We learned about the ancient but modernized art of cooperage through a series of videos and visits to various work stations. Since 1912, using Missouri white oak, they have sawn, steamed, and squeezed staves into the barrels where, over several years aging, bourbon will pick up its color and sweetness.
Each eight-hour shift creates 1600-1800 53-gallon barrels. Narrow and wide staves alternate in the sides of the barrels. Reusable hoops hold each barrel together until it is banded. Each barrel is charred according to the requirements of the individual distilleries.
We watched cooper Chris, using skills that go back centuries, replace a stave that had worm holes with a new stave. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in the cooperage but we did get a group picture before lunch.
Barrels’ purpose in life is to hold bourbon and our purpose on this trip is to visit distilleries, so we went to Maker’s Mark where first we had lunch. Started by T. W. Samuels in 1840, the family has made bourbon ever since (with a brief break during WWII when they made industrial alcohol). T. William Samuels, Jr. took over the business and changed the recipe to make a high end small batch whiskey. His wife Margie came up with the name, bottle shape, and brand-identifying red melted wax seal.
As our tour leader led us along the grounds, we passed a yellow building which was a package store for people to bring their jugs for filling during the depression. As we walked, a gentle breeze brought the light, sweet aroma of the yeast and corn fermenting. The 130-year-old wooden fermenters are listed in the National Historical Registry. We dipped our fingers in to taste the sour mash, (yuck).
Maker’s Mark has several distinctions from its competitors. It produces only one million cases a year. Each batch is small, only 1000 gallons. Their whiskey is 70% corn from Kentucky, 16% wheat from Kentucky and 14% barley from North Dakota. The wheat gives the whiskey a sweeter taste.
They use both a column still and copper pot still. They rotate their barrels from top, middle to bottom.
For the new 46 label, they put French oak staves into the barrels and age longer.
The bottle labels are die cut using old printing presses from the early 1900s. The labels are applied and each bottle is hand dipped in their signature red wax
After our tasting of both Maker’s Mark and 46, we enjoyed a bourbon ball. Then we had a “surprise.” Each couple got a bottle of Maker’s Mark and hand dipped it as a souvenir of a great tour.
The next day we went to Four Roses Warehouse where it takes them 45-50 minutes to unload each of the two tankers that come from the distillery each day. The arrival weight of the tanker is 50,000 pounds. Because water is added to the barrels to get the 120-proof distillate, years later its departure weight will be 61,000, even after evaporation. Jeff, our guide, explained the precise timing of rolling the barrels to their resting spot so that the bung is up on top.
We got to watch barrel dumping which entails removing the bung, putting in a whiskey thief, rolling it to pour out the distillate, removing the thief, adding water to get out more distillate, replacing the bung, and rolling out the barrel.
The decibel level of our voices rose as Jeff gave us “time at the trough,” tasting right from the barrel. Some of us wanted to hire on for the job, or maybe just volunteer.
As a small distillery, Four Roses has only sixteen employees. They hand bottle and label their Single Barrel, Small Batch and Yellow whiskeys at a rate of twelve bottles a minute. They were deemed Distillery of the Year for 2011.
Under light drops of rain, we ate a delicious catered lunch in the lovely Bernheim Park.
Then we went to the final bourbon distillery on our tour of Kentucky Bourbon. Jim Beam is more than 200 years old and was run by the Beam family until prohibition. It restarted in 1934 and now bottles eight million a year. A video told the story of Jim Beam and the seven generations that have run it.
In The Old Still house, we learned that they have been using the same recipe and yeast strain since the beginning.
They have their staves charred to #4, the highest level, which they believe releases the most flavor. They barrel 800 - 1000 a day and store 1.8 million barrels in warehouses.
The warehouses are built of cypress on the inside and aluminum out. Warehouse D is the oldest. Our tour guide described the warehouses as “ultimate man caves,” lacking only TV, lounge chairs and pizza.
Our final Kentucky whiskey tasting was of Jim Beam’s Basil Hayden and Knob Creek topped off with a bourbon ball.
Our caravan is not all play, sometimes we have to work. Jobs include bartending, salad makings, table setting and clean up. Our most important assignment was to get our Bourbon Trail Passport book stamped and we have now earned the coveted six-distillery tee shirt which we will all be happy to model.
We spent our last evening in the land of bourbon savoring a Parmesan chicken dinner and holding an auction. Auctioneer George raised thousands of cents on such items as a fan, a bottle of bourbon beer, gin, and Jim Beam souvenirs
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