The First Annual Kentucky Bourbon Trail Weekend

What started as a cool idea and a shot in the dark actually happened.  I had first learned of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail a while back and thought it would have made a cool trip.  So many people go out on Long Island or up to the Finger Lakes to go on winery tours… why not go to Kentucky and visit some bourbon distilleries?  So, I mentioned it to some friends, and wouldn’t you know it we actually pulled it off.

Last weekend, me, Ed and Tom piled into Ed’s Fit and made the 11 1/2 hour journey to Kentucky.  We braved fierce storms, a scary encounter in West Virginia and an exceptionally questionable playlist, but we arrived.

The next day we began our journey, but were immediately met with a roadblock as I had some incorrect information and we went to a distillery that was not open.  According to Ed and Tom, I ruined the whole vacation because of this… Anyway, we got ourselves back on track and hit 5 of the 6 distilleries.  Along the way we learned some interesting facts.

• Bourbon can be made anywhere in the US, but 95% of the distilleries are in KY due to the limestone filtered water with little to no iron in it
• It must be made with at least 51% corn, but typically is made with more.  Other grains that are added are wheat (for sweeter bourbons) or rye (for spicier bourbons)
• The bourbon is aged is charred white oak barrels.  Each barrel is only allowed to be used once.
• Bourbon should be enjoyed with a little bit of water or a few ice chips to open the flavor.  It should never be consumed neat.

Aside from the Bourbon Trail, we also paid a visit to some Brothers in Lexington Lodge #1.  We had a good meal, met some great people and watched some excellent ritual work.  After the meeting we went out for a few drinks with some of the Brothers and had a great time learning more about Kentucky and bourbon.

Every place we went people asked if we were in town for Keeneland.  We had heard about it before we came down, but didn’t realize what it was, or that it was such a big deal.  Keeneland is a race track in Lexington that holds racing 30 days of the year and also conducts horse sales.  We got a tour from one of our Brothers and watched the horses.

It was a great trip.  We left 1 distillery unvisited so we would have a reason to come back (actually we just ran out of time) and would like to work in a full day of racing at Keeneland.

Stay tuned for Kentucky Bourbon Trail 2012…

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