Shaker Village and Two More Distilleries

     We're coming to the end of our stay in Kentucky. Time has really flown by and I can't believe it is time to pack up and head on up the road! The Memorial Day weekend forecast called for rain and thunderstorms, some possibly severe, so we were anticipating a wash out for touring. As it turns out, the skies, while remaining cloudy, only tried to soak us once and we were safely in the car at the time.

Four Roses Visitor's Center

     We made a brief stop at the Four Roses Distillery. I say brief because it is under renovations and upgrades. The walking tour is severely curtailed as many of the areas normally shown are under some phase of construction. We opted for a tasting and a walk around the grounds. True to its name, there are Roses everywhere. The Distillery is located along the rolling hills and the Visitors Center is very classy and well laid out. Our tasting took place outside on the patio and was very informative. We learned a bit about the history of the company and about the ten different recipes that go into the three products bottled.  The Distillery was once owned by the Seagram's company but has since been sold and is owned by a Japanese firm. Our tasting included some of the Four Roses Yellow label, an 80 proof 40% alcohol drink. The second product was the Four Roses Small Batch. This Bourbon is 90 proof, 45% alcohol. It was a little spicier than the Yellow Label. The last product was the Single Barrel. This product was 100 proof, 50% alcohol. As the name implies, it is not a mixing of recipes and as such is a bit stronger and bolder than the others. At the end of the tasting, we got to keep our glasses and Barb got a special treat... since her middle name is Rose, they gave her an empty bottle of  Single Barrel that she can use to hold flowers.

Main Office Building

Part of the Distillery. Still under renovations.

     Our next trip was to the Wild Turkey Distillery. This Distillery produces 20% of all of the Bourbon distilled in Kentucky. It is a very neatly landscaped set of facilities with the Distillery, multiple Rickhouses (also called Rackhouses by some), and a new state of the art bottling plant.

     As with all of the tours, Bourbon is made essentially the same general way. The uniqueness comes from the mix percentages of Rye and/or malted Barley and the time spent in aging.  So on this tour you saw the tanks that held the Corn, Rye, and Barley, the grinding house where corn is ground and mixed to form Sweet mash. You also see the fermentation vats (which are huge here) and you see the stills where the alcohol is distilled and sent to packaging/barreling.

Just the top 5 feet of the 30,000 gallon fermentation tanks

No surprise here, the cookers

Rick after Rick of Barrels aging in the Rickhouse

Multiple floors and barrel elevator in the Rickhouse.

     Above is the beautiful view from behind the Visitor's Center. Far below, the abandoned train trestle runs over the Kentucky River, source of water for Wild Turkey.

     Our last stop was a visit to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, KY. Here is a link to their website:
Shaker Village. Shakers, as a group, started in the US around 1775 in New York. They were a large communal society that flourished during the 18th-19th centuries. They embraced technologies and their communities had running water before the White House did. They were pacifists who did not condone violence. In 1806 the first 44 of their order moved to Kentucky and established themselves on 140 acres. By 1823, there were 491 folks on 4,500 acres. You may have heard about Shaker Furniture, Brooms, or Jellies. They are renowned for their excellence and quality. As a group, they  were unique in the fact that they were all celibate. Groups of people were housed in large houses on the property. East House, Centre House, and West House were surrounded by all manner of buildings where members performed the tasks necessary to support and sustain the community. The picture above is of Centre House. Men and women were separate and the house was a mirror image of itself, divided down the middle. Men on one side, women on the other. The dining hall was located at the back of the house but, like the house, men sat on one side, women on the other.  Today there are two living Shakers in the WORLD but none in Kentucky. This area is being restored and is managed by a group who want to save this aspect of Kentucky history. We could easily have spent days going through the buildings and grounds. This place is on our list of places to return to at some later date.

