillery was empty. However, they bottle different products all year long so we did get to see the production line.

grain storage

Copper Still

Not Copper Still

Part of the tour was to see one of their warehouses. The guide (who was excellent and very informative) told us all about weeping, which is when the barrels leak due to expanding and contracting in the weather. The amounts lost from this is called the 'Angel's Share' of the bourbon. Also, sometimes animals come into the warehouses and will drink some of the bourbon...then you have drunk groundhogs...very amusing I'm told.

first floor warehouse

This is called the plumb-bob. If it is not hanging in the
center of the circle it means the building is off balance and
could collapse. They have to have a guy watching this while they
are moving barrels in and out of the warehouses.

Standing on the elevator looking up
to the top (seventh) floor.

This made me wonder how the workers
get to the top floors of the warehouses...
I think they have to climb ladders...hmmm.

The warehouse, notice that the windows are all
just smaller than a barrel of bourbon is...and the
main level also has bars.

This is on the bottling line. I thought it was funny
because the workers were on break and this box was stuck
so the line was stopped and backed up. Our guide noticed this
but just looked at it and kept going.. She said something about
how this wasn't her job and they were union so she couldn't touch it
anyway... made me laugh, and take a picture.

The tour ended with a tasting, as they all do. I had never tried bourbon before and I have to tell you... Barton's 1792 = FIRE! all down my throat! Very Old Barton's = SAME THING! The bourbon balls were delicious though. Kentucky apparently has a lot of pecans because all of the chocolates we tasted had them in or on top of them.

We did NOT include this pic in the ones we sent to school with
Jarom... but we thought it was hilarious! (Also, we checked later on
in the trip...Stanley was published in 1964, so he was totally legal to
have the taste tests!)

Our complimentary treats - we also got to keep the bung which
is what they call the stopper they use for the barrels. It was the
only thing I could afford in their whole gift shop! :)

Second stop was Maker's Mark Distillery. They were doing self guided tours of the grounds and just giving out a map with the highlights circled to everyone that came through.

Maker's Mark is also on the National Registry of Historic Places

Maker's Mark produces all year long,
so we did get to see the process in the works

These are the fermenting tubs, they are open and
you're allowed to taste them if you want. Since they are
all at different stages in the fermenting process they all have
very different tastes. The first I tried had only been going a day...
it had no taste and no alcohol. The other was on day 3 or 4...
it was more sour but definitely not as bad as the guide from Barton's made it out to be.

This is a close-up of the fermenting mash. It looks like it is boiling but is actually very
cool to the touch. The bubbles are caused by the yeast mixing with the sugars and creating alcohol.

Tail Boxes at Maker's Mark

Tail Box

The Tail Box is where the 'white dog' comes out from the still. It really is not at all a big part of the process, but everyone is so in love with their tail boxes... ours is bigger, newer, nicer, shinier, more expensive, blessed by monks, etc. so it's totally a picture opportunity.

The thing that I love about Maker's Mark is all of the bottles are hand dipped. I didn't know this fact at first, Jalaire informed me of it and I'll be honest... at when she told me I had NO CLUE what this meant or how it could affect my visit here...but I soon learned that all of the bottles are sealed with wax, and have to be hand dipped to seal them. So, each bottle looks a little different from any other that comes from Maker's Mark.

before they're dipped

The dipping ladies (How do they know which bottles to grab?!)

There were 3 ladies dipping bottles and they do it in rotations
Jalaire and I were so amazed at how they remembered which was
their bottle to grab and dip. (and I was impressed by how fast they did it)

I assume they got to wear hats for Derby week
Maybe she just really likes to be fancy?
Either way, it was fun!

After we were done with our tour and had tasted the mint julep bourbon (it tasted like Mild Fire and Mint but was much better than Barton's) we headed to the gift shop. Here you could buy a bottle and dip it yourself! So I bought 2, one for me and one for my boss (who had given me a $20 to get him something special) I also had to get a dipped shot glass.