Eight More Miles to Louisville

7/28/15

Took an underground ziplining tour at Louisville Mega Cavern. It's an old limestone mine that has been converted in to various uses including a zipline area and a bike park. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s, the government had plans to use it as a shelter in the event of a nuclear attack. After that, I drove to Clermont for a tour and tasting at the Jim Beam distillery. Due to the summer shutdown, I didn't get the full tour I was supposed to, but still toured the warehouse and saw some of the bottling process. From there it was on to some KY wineries - Forest Edge and Wight-Meyer. Before driving to Cincinnati for the night, I met up with an old friend for dinner that I hadn't seen in ~15 years!

During the underground zipline

Bourbon barrels stacked 3-high and 3-deep to a rack. This warehouse had ~20,000 barrels in it. Beam has 72 warehouses total and some of the larger warehouses have ~50,000+ barrels in them. 

The difference in bottles per barrel during the aging process due to evaporation (the Angels' Cut)

They say there are more bourbon barrels currently aging in KY (over 5 million) than people in KY (4.3 million). 95% of the world's bourbon is crafted in KY.

Their 13 millionth barrel
Each barrel weighs ~500 lbs when full

Filling the bottles - this was Knob Creek Single Barrel

Full bottles that had been corked but not yet labeled or waxed shut

Old school distilling process

Some of the brands/selections made by the Jim Beam Company

American Stillhouse (their visitors center) and a statue of Col James Beam

The friend I met for dinner (John)

Starting Point: Louisville, KY --> Clermont, KY
Ending Point: Cincinnati, OH
Miles Traveled: 181.4

Total Miles Traveled Thus Far: 3092 via car, ~133 via boat, 0.62 via aerial tram

~Elizabeth/Lizzi/ET/Country


**I've been using Airbnb some during this trip to find places to stay along the way. If you haven't tried it, check it out for your next trip (even internationally). Usually cheaper than a hotel...(https://www.airbnb.com/)**


all photos Copyright 2015 Elizabeth M. Turner