Kentucky Craft Spirits Trail - Day 2

Since we went to sleep early on Wednesday night, we awoke early on Thursday morning.  It was especially early since we were in the Central Time Zone.  We watched the Weather Channel for a while then left the Bowling Green Microtel before 8 am.  We had breakfast at Subway since they have a buy one – get one free special this month.  Mary had a ham, egg and cheese breakfast sub and I had a bacon, egg and cheese sub.  We both had spinach and tomato on the sandwich.  With the special, we got both breakfasts and a cup of tea for $5 which we thought was a much better choice than the stale doughnuts at the motel.

We started driving to the MB Roland Distillery which was a little over an hour from Bowling Green located near Pembroke, Kentucky.  Along the way, we saw a structure near Fairview, Kentucky that resembled the Washington Monument.  Turns out that Confederate President, Jefferson Davis was born and raised here at Jefferson Davis State Park. There is a 381 foot obelisk here in honor of the Confederacy’s first and only President. We stopped at the museum and chatted with the guides there for a bit before continuing on toward Pembroke.

We arrived at MB Roland Distillery a little before 10 am and went in for a tasting of their products.  Most of what MB Roland makes is white spirits that are blended with fruit or botanical flavorings.  We both really enjoyed the blackberry and apple moonshine.  I liked the St. Elmo’s Fire, named for the nearby town of St. Elmo, Kentucky.  This is basically high proof moonshine generously flavored with cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  It was spicy!  They have a few aged spirits, but they specialize in the fruit flavors.  Mary purchased a bottle of blackberry moonshine, and I bought a bottle of regular moonshine corn whiskey.  Both are excellent.

From MB Roland, we drove west to the Land Between the Lakes area where we visited the Silver Trail Distillery near Hardin, Kentucky.  We first stopped at the Silver Trail Visitor Center along the highway that is currently under construction.  They have an old car on display that would be like one that would have been used to deliver moonshine a couple of generations ago.  There are also some old stills on display that were used in making illegal moonshine in the 1940s and 50s.  The owners are still painting and decorating the old bank that will be their visitor center, but it will be nice.  

The bank’s vault is being converted into a replica jail cell where one of the owner’s uncles was sent after being arrested for making moonshine.

We drove to the distillery where LBL Moonshine is made by Silver Trail which is adjacent to the owner, Spencer Ballentine’s home.  Spencer was very generous with his time, showing us the stills where he hand makes the LBL Moonshine using recipes handed down to him from generations of moonshiners in his family.  He has a modern still that is constructed using techniques from past generations of moonshiners.  

Spencer wants to take the best of old school recipes and modern tools and technology to make the best white whiskey available.  He takes a lot of pride in his techniques, tools and products.  He uses only non-GMO corn that comes from a farm in Kentucky along with the mineral rich water in the area.  Since Callaway County, Kentucky is dry, Spencer was unable to give us a sample taste or sell us a bottle of product.  However, he is proud that his LBL Moonshine and other products are becoming widely distributed and available in many states.

From Hardin, we started the long drive back toward Bardstown.  We had hoped to visit Willet Distillery on Thursday but it was after 4:30 by the time we got back to Bardstown.  We neglected to consider the one hour time difference between Hardin in Central Time and Bardstown back in the Eastern Time Zone.  We knew that the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center was open until 5:30, so we decided to hold Barton and Willet Distilleries until Friday and go to Heaven Hill this evening.  Without a doubt, this is the best visitor center of any distillery.  There are many interpretative displays describing the history of bourbon as well as of the Heaven Hill brands like Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, Old Fitzgerald and others.  The tasting room in the center of the visitor area is also excellent, resembling the inside of a bourbon barrel.  The staff do an excellent job of explaining differences and similarities in bourbons as well as how bourbon can be tasted.  I have modeled our family bourbon tasting party on the tasting room at Heaven Hill.  We picked up a pretty mug with a photo of the old Heaven Hill Distillery on it for our friend, Rex, then made our way to the Bardstown Hampton Inn.

We really enjoy visiting Bardstown since it is such a beautiful and historic town.  When we were here last we ate at the Talbott Tavern that has been in business as an inn and tavern since 1779.  This evening, we ate at Kreso’s Restaurant, which is operated by a Bosnian restaurateur.  We both had the jaeger schnitzel which is an unbreaded pork cutlet covered in melted cheese and mushrooms.  Mary had potatoes, and I had steamed broccoli on the side.  We both enjoyed the meal very much.  The restaurant is in an old theater and is decorated with photos of stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age. 

We came back to the Bardstown Hampton Inn to crash and prepare for a busy day of distillery visits on Friday.

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Kentucky Craft Spirits Trail - Day 1

Although we had visited each of the distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail a couple of years ago, we had not been to any of the stops on the new Craft Spirits Trail so we decided that this was the week.

