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Anthony Caporale: Welcome to Art Of The Drink video podcast, my name is Anthony Caporale. This week I want to take you on behind the scenes tour of the Maker's Mark Bourbon Distillery, in the second of a special three part AOTD on the road series from our visit to Loretto, Kentucky. We are going to take you through the Bourbon making process from start to finish and even jump on the bottling line, so I can try my hand at the signature Maker's Mark wax dip seal. Let's start with a quick definition of Americas national spirit Bourbon. At its core, Bourbon is simply wood-aged corn liquor. By law it must be made by at least 51% corn and aged for at least two years in new charred oak barrels.
In traditional Bourbon recipes, corn was combined with malted barley and rye then milled cooked and fermented. After much experimentation Maker's Mark found a Bill Samuel (senior) decided to replace the rye with locally grown red winter wheat to cut down on bitterness. Maker's uses 70% corn and the remaining 30% of the mash Bill is about half malted barley and half wheat. Milling cracks the grain's hard outer layer or bran so the sugars inside can get out more easily during cooking. The milled grains are combined with pure iron free limestone spring water and cooked in mash tubs to extract the sugars for fermentation.
Now it's time to make some alcohol. The mash is cooled and transferred to the fermenting vessels. In this case, rare cypress tanks with some planks over 100 years old, then yeast is added or pitched to begin fermentation and make what is called distillers bear. Maker's Mark propagates its own yeast from cultures that can be traced back to before prohibition. They also use the traditional sour mash method. In which some culture is always kept and use to start the next batch. This mentions consistency from batch to batch. Currently, Maker's Mark is the only Bourbon distillery to make batches of less than 19 barrels which is the traditional small batch standard.
So what exactly is fermentation? Simply put, it's the process of making alcohol by using yeast to convert sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide So by tasting for sweetness, you can tell how fermentation is coming along. Here Dave is showing us how to feel for the cap of CO2 that forms over the open fermenters. After fermentation is complete, it's off to the stills to harvest the alcohol from the beer and make some White Dog.
Distillation is the ages old process of separating liquids based on differences in boiling points. In this case, we are separating alcohol which boils at about a 173 degrees Fahrenheit from water which boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit by heating the beer to about 175 degrees, this causes the alcohol to evaporate or the water remains liquid. Distill then catches the alcohol vapors and cools it back down to below a 173 degrees which turns it into a liquid again. Maker's Mark double distils it Bourbon to reduce the alcohol by. They use in all copper column still for the first distillation called the low wine at a 120 proof. For the second distillation they use copper pod still to make high wine at a 130 proof. Dave Pickerell let me taste both the low and high wine directly from the still.
I expected it to taste like moonshine, so I was a little apprehensive but I found it was surprisingly smooth and quite drinkable even at this stage. There was also a noticeable reduction in bite from the low wine to the high wine. From the still house I made my way over to the barrel warehouse to check out the aging process that differentiate white liquors vodka from dark liquors like Bourbon. It's this barrel aging that gives Bourbon its color and much of its flavor. There is a common perception that the longer its age, the better the Bourbon. In reality though, it's possible to overage the Bourbon. And the real art is to determine the amount of aging needed for each batch to maintain consistency with previous batches.
Temperature changes during aging continually force the Bourbon into and out of the barrels charred layer adding flavor and mellowness to the spirit. Some of the liquid also evaporates through the wood and concentrates the Bourbon. This is known as the angel share. So time in the barrel will vary depending on the degree of temperature and humidity changes that occur during aging. Only master distiller David Pickerell knows when the Bourbon is ready for bottling. So let's go check out the fruit of all this labor on the bottling line.
This is the Maker's Mark team of dedicated wax dippers, they make it look easy but trust me it's not. I decided it was time to suite up in my safety gear and give it a shot. Alright, so this is what I am going for. Looks pretty fast. After a few quick lessons I was live on line. Apparently, you are not supposed to get so much on the glove. Whatever! They keep telling me the key was to twist it more. I thought I was twisting it more. Yeah, the glove I know. That was just weak. Alright, how's that for a twist? This is really hard.
Some things are just better left to the pros and Bourbon is definitely one of them. Just so you know that's what the bottling line looks like coming out at you full speed. That's how fast you are supposed to be dipping the bottles. Then it's off to packaging, the warehouse and last stop your bar. Well, I hope you learned something about Bourbon and if you are ever in Loretto, Kentucky be sure and stop by the Maker's Mark distillery and tell them Art Of The Drink sent you. Check out a new Art Of The Drink online forum, share recipes and meet other fans Art Of The Drink.
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