Bardstown, Kentucky - Bourbon Capital of the World

We often arbitrarily choose the next place to move the motor home to take up temporary residency. Since it is where our home is parked, we call these stops our new home town. Well, today our home town just happens to be Bardstown, Kentucky--the bourbon capital of the world.

We had only been here a few minutes when we realized that the last tour of the day was about to begin at one of the bourbon distilleries in town. This is the only free distillery tour in the area, so we called Barton to see if there was room for us on the 3:00 tour. We also found out that we got on one of the last complimentary tours, as they are discontinuing their tours at the end of June. We guess that means that they will have to repaint all of their delivery trucks.

This was a great tour, with a guide that explained and showed us all the steps of making bourbon. We learned that to be bourbon, three things have to be present. First of all, 51 percent of the grain used has to be corn. We watched as a semi-truck emptied its entire load of corn into the underground storage tanks. It won't be there long, as they use a lot of corn here at Barton Distillery.

The corn is ground, and then added to malted barley and rye or wheat to make a mash that is cooked. Then yeast is added and the fermentation process begins. The liquid will eventually be piped into this huge still where the alcohol is gathered. 

We walked beside the tanks where this process takes place, and we can tell you that it was a very aromatic tour. In fact, Bardstown is encircled with distilleries, and we could catch a whiff of cooking mash in different locations throughout our stay.

The second part of the bourbon equation is aging it in wooden barrels that have been charred on the inside. The 125 proof alcohol is clear when it goes into the barrel, but it will come out brown. These barrels can only be used once, and the amount of time the alcohol stays inside ir will determine the characteristics of the finished bourbon.

When we first rolled into Bardstown, we noted all the large buildings. At first we thought they were apartment houses or office buildings. No, these are rack houses where the barrels are stored.

They make a thousand barrels of whiskey each day here at Bartons, so it takes a lot of rack houses to store all those barrels from 4 to 23 years. Our tour took us into one of those black metal buildings that was interestingly cool for this warm day. Kentucky's weather is ideal for making bourbon because it doesn't get too hot or too cold here. We were told that the moderate temperature changes is what makes good bourbon in these unheated and uncooled rack houses. That's why 95 percent of all bourbon is made in Kentucky.

At the end of every tour, visitors are allowed to taste the different products made at the distillery. They are different because they use different combinations of grains, or they were left longer in the barrel, or they were stored at different places within the rack house.

We got tiny shot glasses with tiny tastes of four different bourbons made here at Bartons. We enjoyed the bourbon chocolate in the brown paper the most!

Each visitor also gets a wooden plug (called a bung) that is used to cap the barrel after the alcohol has been poured inside. Each bung is labeled with the date--the year first, the letter of the alphabet for the month (E is the fifth letter of the alphabet so it signifies the fifth month), and the day of the month last. Thanks to Barton Distillery for this very nice free tour!

On another day, we drove a few miles down the road to where Jim Beam bourbon is made. Their old logo is painted on the old barn that is seen at their entrance. And doesn't that look like a fancy office building in the background?

No, that's just one of their many rack houses, filled with those wooden bourbon barrels that we have seen before.

During our visit here, we learned that the company has gone through a new branding campaign. That old Jim Beam logo has been traded out for this new James B. Beam name.

We found out that our free tour at Barton's was a great choice, because a similar tour here at the Beam Distillery will run around $20 per person. But it's free to walk around their campus, where the old Beam house is still in use.

You can also take a free portrait in the photo booth, and "beam" it to your email address if you want. We chose to print it instead.

They have a nice restaurant here, and we had hoped to eat one of our favorite Asian dishes. But we didn't find bourbon chicken on the menu anywhere in this bourbon capital. So we purchased this tiny bottle of Jim Beam to try in a recipe ourselves.

Many people make the pilgrimage to this area to visit as many distilleries as possible. In fact, there are organized tours and maps available for "The Bourbon Trail." Distilleries pay to advertise their location on the trail, and we were told that is why most of them charge a hefty price for their tours.

While most of the alcohol being made in this area is bourbon, we also found out that Kentucky has a few wineries. In fact, the Bardstown Visitor Center gave us two free tickets for a wine tasting at one of those wineries. They don't grow many grapes in Kentucky, so their wines our predominately sweet and made from berries.

In the theme of learning about the liquor industry, we also visited the Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum in Bardstown. They have an interesting assortment of stills that have been used in these Kentucky hills.

The museum was started by Mrs. Getz, who wanted a place to display her late husband's large whiskey collection. Even though these old bottles are still sealed, the liquid in them continues to decrease as it evaporates.

The bourbon industry was hard-hit during the 13 years of Prohibition. Some distilleries remained in business legally because they were given medicinal permits because of the medical need for bourbon. Just because it was illegal to buy or sell or transport liquor, it technically was not illegal to drink it. Some people found creative ways to hide their liquor in containers. The museum had a display of unusual hidden liquor containers that looked like food . . .

or even tools.

Being the bourbon capital of the world means that Bardstown also has the oldest bourbon tavern in the world. We walked through The Old Talbott Tavern which was built in 1779, and has also been visited by the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Jesse James.

Too much bourbon can land you in the Bardstown Jail, with its wooden stock out front for particularly unruly visitors. This building is now an inn, where people pay to spend a night in a jail cell.

Even though we don't enjoy bourbon, we did enjoy learning about it during our stay in Bardstown--the Bourbon Capital of the World.