The Bourbon Society's Hard Hat Tour of Buffalo Trace

[bourbonv]

Yesterday The Bourbon Society spent a good part of the day taking the Hard Hat Tour of Buffalo Trace. JD Knaebel arranged for the tour and a tasting with Elmer T. Lee at about noon. We were to meet at the distillery at 10:00 in the morning to start the tour. We met in the gift shop and we started the tour just slightly after 10:00.

Our tour guide was Freddie (or is it spelled Freddy, I am not sure) whose father has rolled every millionth barrel into the warehouse for the distillery. Which brings me to another point - those millionth barrel heads are on display in their visitor's center and every one of them reads "Ancient Age Distilling Company" and they up to barrel 5,000,000 in the display. People should not blame the water tower alone for calling that distillery Ancient Age for so many years. The Schenley employee publications often refered to it as Ancient Age even when its formal name was George T Stagg or Albert Blanton distillery.

Anyway, Freddy is an excellent tour guide even if some of his history is off. That distillery was not the only one distilling in Kentucky during prohibition. Stitzel and Glenmore also made whiskey in the late twenties and the last time I looked, Louisville and Owensboro were part of Kentucky. Even so, his history was still better than most tour guides at distilleries. He took us through the history and making barrels using displays in the gift shop/display area and then started the tour of the distillery proper.

Freddie has the tour well organized and we started by discussing water sources for the distillery. He then pointed out the Dickel building and stated that it is going to become a visitor's center with a deck looking over the river. This should be very nice when done. Next we went into the grain selection and then into the cookers. The one thing that Buffalo Trace seems to do that is different from the other distilleries is to have seperate cookers for the corn, rye/wheat and malt, cooking them seperately and then adding them together in the mash tubs. The other distilleries use a single cooker for all three simply lowering the temperature in the cooker.

To poor Brenda's horror we then kept climbing in the distillery. Brenda's right leg was giving here problems making it difficult to climb stairs but even more difficult to come down stairs. We left the cookers and went to the mash tubs. They are huge and empty so we had a good perspective as to how big they really are. We then climbed up to the tail boxes and the column stills. They were not distilling and the last thing they had distilled was Rain Vodka. We sampled a little of the Vodka that was taken from the tail boxes and yes, Chuck, it still smelled and had a slight taste of corn even after 7 distillations so some grain flavor can be found in some vodkas. Still, it was vodka and not bourbon and we were slightly disappointed. We then walked out on some catwalks and saw the holding tanks for the backset and the spent mash going to the drier house. After a climb down of about three stories we went to the drier house. We then went to the single barrel bottling house and a warehouse. In the warehouse we were shown some of the experimental whiskey being aged in "Baby Barrels" of 5, 10, 15 gallon sizes. Then back to the gift shop before heading over to the Clubhouse for our tasting.

At the Clubhouse, they were setting up for a wedding in the main room. We were led to the back room with the bar and they had set up the tasting for us. Elmer T Lee led the tasting and I will say that for a man of his age, he is stillas sharp as a tack and gets around well. I hope I am in half as good a shape as he is. All of the products had been reduced to 60 proof. We started with Rain Vodka to get a handle on the corn flavor. Next we tasted wheated bourbon and rye recipe bourbon new spirits. Then there was the 3.5 year old corn whiskey and the 7 month old bourbon (rye recipe). Finally there was Buffalo Trace and Sazerac 18yo Rye. Elmer offered his insights on the products. The only real eye opener for me was that the corn whiskey was made just to use as a substitute for GNS in the blended products such as Ancient Age Blended Whiskey. I then offered a toast to Elmer T Lee to thank and honor him not only as a Master Distiller and host, but because it was also Armed Forces Day, as a veteran of WWII. Elmer offered us an Irish toast he had heard that went "I drink and get drunk, I get drunk and fall asleep, I do not sin when I am asleep, so I drink so that I don't sin". We then retired for a box lunch with Elmer and he was answering questions freely.

After Lunch the tour continued with a trip to reguage. Unfortunately Brenda, ChuckMick, Charles Miller (Cubacroc) and I were smoking on the porch when the other slipped off to the gift shop and started without us. We caught up with them in the cistern room and then went over to reguage. Freddy showed us the lines where the barrels are dumped and then the whiskey is entered into tanks for determining the proof. We then looked into warehouse K (one of Elmer's favorites for picking his whiskey) and back to the giftshop before going home.

The day was beautiful with warm weather and very few clouds. The day was well spent, marred only by terrible traffic on the way home due to a bridge repair project (3 mile travel in a little over an hour). A great Touring experience.

[Bourbon HQ]

Since I was also on the tour, I have included some pictures.


Gayle[/b]

[jdknaebel]

Don't let Gayle fool you. We all saw him break a sweat trying to hold that barrel.

We also run across another interesting fact at the tasting with Elmer T. Lee. Gayle's favorite Whskey is anything in a bottle.

[bourbonv]

JD,
Gayle is actually a very discriminating drinker - his favorite is anything out of someone else's bottle. If he is buying it, then it is Weller 12 lately.

Thanks again, JD for organizing the tour. It was a great time spent with great people. We need to do it again when they are distilling even though that will make it very noisey and hot in some places.

[Bourbon HQ]

Now Mike, I don't think you mind tasting someone else's bottle, or excepting a free one as a gift.

Gayle

[jdknaebel]

[Bourbon HQ]

[bourbonv]

Now Gayle,
I was just clarifying the statement JD made here that your favorite whiskey is anything that came out of the bottle and that was only true when someone else was pouring (in that you are not picky about free whiskey) but that your actual favorite was Weller 12yo lately. Did I get that wrong?

[Mike]

When I come to KY, can I be a Bourbon prostitute too, huh, huh, can I, can I? If bunghole can be a saint, I ought to be able to be a prostitute. I think I have all the quals to be bourbon ho!

[jdknaebel]

[Bourbon HQ]

Nope Mike! You got it right. Weller 12yr and Old Grand Dad 100 proof.

Gayle

[cowdery]

People often ask me, "what's the best whiskey?"

My answer?

"The best whiskey is free whiskey."

[Bourbon Joe]

Hey Chuck,
What's the best Free Whiskey?
Joe

[cowdery]

Hey Chuck,
What's the best Free Whiskey?
Joe

The free whiskey I was given most recently is the best free whiskey.

[bourbonv]

Chuck,
I agree - the best whiskey is free whiskey. In my opinion, The best free whiskey is free bourbon!