Leaving home a little after 6 am, we wanted to get an early start for get to some of the places in Western Kentucky that we planned to visit.  The temperatures were in the upper 20s when we left Milton, WV, which was a shock to us after the upper 80s on Sunday.  We had no trouble making our way through Lexington to Louisville, arriving a little after 9 am.  We were able to find street parking at a meter that was less than a block from our first destination.

The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience has only been open five months, so this was our first visit here to the refurbished building on Louisville’s historic “Whiskey Row” where a great deal of bourbon and other whiskey was made and sold in pre-prohibition Louisville.  We were pleased that Sarah could get away to join us for the tour.  She was able to get a couple of vacation days and to do the tour with us.  Two fellows, presumably a father and son, were also there from Annapolis, Maryland.  Our guide, Pat, was well informed about the history of whiskey making in the area, as well as Evan Williams, who started distilling in Louisville in 1773.  He was instrumental not only in pioneering bourbon making techniques but in settling the frontier town of Louisville.  We learned that Heaven Hill is the world’s second largest bourbon distiller with only Jim Beam being larger.  

At the end of the tour we did a tasting of Evan Williams Single Barrel and Larceny bourbons with Pat.  She gave us a chance to have the two bourbons “neat” or “straight up” as well as the “bourbon & branch” that has a few drops of spring water added to open up the complex flavors of the bourbon.  After the tasting, we walked through the gift shop were several Heaven Hill products are sold.  Heaven Hill is the parent company of Evan Williams and Larceny.  The lady working the gift shop gave us a sample taste of Henry McKenna Single Barrel, aged 10 years which was also very drinkable but not suited to my taste as much as Larceny.  We saw some nice small water pitchers that will be perfect for adding a few drops of water to bourbon glasses for our bourbon tastings.

We left the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience around 11:30 and had a little trouble getting out of Louisville with all of the construction downtown.  We drove the short distance to Clermont where we visited the Jim Beam Distillery.  We had been on their tour before but hadn’t been to their new visitor center, which is very nice.  We walked up to the barbecue place beside the visitor center for lunch.  Mary and I had a brisket sandwich, and Sarah had pulled pork.  We all enjoyed our lunch.

Sarah left for Cincinnati but may rejoin us on Thursday in Bardstown.  As we drove down I-65 toward Bowling Green, KY, we noticed a number of dead coyotes on the highway.  Near the town of Munfordville, Kentucky, a huge coyote ran right in front of us.  We nearly hit it.  The size of the coyote supports a theory that we have been hearing about, eastern coyotes interbreeding with northeastern wolves.  In the American Southwest, coyotes are small scraggly canines that always look mangy and malnourished.  In the Southwest, coyotes are often attacked by the grey wolves in the area.  However, when coyotes migrated back to the Northeast, they encountered wolves of Eastern Canada that do not prey on the coyotes and are reputed to interbreed with them.  The premise of the coywolf theory is that most eastern coyotes are actually hybrids of coyotes and wolves that are genetically larger and benefit from the more abundant food supplies of the Eastern US.  The coyote we saw today certain didn’t appear to have missed any meals.  Had we been a little slower on the brakes, however, he could have had his last meal.

We drove the 90 minutes on I-65 to Bowling Green to Corsair Artisan Distillery near the Fountain Square at the town’s center.  Unlike some of the other distillers, Corsair produces only a few gallons a day.  However, being a small operation, they are able to make a variety of spirits, some of which have infusions from botanicals and spices.  Corsair stores their barreled spirits in barrels that are 3, 5 or 15 gallons, which speeds the aging process faster than in the traditional 53 gallon casks.  We were interested in the way that Corsair infuses flavors into the spirits as they are distilled.  Following our tour we did a tasting of Corsair’s gin, rum, quinoa whiskey, rye whiskey, triple smoked whiskey and absinthe.  

We enjoyed the tasting and enjoyed the varieties of spirits they have to offer.  I didn’t expect to like some of the infused flavors but was surprised that they were very good.  We both liked the triple smoked whiskey made with malted barley that has been smoked by peat and multiple wood fires.

We spent a few minutes walking around the historic areas of Bowling Green and liked the nice small town feel of the beautiful area.  There was a restored old filling station from the 1920s that included some restored gas pumps and air supply.

From there we drove over to the National Corvette Museum nearby hoping to see the giant sinkhole that swallowed several vintage Corvettes a few months back.  Unfortunately, visitors were unable to see the sinkhole, but some of the cars damaged by the floor collapse were on display. 

We drove over to our lodging at the Microtel where we will spend the night before driving west to visit a few other artisan distilleries on Thursday.  We ran out for dinner to Garcia’s Grill which was well rated on Trip Advisor.  We both enjoyed our meals.  Mary had roasted pork with mole sauce and I had pork enchiladas with a creamy verde sauce. 

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