Redheads Are More Fun

October 8, 2014

 Jason and I decided we would need to wake up early today. We were three distilleries shy of completing the bourbon trail. Our goal was to see the remaining three today. In order to do this, we need to be up and in our car by 10:00. First thing is always first though, breakfast. Jason and I headed down to the lobby for our free breakfast once more. The lobby was quiet and the smell of bacon was sensed upon our arrival. Jason and I grabbed our plates, found the bacon, and mad our way to our seat by the window. Here are pictures of breakfast:

 Jason's eggs, bacon, scone, and French Toast sticks.

 My blueberry muffin, Bacon, and French toast sticks. Orange juice completed both meals. We were happy.

Shortly before leaving, Jason and I heard a little girl telling her Nanna that her Papa was getting her French toast. I recognized this little girl from our first morning here. I had gone for orange juice when she turned toward me, pulling her shoulders inward, and said "I'm a little girl. . . I'm afraid!" Not quite sure what to say, I responded with "Oh...?" Luckily her Papa was nearby and said "Why are you afraid little girl?" I never heard the reason. She was cute. Today she was sitting near us and eating with her Nanna and Pappa. A man came over to their table and said "I didn't know we were eating with a princess?!" She promptly responded with "I'm not a princess! I'm just a little girl!" She was really cute.

After eating, Jason and I quickly returned to our room so we could prepare to leave. Just a few minutes before 10:00, we were out the door. First place on the list: Maker's Mark. We had heard from almost everyone that this was the preferred distillery to tour. In twenty-five minutes time we were passing a toll house (currently a cafe) and made our way inside the Distiller's House. A man greeting us and stamped our Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passports as we purchased two tour tickets. He informed us the tour would be leaving in just three to five minutes. Barely made it!

The distiller's home was absolutely lovely! It was very old and had a great fire place. A gorgeously large wooden trunk rested to the left of the fireplace. The trunk was almost the shape of a bourbon barrel. Lemonade and tea was offered in the kitchen area, although we chose not to sample any, being rather full from breakfast. Our tour guide soon greeted everyone as a group and walked us outside to the back porch.

Our guide began to explain the Maker's Mark Ambassador's program to us. The Ambassador Program is where you can sign up for your name to be placed on a barrel of Maker's Mark. After 7 years, you are invited back up to Maker's Mark to receive a bottle of the barrel with your name on it. They send you pictures of the barrel and gifts every Christmas. Jason already signed up for this just one week earlier. He was kind enough to also sign me up after vising Maker's Mark. Pretty amazing.

We were soon escorted across the Whisky Bridge which can be seen in the picture below. Also visible in this picture is the Distiller's House where we began our tour.

 Also in the picture above is a stone wall that is parallel to the walkway. This stone wall lines the creek where Maker's Mark gets their water. To the left of Whisky Bridge was a small building that can be seen in the picture below.

 Our tour guide informed us that in the 1800s this was the whisky filling station. People would pull their horse and carriages up to this building to refill their whisky. They would pay .15 cents and provide an empty bottle for their whisky. Our tour guide stated this was the first drive-through liquor store, indicating that the store was built just high enough for customer's to remain in their buggies. Below is another picture of this store:

Behind the whisky station was a blue house, which can be seen in the picture below. They are currently adding new stones to the home, causing dust to fly into the air, as can be seen in the picture.

 Our tour guide informed us that this house along with the rest of the property was sold to Bill Samuels for $35,000. Bill Samuels apparently made whisky with his father before the prohibition. Bill wanted to change the whisky, making it taste sweeter than their original recipe, for he hated the taste of whisky. However, Bill's dad did not want to change the recipe. After prohibition Bill tried again to change it, but his father said people would drink anything, so no need to change it. Bill eventually tried other jobs and also went into the navy while his wife watched their farm and took care of their three children. He then retired and stayed at home. Apparently his wife couldn't stand Bill being home all day, so she informed him that he would need to find a job or at least be gone from the home until 6 p.m. every day. So, he took up making whisky again, but this time as a hobby. He apparently bought this property and started making bread, believing this would be the secret to making bourbon taste sweet. Turns out it was really good. His wife eventually came down, saw the property, and decided to help him restore some old buildings, such as the blue house in the picture above and the Distiller's House. Bill's plan was to demolish these buildings, but luckily his wife saved them.

Below is another picture of some of the property. Side note: any building that is not brown is a building that Bill's wife restored.

The picture below shows our group and tour guide in front of the Maker's Mark distillery. 

The picture below is the first item visible in the Maker's Mark Distillery. It shows the ingredients in the Maker's Mark bourbon. Maker's Mark uses wheat instead of Rye, making it sweeter and smoother. 

