Disclosure: Maker's Mark paid for our travel and expenses to visit the distillery outside of Louisville, Ky.
The Kentucky Derby is right around the corner, and people everywhere will be celebrating Derby Day with a glass of bourbon or a bourbon-based cocktail.
Last year, we visited the Maker's Mark distillery outside Louisville, Ky., to find out how bourbon is made.
The distillery uses a lot of the same machinery from when it sold its first bottle back in 1956. The recipe is also the same — customers revolted when the company said it would lower the amount of alcohol in its liquor earlier this year, and it reversed course.
Greg Davis, the master distiller who oversees everything related to the production of whisky, gave us the complete rundown on how Maker's Mark is produced, from the locally sourced corn and soft red winter wheat to the charring of the white oak barrels where the whisky ages.
Welcome to Maker's Mark. The distillery is in Loretto, Kentucky, about an hour and a half from Louisville and the same distance from Lexington.
The property was once the site of Burks' Distillery, which Bill Samuels Sr. bought in 1954. The business soon became a family affair, with Samuels' wife Marge baking breads to test various grain combinations used in whisky and developing the signature packaging.
Bill Jr., an engineer, eventually joined the family business after working as a rocket scientist. An engineer with a sense of humor, he designed this covered footbridge without a single right angle, according to Master Distiller Greg Davis.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider