The Bourbon Trail - Jim Beam

The next stop on our bourbon trail is Jim Beam! The American Stillhouse Distillery is in Clermont, Ky, which isn't very far from Louisville.  We all decided to go one Sunday afternoon, when we needed something fun to do outside. It was one of those picturesque Kentucky days: the warm breeze blew the long bluegrass in the fields, the horses would slowly watch you as you drove past, the sky was bluer than seemed physically possible and the temperature was absolutely perfect for a windows-down cruise in the countryside.

We made it to the distillery with just enough time to tour before their close. We seemed to be among a few small groups of other people who had the wonderful idea to taste some bourbon on the beautiful day. We pulled up and made our way to a woman, sitting beneath a large umbrella. She asked if we were all 21 and gave us each a sticker. We were to guide ourselves through the several buildings set along a path. We would work our way around to the guest house for our tasting, right before we left.

So we started walking. We followed the paved path along to a small barn with opened sides. We peered inside and read the different posts about bourbon making specifics. By now we were all pretty much experts on bourbon, but we read along anyways. We peered inside the charred barrels, and looked at all of the different distillery tools from the past.

We continued on, outside, to a few more of these little barns, with displays set up.  After these, we curved around and let ourselves in to the rackhouse, where they keep the barrels to breathe and age. We looked up, and found hundreds of barrels stacked over our heads. The warm weather and breeze pushed the air around the barrels and into our noses, giving us the anticipation of the tasting room to follow. We made our way through the barrels, inspecting the curvature of their girth and smelling the little wisps of escaped bourbon. Light seeped in through the small cracks throughout the house and shone through, onto the barrels in little streams. It was glorious.

When we left the rackhouse we stepped out onto the porch behind it, we were able to peer down over the fields, seeing other rackhouses and a small church. The grass reflected the sunlight and seemed to glow bright green against the background of the calm blue skies which made the bright red Jim Beam stillhouse stand out even more.

When we were finished taking in the view we walked around to the new tasting room, unfortunately, it was still in the process of renovations so we were ushered along to the T. Jeremiah Beam home for a taste. We entered the old white house and walked among different photos and displays of bourbon's glory days in the past. We stepped up to a small bar and enjoyed a personal tasting.

Although it was one of the least comprehensive tastings we had experienced so far on our tour, it was the only one we were able to enjoy with just our own group. We tried the traditional Jim Beam and then tried a little of some of the newer innovations.

The warmth of the bourbon filled us up before we were sent along, back outside, for a visit to the gift shop. What I did enjoy about this tour was that everything was open to the outdoors. I imagine attending the tour on a less-amazing day would not have been ideal, but on these perfect Kentucky days it worked out nicely. It was exactly what we were looking for on that particular day.

Now, you are all caught up on our bourbon touring up to this point! We will have to gather up some friends and make a trip to another distillery in the next month or so. However... there are several wineries in the area... I can definitely fill you in on those, too. I'll consider it my personal duty to test and report back.