The next two pictures are of the copper stills. Beautiful!

Below are pictures of us in the fermentation room. Again, Cyprus wood used to ferment the bourbon. Our tour guide allowed us to taste the bourbon as it is fermenting. He showed us how the taste changes with each stage. The first stage was mainly corn juice. The next was a little more sour. Pretty cool.

We soon left the fermentation room and walked past their creek. The pictures below show how beautiful this property really is.

Below is a side view of the distillery. 

Another side view of the distillery.

Here is a picture of the printing house, where Maker's Mark labels are printed. Apparently Bill's wife designed the bottle for Maker's Mark. She also named it and created the label herself. She came up with the price for his bourbon after factoring in cost and labor. Apparently most bourbon was sold for 3-4 dollars, but his was valued at 7. She thought the bottle should grab people's attention in order to better sell it. She called it Maker's Mark, showing that they were willing to put their name and mark on this product. 

Below is a wagon of barrels I thought looked pretty.

Below are pictures Jason took of the aging house. Beautiful!

Another beautiful building at Maker's Mark.

Here are pictures from the Bottling Room. They were on lunch break at the time so we weren't able to see it in action. Pretty awesome still.

Below is a picture of Bill's Wife, Margie.  To the left there is a copper still which is actually an award that Margie won only two weeks ago. She is now a member of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame for her work in Maker's Mark.

Below is another picture of the bottling process.

 The picture above shows one advertisement that is on display in the Bottling Room at Maker's Mark.  Our favorite advertisement for Maker's Mark is the one where they say "There's always a redhead waiting for you at the bar." This is obviously because they dip the bottles in red wax.

 The picture above shows a barrel that advertises for Maker's Mark 46. Bill son is the one responsible for 46, working hard to create an even sweeter bourbon.

Below is a picture of the tasting room. We were able to try four types of Maker's Mark here.

To the left was Maker's White, then regular, then Maker's Mark 46, and then the Cask strength. Apparently Cask Strength is only sold at their gift shop. Our tour guide allowed us to taste the first three in this room, but told us to grab the fourth glass and follow him into the aging house. The next few pictures are of us tasting the cask strength in the aging house. It is a more colorful room because an artist who makes hand-blown glass decorated the room for Maker's Mark. He used reds for the bourbon, blue for the Kentucky water, golds for corn, and also there are four clear angels in the art. There are four angels because of the "Angel's Share." This is where the bourbon evaporates in the aging house and goes up to Heaven, calling it the angel's share.

 Above is a picture of one angel.

Below is another picture of the Bottling Room. Our tour guide took us back, hoping the workers would be back from lunch, but they weren't.

After finishing our tasting and the tour, we were led to the gift shop where we purchased numerous bottles of whisky. At Maker's Mark they allow you to hand dip your own bottles. Here are pictures of us doing just that:

On the way out of Maker's Mark, we were able to take a picture of the toll house, which is now a cafe. Apparently in the 1800s this was active as a toll road. The man who built this toll house must have made a lot of money since the distillery was just down the road.

 After finishing with Maker's Mark we made our way to Jim Beam. As it has been throughout the entire trip, the scenery to the next distillery was beautiful. We turned in to Jim Beam once finding the giant, white barn that said "Jim Beam" in big letters. We drove to the gift shop where we bought our tour tickets. When purchasing our ticket, the woman at the counter said the next tour was leaving now. Barely made it.

Our tour guide walked us to a bus that drove us to a small barn-like building. Inside they explained the ingredients in their bourbon. Jim Beam uses Rye in their bourbon, as do most distilleries. He then opened up a vat of sweet mash. Mash is what they call the mixture of all the ingredients to make bourbon, plus water. The tour guide asked if anyone wanted to help make the mash today, so Jason promptly jumped at the opportunity. He called Jason forward and gave him a scooper filled with malted barely and had him pour it into the vat. Unfortunately I wasn't able to snap a picture of that.

After helping with the mash, the tour guide took us to the fermentation tanks and then to the stills. After that, we headed over to bottling. Below is a picture of Jason getting to help clean a bottle which they are preparing to fill with Knob Creek Bourbon. Apparently they do not clean the bottles with chemicals or water. They chose not to use water in order to reduce the chance of it weakening the bourbon. Therefore, to clean the bottles they use bourbon. They spray a small amount into the bottle and then pour it out, which cleans it and prepares it for filling.

Below is a picture of the machine bottling the bourbon. 

