Kentucky – Louisville, Church Hill Downs, Jim Beam (Sep 8, 2018)

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Our last day in Kentucky included a trip to Louisville, Church Hill Downs and a tour at Jim Beam.

Our first stop in Louisville was to visit the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. This was a park with him sitting in on a large rock. We could only imagine someone finding this perfect rock for him to sit on.

The following mural was heartbreaking to not only see but to read. Lincoln was on a boat that had slaves on it. “The sight was a continual torment to me, and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave border.”

From the park area, we were able to walk down the Ohio river and see the Big Four Bridge. “The Big Four Bridge is a six-span former railroad truss bridge that crosses the Ohio River, connecting Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana. It was completed in 1895, and updated in 1929. The largest single span is 547 feet (167 m), with the entire bridge spanning 2,525 feet (770 m). It took its name from the defunct Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, which was nicknamed the “Big Four Railroad”. It is now a converted pedestrian and bicycle bridge from Louisville into Jeffersonville, Indiana.”

The Big Four Bridge is a six-span former railroad truss bridge.
Down the Ohio river were the other three bridges connecting you from Kentucky to Indiana
There was an Art fair also going on and we came across this beautiful hand carved bench.

From there we went to the Louisville Slugger Museum.

Louisville Slugger Museum

All around town there are baseball plaquest of great baseball players. This is for Babe Ruth.
Cal Ripken, Jr.
This statute of Michelangelo’s David standing on a street corner next to a restaurant/hotel just because they wanted to make an impact. It is a double-size, 30-ft golden replica of Michelangelo’s David, for the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005. We will have to share that we were not the only ones who did not know who this was. We talked to another couple who just didn’t understand this golden statue with all his “jewels” showing. Later we talked to a local who was surprised we didn’t know this Michelangelo’s statue. Of course, the original is cast in white marble. We all believed the gold and the size put us “intelligent” people off.
This was the original location of the town of Louisville -which is across from David. As you can see it was established in 1780. This spot over looked a large part of the city which has been taken over by highways.

Church Hill Downs was next. We couldn’t go in but toured the outside.

 

 

Barbaro (April 29, 2003 – January 29, 2007) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who decisively won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, but shattered his leg two weeks later in the 2006 Preakness Stakes, which ended his racing career and eventually led to his death.

From there we went on a tour of Jim Beam. This was a great tour as you get to see and understand how the bourbon is made.

Jim Beam
A mosaic of Jim Beam which you cannot see unless you look through a camera. There are tons of little pictures making this mosaic.
This is a 1930’s overview of the process of what it takes to make Jim Beam Bourbon.
This is from a flyer we were given about the hierarchy of the Jim Beam Master Distillers. Booker Noe is the grandson of Jim beam. Jeremiah never had any children. So Booker Noe is the son of Jim Beams daughter. Interesting that the daughters never were Master Distillers. Fred Noe is currently training his son to be a Master Distiller.We were walked through the entire process of making and bottling Jim Beam.
The screen on the wall tracks the whole bottling process so that any issues can be seen right away.

We learned what the stamp on the side of the keg meant. C08 C 11 meant  D-160 means distilled at 160 proof. C=The plant. 08 C 11 means it is distilled on March (C) 11 2008. DSP KY 230 means that it is the Kentucky Distiller Permit.  By the way, they never reuse the kegs. The used kegs are sold to whiskey makers throughout the world.
In fact, since Mike is a veteran, he was asked to roll a barrel and take a sample from the barrel. This glass was shared by everyone so they could get the Bourbon hug – where you can feel it warm you all the way down to your belly.

From there we were able to bottle our own bottle of Bourbon. Below is the video of Mike washing the bottle.

Then the bottles going through the fill process.
Mike putting his thumb print on his bottle.
Our Bottle! We have proof since it has Mike’s thumb print on it.
This is one of 84 Rackhouses – aka Rickhouse  – and holds up to 20,000 barrels with 9 stories. It houses 1 million gallons Bourbon. Estimated value $100M+. The world will consume one rickhouse in 2-3 weeks.

Overall the tour through Jim Beam was great. It provided you some great insight on to the bottling process.

 

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