Just some of the grounds

A collection of Shaker furniture

      Something not obvious in the photo above, but common to every room in the House, was the trim piece about 6 feet off the floor. This 1x4 contained pegs mounted about every foot or so. When not in use, furniture, clothing, or other items could be hung on these pegs. There were even examples of candle lighting that was mounted on a board with holes drilled vertically on a board. Thus the candle could be raised or lowered and hung on the peg, depending on the amount of light needed.  As you can see from many of the pictures, there are windows everywhere along the walls. They are designed to maximize the amount of available light that is let into the rooms. Closets also have windows, either inside or facing outside, to put light in them instead of using open flames. Good ideas.

Shaker made brooms

Another of the many buildings

Touring Some of the Bourbon Trail

     We took the opportunity to make a few more stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour. One stop was the Buffalo Trace Distillery. They hold the title of the oldest continually operating distillery in America. They remained open even during Prohibition (making spirits for "medicinal" purposes). The distillery sits on 440 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. There are several tours that you can take and all of them are free of charge. Be aware, however, it is best if you get online and reserve your spot prior to dropping by. While tours are free, they are very popular and often filled. We took the Bourbon Barrel tour and the National Historic Landmark Tour. The Hard Hat (behind the scenes) tour was booked throughout May with no vacancies until June!

     Our Barrel Tour started upstairs in the Visitors Center. The Visitors Center is unbelievable in itself. Made from the original rack house it has one wall that sports a wainscot of charred bourbon barrel staves. It is as beautiful as it is unique (see above photo).

     Our tour guide was Freddie Johnson, a 3rd generation employee of the distillery. His Grandfather was the first African American foreman in Kentucky and had a close friendship with Col. Albert Blanton (owner of the distillery). Freddie's father mastered the ability to repair leaking barrels while the whiskey remained inside. His skills made him the first African American in the state to be appointed Warehouse Supervisor. Freddie has been with the company many years and is a real treat to  have as your tour guide. In fact, as you begin your tour, you pass a wall adorned with photos of the Johnson family documenting their contributions to the distillery.  We passed a five story warehouse which held thousands of barrels aging. The photo above tells a few stories. Look at the windows. The first two floors are barred but the other floors are not. Why? We were told that the bars kept the distiller from avoiding taxes on barrels when the revenuers came. The barrels can withstand a drop of 20 feet but burst apart if dropped from anything higher. Another thing is the black mold on the building. Seems that this mold grows only in the presence of alcohol. This fact allowed revenuers to locate illegal stills just by watching for the black mold. Also the entrance doors to the warehouse were locked by two padlocks. One key kept by the Distillery, the other by the Government. Therefore, in order to take product out of the warehouse, it required both of them to be present.

     One of the requirements of true Bourbon is that it is stored and aged in barrels of White Oak. These barrels are required to have never been used and are only used once. After that, they are sold to makers of Whiskey (domestic, Irish, Scottish and the like). Recently wineries and brewers have been aging their wine and beer in bourbon barrels to impart the unique flavor. Buffalo Trace uses barrels made from White Oak from the Ozarks.

     The barrels come from receiving to the filling line where they are filled with what is called White Dog. This is the clear distilled spirit that will become bourbon. Upon filling, the barrel if sealed with a plug called a Bung. The Bung is made from Poplar and will expand as it absorbs the alcohol thus creating an airtight seal.

     There's at least one barrel in this massive complex that I personally sealed.

     Barrels age on various levels of the many warehouses. On some floors the temperature swings cause the alcohol to seep in and out of the charred oak inner barrel infusing it with flavor. On the lower floors, the temperature swings are minimal and the fluctuations in barometric pressure moves the alcohol within the barrel. Thus it ages slower and takes longer to produce the end product.

     The tour ended with a tasting of the product. Seven year aged Buffalo Trace Bourbon and 17 year aged Eagle Rare. It was topped off with a chocolate Bourbon ball and a neat mix using Root Beer and Bourbon Cream.