The picture below shows a small section of the building where they discuss the "Devil's Cut." Earlier I mentioned that they have something called the "Angel's Share." Well, the Devil's Cut is basically the amount of bourbon lost in the aging barrels after storing them for so many years. Each year more and more bourbon soaks into the wood and is lost. Because bourbon must require a new oak barrel to be called bourbon (this is a legal requirement), once finished with the barrels most distilleries send their barrels overseas (where there are less restrictions). Also, these barrels are used to store Tabasco sauce. Also overseas they use our bourbon barrels to flavor their whisky, wine, or bear with. Therefore, America may be one of the reasons that Scotland has such wonderful whisky! Yay for us!

Also, Jim Beam released a new product called "Devil's Cut." Basically Jim Beam will take their used bourbon barrels, fill it with water, and then age it for many years. This causes the trapped bourbon to flavor the water, returning the Devil's Cut to the consumer. 

Below is a picture of Jason in the aging house, followed by more pictures of the aging house. 

Below are pictures of decanters from when bourbon sales dropped. They used this to try and make the bourbon more attractive. Some were pretty crazy-looking. For example, we saw a chain saw, weird cats, and birds. Crazy!

 After seeing the decanters we returned to the bus, which brought us to a tasting room. Our tour guide gave us a card which we would place into a machine which would give us samples of different types of bourbon. We were only allowed two, so Jason and I paired up. Jason tried Devil's Cut and Bakers. I tried Basil Hayden and Jim Beam Black Label. Although Jim Beam is good, we still felt it was more of a corporation rather than craft drink. Not very noteworthy but not horrible by any means either.

 Above is a picture of the building where we tasted their bourbon. We took this picture and then quickly headed to the next distillery on the list--the next and the last! Even Williams Bourbon Experience.

Even Williams is unfortunately in Louisville Kentucky. I saw unfortunate because it just is. It took us an hour, if not more, to get to the distillery. On the way we almost had a car wreck, we saw a massive car wreck, and I lost my mind. Traffic there was worse then Atlanta. I hate Louisville. Finally finding the building, we accidentally stumped into a parking lot. We paid 7 dollars for parking and then quickly went in to pay for the tour. Oddly enough the woman who took our payment asked for our zip code. She then said "I'm from Peachtree City, so you must be from........ Senoia?" Can't believe someone from Peachtree City was there! I said "So, you're from golf cart county?" She laughed and we joked around for a bit.

After purchasing our tickets, the Peachtree citizen informed us that the next and last tour would begin in five minutes. We barely finished the bourbon trail in four days!! Crazy! We soon met our tour guide who showed us around the place and had us watch videos about the distillation process. Basically everything we had already learned at the other 7 distilleries he informed us about. This is the best place to start the Bourbon Trail. It's a simple overview of the distillation process, but they really should inform everyone that it gets waaaay better from here, especially traffic.

Below is a picture of "medicines" from prohibition. During this time doctors would prescribe "medicine" or more commonly known as liquor for just about anything. . . headaches, heartburn, nerves, etc. These bottles have labels that were reconstructed from photos of real medicines given during time period.  The bottles were actually used from this time period.

 Before taking this photo, I waited for everyone to pass me so I could get a clear shot. I turned to the woman to my left and said "Go ahead, I'm going to get a picture." She stared at me in shock and said "We can take pictures!?" The next thing I know four women are taking pictures with me. Haha!

After finishing the tour, we were taken to a room which was essentially a bar. Below are pictures of the samples.

We tasted  Black Label, Single Barrel, and Larceny. He also gave us chocolate after drinking. Again, good bourbons but not noteworthy, at least to me. Chocolate was great though!

Below is a picture of us standing in front of a massive bourbon bottle that was actually a water fountain. The bottle is actually pouring bourbon (really not bourbon... that would be crazy!) into a glass on the bottom floor, near the entrance. 

 Below is a picture of the glass at the bottom. Pretty cool!

After fighting stupid Louisville traffic for far longer than anyone ever should (I am never returning to Louisville for as long as I live), we made our way back to Bardstown. We decided to eat at the Old Talbott Tavern again. We actually had the same waitress from the previous night. Below are pictures:

 Stagecoach Fries. Yum!

 My pot roast... double yum!

 Jason's country fried steak.... yum, yum, yum!!!

Below is a picture of the tavern. There are about three rooms you could be seated in. This is the second room we ate in:

Here are more pictures of the outside of the Tavern:

On the way back to the hotel we stumbled across this:

In the above picture is a full moon, or something close to a full moon. I called it a Harvest Moon because it was so large and beautiful! We're not really sure though what it actually is, but it was stunning! We took a wrong turn and ended up on a deserted road, so Jason snapped this picture real quick.

We then returned to the hotel and placed our newest purchases out to admire. Here they are:

Just a side note: these are the bottles we hand-dipped. Super excited! It was a wonderful day, excluding Louisville. Idiots.