Jim Beam Distillery

It has become a goal of ours to visit all 6 of the Bourbon Trail Distilleries in Kentucky while we are here. They aren't that far away, and they are all interesting, different, and fun. Yesterday's target was the Jim Beam Distillery that was about 50 miles from here, and is one of the farthest. It was a nice day, so we chose that one to complete the western swing of the Trail. Following a nice lunch at the Fiesta Mexican Restaurant which we visited, and enjoyed, last year, we headed to Clermont, KY, to the Jim Beam Distillery:

This is the home of the top selling bourbon in the world, and it was an excellent tour of their facilities, led by our very knowledgeable guide "Michelle":

As is the case at all of the distilleries, there are many large warehouse buildings where the barrels are placed to age before they are bottled. The picture below is one taken at the bottom of one these 7 story warehouses, looking up to the top, through all of the wooden support beams:

You can barely see the barrels lined up - 30,000 of them in each of the warehouses. These warehouses are not temperature controlled, and they open windows on the first 2 floors in the summer months, and close up everything in the winter months, to allow for natural aging of the bourbon. Evaporation occurs every year of the aging process and by the time a barrel has aged for 12 years, it only contains 47% of the original volume. That helps explain why the older the product, the more expensive it becomes. Most bourbons - the cheaper ones - are only aged 3-5 years, so they are the best buy. All of the barrels used for aging are charred on the interior to give it flavor, and create the amber color of the product. Each barrel is used only once, and then they ship them overseas to be used in the process at Scotch distilleries. Very interesting process.

We walked part of the grounds where the Master Distiller's home was located:

and then we ended up in the tasting room/gift shop area where our guide, Michelle, poured samples of 2 of their bourbon products:

One of the samples - Red Stag - was so good we purchased a bottle to take home. It is a standard Jim Beam bourbon infused with a black cherry flavor - excellent for drinking on the rocks as a Liquor.

So ended our Saturday. It was a fun day and brought us to the halfway point of our bourbon tours. We will most likely stay close to home the next 2 days as the traffic was noticeably heavier yesterday for the holiday weekend. Our plan is to take in the 4th of July celebration activities in Campbellsville, concluding with their fireworks display on Monday night...