Location: General Butler State Park, Kentucky
Nothing like waking to blue skies to put a spring in your step...that and knowing we had a date with Four Roses to pick up a newly emptied barrel of bourbon!
Here's our barrel, that just a few hours earlier held finely aged bourbon, being rolled out to Winnie.
Ned's already got a plan for when we get home. He wants to put the barrel sideways, resting on rollers and turned slowly by a motor. He's hoping this will transfer the bourbon flavor to the nibs. We'll make several batches of dark chocolate, with different aging times to try it out. Linda, Marisa, Faye, Dad, Vida...thanks for volunteering to be our tasters. I'm thinking we try this with some good bourbon too!
We thought we were being clever buying a 55 gallon bag to fit over the 53 gallon barrel. Mmm...not so much. It was kinda like getting a size small t-shirt over an extra large belly.
We moved around 3 duffel bags, 2 pillows, 4 towels and 2 backpacks...voila! The barrel fits perfectly in the back of Winnie.
Mission accomplished...now on to more bourbon tasting! (It's noon somewhere right?)
Down the road is the Jim Beam Distillery. Gorgeous grounds and ready for another plant tour.
Ned checking the different grains to make the mash. (Bourbon has to be at least 51% corn to be called bourbon).
At this stage it's just moonshine. Aging it in the oak barrel that has been charred is what gives it the caramel color. It's also what gives it that oaky bourbon flavor. (Fingers crossed it transfers to cocoa nibs too).
We tasted some of this...pure alcohol. A little too potent for my taste!
Seeing "the still" in action.
The best part of the tour...tasting the different types of Jim Beam bourbon.
They use these fancy self-serve machines.
Ned enjoying Booker Bourbon (too strong for my taste) and another one that was 121 proof.
I went for the Small Batch and the Knob Creek. Pretty good...still enjoyed the Four Roses more.
We were going to visit Bulleit Distillery next, but actually we were kinda "bourboned" out. We decided to just head for General Butler State Park and get settled in for a long Memorial Weekend.
The campground is sold out, and the kids, bikes, bbq's, dogs and chaos is pretty much what we expected on Memorial Weekend.
We have a campsite at the end of a loop next to a very green lake. This campground is situated between the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers. Since the lake isn't swimable, we took a bike ride to the lodge. Up a really, really steep hill! Fortunately, they let the riff-raff campers use the swimming pool from 4 to 7 pm. We dove in and damn - felt like Lake Tahoe. Freezing cold!!! Kinda makes me miss the warm swimming pool in Death Valley. We hear there's going to be a hoe-down in the campsite next to ours tomorrow night. Should be interesting....
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