Kentucky and The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

I have seven distilleries on my list, six of which are part of “The Kentucky Bourbon Trail”. The six distilleries on the trail are Jim Beam, Makers Mark, Four Roses, Heaven Hills, Wild Turkey and Woodford Reserve. The only one not on the trail that I plan on visiting is Buffalo Trace. Today I drove straight from Indiana to Kentucky to try and get at least two tours in. The only stop I was forced to make was a 10am stop at White Castle. I know this sounds strange, made even stranger by the fact that I was not hungry at all, however, I had never been to a White Castle prior to today and it has been on my to do list for quite a while and has somehow eluded me. For my first White Castle ever, it was about exactly what I expected, fast food. Honestly the best part was the onion strips instead of fries, though the chicken sliders weren’t bad.

 

For most of the distilleries I will just post pictures, as it is all about the same process and similar tours, but I will try to describe what is shown.

Jim Beam

 

Worlds smallest, fully automated working distillery

 
One of their warehouses

          

Heaven Hills

 
Visitors center and warehouses

 
Inside the warehouse

A whiskey thief for tasting whiskey from the barrels

       
Our Tasting

The gift shop

Makers Mark

 

 

           
Entrance to the distillery and the mash tub

Fermenter

Bottling

Inside of the barrels

Four Roses

 

 

 

 
Filling a fermenter

        

Wild Turkey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buffalo Trace

 

        

 

 

Woodford Reserve

Woodford for some reason thought their tour was worth $5 while all the others were free, I disagreed and decided to skip it.

 

 

While I was in Kentucky I drove through Lexington, which is where my dad went to school at the University of Kentucky. I drove around for a bit and had a very good sandwich at Firehouse Subs. From here I will be off to West Virginia to see my Grandpa and a few aunts and uncles.

 

 

They had this crazy new coke machine that has 100 different types of soda and a touch screen.

I also thought I’d post a picture of a friend Sierra made at a dog park outside Frankfort, KY.