     During the Historic Landmark tour, you cover a lot of the area covered by the Hard Hat tour. You see the very beginning of the product. The arrival of raw corn. It is ground and cooked making a sweet mash. Portions of the previous batch, called sour mash, is mixed with sweet mash and cooked together. Then the mixture is put into 10,000 gallon tanks, mixed with yeast, and left to ferment for five days. You see all of this process up close and personal. I actually got to sample a little of the ground corn, sweet mash, and fifth day fermented solution.

Large Mash cooker

Fifth Day solution. Top layer is mostly corn oil.

     Once again, at the end of the tour you get to sample product. Luckily we did the tour on different days so there was no reason to designate Barb as my driver.

     Above is the smallest, government approved warehouse. It house but one barrel. In this case, it is the 6 millionth barrel of Bourbon. When it is ready, it will be bottled and the 7th million barrel will take its place.

Wilderness Trails New Warehouse- 2016

Wilderness Trails New Warehouse- May 2017

     We also traveled to the Wilderness Trails distillery. This small craft distillery is just beginning to age bourbon. They specialize in Vodka and a sorghum based Rum (my personal favorite). We dropped by to see the progress on their warehouse and discovered that they are continuing to build on and are adding another, bigger warehouse and a new still for more Bourbon production. Can't wait to come back and see what's new.

Kentucky Renovation

     We finally hit the road, albeit via a different route than intended. We took the southern I-10/I-12 eastbound to Hammond, LA then northwards towards Jackson, MS. While trying to leave Jackson, there was some incident on I-55 that halted all movement northbound. So, there we sat. All lanes of traffic sitting at a dead standstill! The first time I ever sat long enough that I shut off the engine of the motorhome and took a quick nap. After about an hour we continued. We stopped at a little campground in Cave City, KY. This was a nice little park near Mammoth Cave National Park. Didn't stay long enough to unhook, just enough time to rest, so no pictures. We headed onwards the next day and arrived at our home for May, Elkhorn Campground in Frankfort, KY (more about this CG later)

     One of the primary purposes of this trip was to help our son, Shawn, to make some improvements and renovations on his Chiropractic office in Richmond, KY. We arrived on Thursday and took stock of the situation. Brandon, a good friend of Shawn's, had come in from Kansas City to help us out some. Besides the extra set of hands, he brought several power tools that we would need to make the improvements. We planned out what we intended to do and made a shopping list for the hardware store. A running bet was made as to the number of trips to Lowe's that it would take to complete this project. (I lost count but I know that we exceeded even the highest estimate!!)

Lobby and Waiting Room Before

     It was an aggressive list of improvements that we decided to take on. First and foremost, we were to move the reception area from inside the waiting room to a separate room of its own. In doing so, we needed to cut a window into the wall and make a new check in area. We added some new lighting in the office and rebuilt the desk for Tosha, Shawn's Chiropractic Assistant (CA). We also had to move some electric, telephone, and cable lines from the waiting room back to the new office area. We renovated the entry door to Tosha's new office and made it a half door. We also made a chart window where patient charts could be passed back and forth between Doctor and CA. We fixed a few outlet boxes that were loose and repaired a few lights. We replaced the old blinds in the front widows with newer, more attractive and efficient blinds. We also improved the insulation around the front windows. The last big piece was putting a door in the hallway to separate the waiting room from the treatment rooms. This required a small wall be built and the door framed, hung, and the whole thing drywalled, painted and trimmed out. We then decided to re-purpose part of the old check-in desktop and made it into a shelf in the treatment room.  All of this needed to be done with as little interruption to patient care as possible! Oh, and we did come to Kentucky to tour some, so we took some time to do that when we could. I'm tired just reading about it!!!

Welcome window (office side) is cut. New light being installed

Welcome window (waiting room side). Now you see it...

...Now you don't!

Window is roughed in

Blinds being installed

One side done

Hall door roughed in

Drywall being hung

Door installed, drywall being finished

Finished views. Waiting room side

Kids Corner 

Treatment side- New door, half door, chart window

Repurposed shelf in the treatment room