Kentucky Bourbon Trail

We had a good time while in Lexington, and my doctors appointments went pretty good. I will have to go back for a CT scan, and a sleep study the 12th of July, and a few other appointments but the CT scan will show about the cancer.

Monday we did the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. There are six distilleries between Lexington and Louisville, and if you visit them all, have a card stamped at each one, and mail it in they will send you a Tee shirt.

Our plan was to visit them all, but two of them are closed on Mondays so we will have to go back next month when we are in that area again.

Our first distillery was closed, so we went on to Wild Turkey. We did the tour there, and us not being bourbon drinkers, we didn't enjoy the sampeling like a bourbon drinker would have.



We left there and stopped at the Four Roses distillery. We electred not to take their tour, but we did get our book stamped so we can get their tee shirt some day.



Our next stop was the Jim Beam distillery. I think this had to be the largest one of the six. The grounds were spotless, and very neat, but again we chose to skip the tour.


The next one was closed so it was on to Makers Mark. This is the road we drove on to get there. Maybelean, (our GPS) might have taken us in the back way, but the road we took on the way out wasn't any better.



The Makers Mark distillery was nessteled in a beautiful valley. Everything was neat and well groomed, as we approached the visitors center. A house had been converted into the visitors center and the tour explained why, along with a few other really neat things in and around the house. This old firetruck was next to the visitors center.


On the Makers Mark tour they allowed cameras unlike the Wild Turkey tour. Here is a shot of the machine they use to fill the bottles.



If you look close in this picture you can see they hand dip each bottle in a red wax. It is a Makers Mark trademark, and every bottle is hand dipped in the wax.



This next picture isn't one of my best shots but it does show the stills used. You can see the "white-lightening", or moonshine, running through the tops. This is just a part of the process of making bourbon. we were told to make bourbon you must first make beer, then whiskey, before you get bourbon. I would do better with the shine before they age it in the barrels.



Here is a picture of the mash working in the vats before it turns into something they can sell to drink.


Here is one of the vats.



After the distilling, cooking, and mixing, they take the white-lightening and age it in barrels. It ages anywhere from 2 to 12 years. In the time it is in the barrels it is rotated, rolled, and stacked in large warehouses.



I'm sorry this is kind of backwards but that is how the pictures came up and I have had so much trouble with our internet service and my laptop that I wans't going to change it, and my spell checker has vanished on me so there are some misspelled words you have to deal with.
We put about 200 miles on the jeep that day, did 2 tours, got our cards stamped by 4 distilleries, and went to 2 that were closed on Mondays. If you are ever in that part of KY and decide to take the tours to get the tee shirt, allow 2-4 days. It can be done in 1 day, but that is a rush, and remember two of them are closed on Mondays, although they are all open on Saturdays, and a couple are open on Sundays.

Here is a picture of an unusual site in KY. A castle we passed outside of Lexington.



I hope I find out how to use the new laptop and find the spell checker soon. With the problems we have had with our Verizon aircard, and the problems I had with my out-dated laptop updating my blog was only a dream. I am trying.......