2107.12.17-Campbellsville,
KY
Believe it
or not we’re coming up on the last few days here in Kentucky so last week we
took the Maker’s Mark distillery tour which is one of the 8 formal distilleries
on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. You just
have to while in Kentucky, right?! The
grounds were lovely and still had green grass. There was a Chihuly glass exhibit there for
the last 6 months. The day we were there
they were in the process of disassembling the outside art work. There were some lovely pieces, both inside
and outside.
Notice that this is the actual first barrel made! |
While on the
tour we tasted several of the mash vats that were in varying stages of
fermentation. Some tasted like a luke
warm corn soup and others like a very thick warm beer. I was surprised they let us put our fingers
in the vat to taste it. I guess the
distillation process gets rid of any germs we might have introduced while
tasting right along with all the impurities of the water and other ingredients. We even saw the production line where they
dunk the filled and capped bottles into red wax for their characteristic bottle
finishing.
This is the barrel of warm corn mash that tastes like tepid beer. |
More outside Chihuly |
Even more Chilluly inside in storage barrels of their special reserve |
And one final permanent Chiluly piece in the barrel storage area |
While on the
tour, we learned about the barrels used for Maker’s Mark bourbon. They use only barrels that hold 53 gallons
and are made of American white oak; filling about 1000 of these per a day! After hearing about the barrels, we wanted to
learn more so we also toured Kentucky Cooperage where Maker’s Mark exclusively gets
their barrels. This cooperage company, which
is in Lebanon KY, makes barrels for many major distillers including Crown Royal,
Wild Turkey and Jim Beam to name just a few.
We toured the entire barrel making process from raw lumber into staves,
then into rough barrels and finally the fire charring process, one of the
important details of aging Kentucky bourbon.
As mentioned
earlier we are quickly coming to an end here in Kentucky with our Amazon
adventure. One interesting detail of our
employment is that 2 weeks ago after having us work for 2 months “stowing”
items into storage containers we were moved to “picking” which is where you
actually pick out the items from the storage bins going to customers. It is a LOT more walking, but all the
movement around these gargantuan buildings makes the day go by much
faster. We both like this task much
better than “stowing.” Our release date is this Thursday 12/21; we'll be pulling out Friday 12/22. We’re glad to be moving on as the
Kentucky winter is here and as you know our objective is a search for 65
degrees.
Let us know where you are going to head next. We are living vicariously from your adventures. George and Jody.
ReplyDeleteYou've changed your goal temperature, guys. First it was 70°. Now it's 65°!
ReplyDeleteLOVE you, and thanks for keeping me in the loop.