9 Fun Facts You’ll Learn on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail

Evan Williams

Although bourbon is supposed to get its brown color from the barrels it's aged in, unscrupulous distillers used to add things like chewing tobacco juice to give unaged liquor a more expensive look. Not surprisingly, people got sick from these bad batches, and the name "rotgut whiskey" was born. The government ended up stepping in to regulate the spirit a whole nine years before the Food and Drug Administration was created—so America had safe bourbon before we had safe food.

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Bulleit

Bourbon is one of the most regulated spirits in the world. In order to be categorized as such, the liquor must: be made in the U.S., aged in brand-new charred American white oak barrels, and have a mash bill of at least 51 percent corn. It does not, however, have to be made in Kentucky, although that is where over 90 percent of the world's bourbon is made. Which leads us to our next fun fact: A "Kentucky Hug," is a term for the feeling you get when you drink bourbon and get a warm sensation in your chest—just like a hug from a friend.

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Jim Beam

If you've had bourbon before, there's a good chance it was made at Jim Beam's distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. More than 50 percent of the state's bourbon is made by Jim Beam—it produces over 90 million bottles of the stuff every year. Just as impressive: After Prohibition ended, 70-year-old Jim Beam got his distillery up and running in just 120 days.

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Maker's Mark

The iconic red-wax sealed Maker's Mark bottle was designed by the distillery owner's wife, Margie Samuels. Samuels wanted something that would stand out in the liquor store and reassure drinkers that this bourbon was quality made. She also came up with the name, which comes from the "mark of the maker," a signature that indicates a product is handmade.

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Woodford Reserve

Although barrels must be brand-new in order to age bourbon, these vessels (with delicious bourbon soaked into the wood) often go on to have a very long life. Many used barrels are sent to Scotland or Ireland to age whisky and Scotch, while others are used to age everything from Tabasco sauce to Tequila.

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Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey relies on the same strain of live yeast for a consistent quality across its bourbons. So it makes sense that there's an emergency plan in case anything happens to its Kentucky distillery—the company has secret stashes of its proprietary yeast hidden all across the country.

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Four Roses

Four Roses is the only Kentucky distillery that uses single-story warehouses to store its bourbon while it ages. Other places keep them in buildings with multiple stories, which cause the barrels on higher floors to age differently than the ones on lower floors, due to temperature variations. The warehouses sprawl throughout Four Roses' beautiful grounds, which feature picturesque Spanish Mission-style architecture you won't find anywhere else in the state.

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Heaven Hill

In 1996, Heaven Hill suffered a catastrophic fire that even briefly set a two-mile section of the nearby creek on fire. Bourbon lovers, you might not want to read this next part—90,000 barrels of the liquor were lost. To this day, the cause of the fire is still unknown. Luckily, the distillery managed to survive thanks to help from other bourbon labels like Brown-Forman and Jim Beam, and is now thriving.

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Town Branch

During Prohibition, alcohol was legal if prescribed by a doctor for a wide variety of aliments (much like medical marijuana today). Patients could get a pint of bourbon every 10 days. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of very "sick" people in Kentucky during that time.

More from SmarterTravel:

• How to Do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
• 10 Small Towns with Fantastic Fall Color
• 7 Sensational Scenic Drives for autumn

Caroline Morse traveled to Kentucky courtesy of Kentucky Tourism. Follow her adventures (bourbon-fueled and otherwise) @TravelWithCaroline and on Twitter @CarolineMorse1.

(Photo: Scott Clark via flickr/CC Attribution)