If you have ever driven around the countryside in Kentucky you are likely familiar with buildings like this. These are rick houses that are used to store barrels of sweet delicious bourbon. If you are anywhere along the bourbon trail, you will likely see them en mass.
If you happen to be off the bourbon trail, and the building is barn, then you might actually be seeing an old tobacco barn, but that's not what this post is about.
After taking you on a walk through the facility yesterday, today I wanted to take a deeper dive into the Maker's Mark Distillery.
As I said yesterday, for $18 a piece, the tour was pretty awesome and filled with all kinds of interesting facts. If you want a good portion of the story you can visit this wiki, or head to the Maker's Mark website directly.
I'll try to recap as much as I can here.
The origin of Maker's Mark goes back to 1953 when William Samuels Sr. purchased the 200 acre property in Laretto, KY from the Burks' Distillery for $35,000. The Burks's Distillery had shut down during prohibition and never reopened after that. The key draw to this site for Samuels was the fact that it had a spring fed lake right on the property.
That ensured that he would have a nearly endless supply of limestone filtered water to use in the making of his bourbon.
According to the tour guide, Samuels actually didn't care for bourbon that much so he spent a good deal of time making different loaves of bread so he could figure out the perfect mix of grains that he wanted. He eventually settled on a mash bill that was made up of 16% red winter wheat, 70% corn, 14% malted barley, and no rye. The exclusion rye makes Maker's Mark a "wheated" bourbon or as bourbon coniseours like to call it "a wheatie".
One of the things I found interesting about this tour was the fact that they allowed us to take so many pictures in the buildings. On the Jack Daniels tour we took a couple of years ago they were very strict about photos in the buildings. They claimed it was because the vapors were combustible, but I think it had more to do with protecting trade secrets.
I'm a bit bummed I didn't get any photos of the seven story still that they have on site (there were just too many people in the way), but I did get some photos of the grains fermenting in the vats. This room had a heavy "bread" smell to it and it was decently humid.
They use the same cypress plank vats that were there when they purchased the distillery. Cypress was plentiful in the area, it resistant to moisture, and is inert so it doesn't impart any unwanted flavors to the grain.
You can see the difference between a relatively new and active batch in the photo above.
Compared to one that has been there a while and is ready to move along to the next phase. I felt like it looked like a desert scene. If you didn't know you were looking at fermented grain, you might assume the same thing.
The still house was a beautiful building with lots of intricate details and although it has been added on to and retrofitted, at its core, it is still the same building that was originally built on the property by Burks'.
Maker's Mark has made an effort to adopt a zero waste initiative. One such example is this walkway. They took old Maker's Mark bottles and pulverized them into blunted particles for paths like this. They also have a lot of solar panels on their properties and they have expanded beyond the original 200 acres to add things like farms so they can source all of their materials as locally as possible.
William Samuels wife was very involved in the business insisting that she would be in charge of the marketing and required matching funds for marketing of every dollar that was invested in the making of the bourbon. The photo above is the original printing machine that they used to make the labels and they still use it today.
In the past most bourbons were selling for about $4 per bottle. Maker's Mark sold for a massive $7 per bottle and was marketed as a premium bourbon.
That's part of the reason Maker's Mark has so many flourishes like the logo on the label and the wax dipped cap on the bottle.
Also for this reason, I am including this post as an early #marketfriday post sponsored by @dswigle.
As William Sr. was getting ready to retire, he made Jr. promise not to change the recipe of his bourbon. Jr. wanted to make something special of his own, so he created Maker's 46 which you might find in stores. There are some requirements for a spirit to be called bourbon. One of those is that it is stored in new charred oak barrels.
What William Jr. did was use the same barrels and the same mash bill, but he added 10 French Oak staves into each barrel. He tried hundreds of combinations of staves and if you haven't guessed, the 10 French Oak staves were the 46th one he tried so that is how Maker's 46 got its name.
Another thing that sets Maker's Mark apart from other bourbons is the fact that the barrels are hand rotated. That means they are manually moved from the lower racks to the higher racks throughout their six or seven years of aging. The slight change in elevation, and temperature can make a huge difference in the final product.
As I mentioned, every bottle is hand dipped and bottled on site in the wax. In fact, in the gift shop you can buy a bottle and dip it yourself. I didn't participate in that, but I should have. Maybe next time when I visit!
The four boxes you see off the conveyor belt are the vats of wax. If we had been here on a weekday and not Sunday, there would have been people standing there dipping the bottles as they rush down the conveyor belt.
Of course, at the end of the tour we got to taste some of the delicious juice. In case you were wondering, the name Maker's Mark comes from Samuel's wife of course. She had a huge pewter collection and many of the pieces were stamped with what was called the "mark of the maker". That's how Maker's Mark was born.
Additionally, if you look at the photo above, you will see the logo that is stamped into every bottle. The "S" stands for Samuel, the Star is for "Star Hill Farms" which is what they call the property, and the "IV" stands for the fact that Samuel's was a 4th generation distiller.
Once again we can thank Margie Samuels for the logo.
It was later discovered that William Sr. was actually a sixth generation distiller, but the IV still holds today.
The final stop on the tour takes you through an area called "The Spirit of the Maker". It is a blown glass exhibit by acclaimed artist Dale Chihuly. I have to admit, it was quite beautiful!
If you ever get the chance to visit Maker's Mark, I highly recommend it. The drive alone is worth it and the tour and tasting for $18 is a steal!
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A very interesting and informative read along with excellent photography about the history and process behind Maker's Mark bourbon.🥃How many bottles did you end up purchasing? @bozz
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Thank you! It was a really awesome time. I only picked up one bottle, but it was a special one that you can only get at the distillery. I am looking forward to cracking it open this weekend!
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I have never been outside Nigeria not to talk of Kentucky. Hahaha
I hope to travel to a foreign country someday.
Also, I guess you are someone who loves to enjoy a lot!!!
Keep it up
Hopefully you can do some travelling. I've never been out of my country either. Unless you count Canada. We have such a large selection of places to go here in the US.
Thanks, that's such an interesting tour, very different from the whisky ones I've been to before in Scotland. I always thought that wax on the top of the bottle is plastic... or does it cover the real wax underneath?
It covers a cork that is topped with plastic yes. The seal on the bottle and the cover is wax though. I'd love to visit a distillery in Scotland sometime. Even Ireland if I ever get the chance.
Great photos and info. I don't drink much stronger than sake these days, but I'd still love to go on that tour. Very interesting to hear they have a zero waste initiative. That's awesome.
!PIMP
I've never tried Sake. I'd love to have some one day though. Yeah, this place is pretty cool. I am sure a lot of the zero waste talk is just for show, but they do seem to be trying. Probably better than a lot of places.
Sake is pretty good. Despite being half Italian, I never really liked wine before, but after trying sake I fell in love. There is a hint of fruitiness which is nice, but it's not too much, giving more of a pure taste like gin—but not nearly as strong. If you ever make it to Japan in the future, I'll buy you some.
Okay thanks! Sounds like a plan! Gin tastes like pine needles to me. I've never really cared for it. I'm up for pretty much anything though.
You must be killin' it out here!
@dbooster just slapped you with 1.000 PIMP, @bozz.
You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/2 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
I would be happy just taking in the old history of the place and the antiques. Having a taste test would be nice as well.
You really took some great pictures and told your story of the tour really well. You could make a living as a virtual tour guide😀
Thanks, I appreciate it. We had a really good guide and the info was on the Internet. I suck at public speaking, so I wouldn't give me too much credit!