The Woodford Reserve Bourbon Academy

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Unread postby bourbonv » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:22 pm

Bad news Linn. They are nor preedicting snow for Saturday night. They are still unsure as to the severity, but 50 miles south for the track could leave Kentucky with several inches of snow. The mountains will be worst.
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Unread postby TNbourbon » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:29 pm

As much as I envy those of you attending the event Saturday, I have recent memory of driving through the southern Indiana/Louisville pre-Christmas snowstorm last month. No fun, and a sense of real danger among all the vehicles under others' control (or lack of it) on the highway.
Please, all drive safely!
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Unread postby Mark » Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:26 pm

I agree Tim, living in the NE as well I know how it can get in that kind of weather so please guys and gals, drive safely! Even those of you with one of these! Image :wink:

BTW Linn, found this before, looks pretty cool... Image
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Unread postby bunghole » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:15 pm

Whoa! Now that's a sweet pickup! :thumbup:

I just picked up a new set of rechargable AA's for the Fuji, and a circular polalizing filter too, so I'm good to go photo wise.

We've got some flurries flying around outside, but nothing on the road. A dusting on the grass is all so far. 50% chance of snow tomorrow for our trip. It's going to be interesting!

:arrow: ima :snowman:
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Unread postby bunghole » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:58 pm

OK! We made it to Kentucky fairly easily. Ran into some light snow west of Nitro, West Virginia that persisted to Lexington, Kentucky. Traffic was light and we arrived without incident.

:arrow: ima
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Linn and Howie WEB.jpg
Linn and Howie kick back in Lexington, Kentucky.
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:26 pm

OK here come a series of photos that I will attempt to put into a reasonable sequence. This is getting off to a bad start. I've downsized the pix for web attachments, but several are still to large to be accepted, so we'll have to skip those and just see what fits. Any semblance of logic is now out the door. :?
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cropped Chris Morris1 WEB.jpg
Master Distiller Chris Morris welcomes the class to Woodford Reserve.
cropped Chris Morris1 WEB.jpg (130.82 KiB) Viewed 13762 times
Cropped JD Doubler WEB.jpg
Sitting between the warehouse and the bottling house is Jack Daniel's old doubler.
Cropped JD Doubler WEB.jpg (241.54 KiB) Viewed 13762 times
Young and Old Barrels WEB.jpg
We would sample the contents of these two barrels in class. Uncut and unfiltered.
Young and Old Barrels WEB.jpg (220.33 KiB) Viewed 13762 times
Last edited by bunghole on Mon Jan 24, 2005 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:37 pm

The trio of Scottish made Forsyth pot stills is an impressive sight. Master Distiller Chris Morris reveals the uniqueness of the only pot beer still in the world. Since the stills were not running that day we were able to go behind the stills were Chriss would show us where and how the beer still could be recharged with new distiller's beer as the still is running. Now THAT's special!
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Beer Still WEB.jpg
The only pot beer still in the world.
Beer Still WEB.jpg (178.61 KiB) Viewed 13755 times
Inside the beer still WEB.jpg
The unique conical bottom.
Inside the beer still WEB.jpg (227.15 KiB) Viewed 13756 times
Chris explains the uniqueness of the design WEB.jpg
Secret plumbing revealed!
Chris explains the uniqueness of the design WEB.jpg (184.73 KiB) Viewed 13755 times
Last edited by bunghole on Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:44 pm

More Stills! :D
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Beer Still Hatch WEB.jpg
Beer still hatch. (Shut up! It's art!)
Beer Still Hatch WEB.jpg (155.32 KiB) Viewed 13751 times
Low Wine Still WEB.jpg
The low wine still is second in the line.
Low Wine Still WEB.jpg (194.87 KiB) Viewed 13750 times
Spirit Still WEB.jpg
The third and final still is the spirit still. Spirit comes off at 155 proof.
Spirit Still WEB.jpg (209.38 KiB) Viewed 13750 times
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:50 pm

Woodford Reserve propagates it's own yeast. Master Distiller Chris Morris explains the process.
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Chris Morris WEB.jpg
Chris explains the use of the dona.
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In the lab WEB.jpg
In the lab WEB.jpg (222.6 KiB) Viewed 13741 times
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Unread postby Brewer » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:52 pm

I assume that the barrels pictured here that you guys sampled was produced at Woodford Reserve. Given that, please relate your various impressions of the uncut, unfiltered pot still whisky. Do they ever plan to bottle and release any of their product that is made exclusively at WR? What was the very young whisky like?
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 2:56 pm

Here's what's left that will fit!
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Cropped Howie & Barrels WEB.jpg
Howie wants to take these newly filled barrels home with him.
Cropped Howie & Barrels WEB.jpg (249.98 KiB) Viewed 13734 times
Cropped Chris Morris2 WEB.jpg
Cropped Chris Morris2 WEB.jpg (192.94 KiB) Viewed 13734 times
Brendaj and Chef Dave WEB.jpg
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Unread postby bunghole » Mon Jan 24, 2005 5:08 pm

Brewer wrote:I assume that the barrels pictured here that you guys sampled was produced at Woodford Reserve. Given that, please relate your various impressions of the uncut, unfiltered pot still whisky. Do they ever plan to bottle and release any of their product that is made exclusively at WR? What was the very young whisky like?


Bob,

One of the things I found out was that Woodford Reserve is unfiltered in that there is no chill or charcoal filtering. The barrels are dumped into a trough with series of screens and then the bourbon goes through four paper filters about a foot square. This is just to get out all the solid particles.

We did a LOT of tasting. White dog of Woodford Reserve; Early Times, Old Forester, and Jack Daniels, and of course the bottled expressions.

When we compared the Woodford white dog, five weeks young, and the eight year old barrel samples the differences were dramatic. I liked all of them! The amazing thing was the amount of color the five weeks old whiskey had. The Woodford warehouse was designed and built to be cycled. The heating works!

There is so much copper contact with this whiskey and you can easily taste it. I like it when it has matured as in the example of our eight year old sample. I thought this could easily be bottled as a single barrel.

Chris did tell us that there is a bourbon collection in the works at Brown-Forman. Just what it will consist of and what the names will be is still up in the air, but it's something we can all look forward too.

:arrow: ima :sunny:
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Unread postby bourbonv » Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:48 pm

Just spent the day with at the second of three Academies being done this year. What a difference a couple of weeks make with temperatures near 60 and the sun shining. There was a member of this group at the academy and we will see how well JD paid attention, because I talked about and gave the answer to one of the trivia questions. It was actually his second academy and I was suprise that about half the group were repeating the event. One guest was even there for the third time!

I have been doing this for four years now and I learn something new everytime. This time I was pleased to learn that an Irish whiskey maker is using "Bourbon Characteristics" as a descriptor in tasting notes to sell their product aged in bourbon barrels.

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Unread postby brendaj » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:28 pm

Sorry to take so long posting this. I shot it with one of those $6 cameras, just got the film back (Linn, your photos were great, thanks!).
Anyway, this is definitely the 'money shot' off my roll... :lol:
That's Linn wielding the cordless drill and Howie is the catch man... :lol:
Sorry I didn't get a shot of them trying to plug the hole... :lol:
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howielinnLB.jpg
howielinnLB.jpg (37.03 KiB) Viewed 13586 times
As a Kentuckian, I consider it my civic duty to drink Bourbon, smoke and bet the ponies. Its a tuff job, but someone has to do it...
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Unread postby bunghole » Fri Mar 04, 2005 1:32 pm

Well Brendaj you got my 'good side'! :king:

Sorry Howie! :pottytrain5:

:arrow: ima :smilebox:
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