BUFFALO TRACE DISTILLERY

In January 2008 a trip to Bourbon Country was taken to learn more about America's Native Spirit.

Buffalo Trace Distillery is located on the oldest continually operating distilling site in the United States. The distillery is located on the Kentucky River just a short distance from the State Capitol building in Frankfort, Kentucky. When almost every distillery in the United States had to close their doors because of prohibition, this distillery was one of only four in the United States to produce spirits for "medicinal" purposes. Currently, the site is home to one of the world's largest caches of ageing whiskey. For more information about the Buffalo Trace Distillery please watch their informative video. Click here to go to their webpage with the video.

Above: The Free House. Enlarge the picture to learn more about the history of this building.

Above: Located in the Free House, this collection of barrels shows how much bourbon is lost to the "angel's". The top left barrel shows the barrel topped off right after distillation. The top right barrel shows the loss after about 2 years! Even further in time are the bottom barrels. Generally speaking, aging a whiskey for more than 20 or 25 years will impart too much oak in the flavor - but by that time there is hardly any whiskey left in the barrel! 

Above: Fairbanks scale. Revenuers would weigh the barrel full then weigh the same barrel empty. The weight of the whiskey would determine the taxes to be paid.

Above: Bourbon must be made from at least 51% corn. Other ingredients include Rye, wheat and malted barley.

Above: Corn arriving at the distillery from Indiana.

Above: Piles of raw ingredients ready to be mashed.

Above: Mash Cooker.

Above: Mash fermenter filling up. 90,000+ gallons!

Above: A filled fermenter. The fermentation process naturally produces CO2 (Carbon Dioxide). Notice the vent above the mash

Above: A 60,000 gallon still used to distill the newly fermented mash. The process of distillation separates alcohol from non-alcohol by heating a low strength alcoholic beverage to at or above 176°F. Alcohol turns to gas at 176°F whereas water does not turn to gas until about 212°F. The exact boiling points of alcohol and water change when not at sea level.

Above: Filling stations for new oak barrels. These barrels came from Missouri.

Above Three Photos: After being filled with "White Dog", the barrels are taken to a warehouse to age. The four pictures above are all Warehouse C. This building holds about 24,000 barrels of ageing whiskey. (White Dog is pre-aged whiskey)  

Above Two Pictures: Plaque describing the significance of this building. Inside the Albert Blanton Bottling Hall is a locker where the various bottles are kept for display. At Buffalo Trace there are about 14 different whiskeys produced.

Should you have any questions please contact us by going to the Contact & Hours page.

This page was updated on February 15, 2008.