Bourbon and Brews

We enjoyed a private tasting at Lexington Brewing and Distillery

Yes, we are tasting a lot of bourbon, but no, you don’t have to worry about us because the tastings are so tiny and very controlled.  We have been to a couple more distilleries and eaten at a couple more places that serve up some good brews.  People in Lexington are very serious about their beverages and we certainly are enjoying it here.   Now I think we need to find a place to walk and hike after all the brews!

Ah, the door to the tasting room.

This room smelled so good!

Kirby really does love hops!

We visited Lexington Brewing and Distillery right in Lexington.  We opted out on the tour and were given a private tasting in their beautiful tasting room.  They don’t do tastes of their brews there so we went to Shenanigan’s, a liquor store nearby that sells beer flights and sampled some of their brew there.  After that we just walked across the street to Jefferson Davis Inn (JDI) and had a great lunch.  We couldn’t even finish our beers we were so full!  But the restaurant is cute, cute and has the feel that it has been there forever when it hasn’t.

Yesterday we drove all over the place and seemed to miss our mark most of the time.  The countryside here is so, so overwhelmingly beautiful that riding around is a trip full of ooo’s and ahhhh’s.  Long running fences painted black and lush green rolling hills dotted with elegant horses are everywhere.  So, wrong turns and changed plans aren’t all bad.

First we headed out to a campground we wanted to check out and when the GPS indicated we still had another six miles of narrow curvy road to go, we decided to turn around and forget about it.  Then we missed Wild Turkey Distillery because it didn’t look like it did three years ago.  We turned around again.  When we arrived we found that we were just in time for the tour so we decided to jump on the bus and go with them.

The bourbon warehouses are incredible!

Everything about the Bourbon Trail seems to have changed.  Woodford Distillery had totally remodeled the visitor center and we could barely recognize it.  Wild Turkey Distillery had built a whole new distillery and a new visitor center.  I really did like the old one as it was more intimate and friendly but the new one has a beautiful view of the Kentucky River and the long “S” bridge that leads to Wild Turkey.  The Bourbon Trail is a huge tourist destination now and the visitor centers are very busy.  They bring big busloads of visitors in on weekends who pay for tours so it is becoming quite a moneymaker.  We have a couple more to visit yet but it won’t be on the weekend!

This is where the bourbon begins its life.  Huge vats of it!

The master distillers come into this room each hour to sample and taste the barrels.  By law they have to spit it out.  But they are the judges who determine the taste of the bourbons.

Looking up inside the warehouse.

The view from the visitor center at Wild Turkey

Our tour guide at Wild Turkey told us to drive on in to Lawerenceburg and we could have lunch there.  We drove all over in the place and only found fast food so headed back to Lexington and an Irish Pub that Kirby had found online.  It was GONE.  Well, the building wasn’t gone – it was now Indian food.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Indian food but it is not the same as an Irish Pub!  So, foiled again.  It was pushing two pm and we were really good and hungry.  We plugged another one into the GPS and headed downtown.  Guess what?  They were closed.  Fortunately for us, Cheapside, just across the street was open.  Walking into Cheapside was almost like stepping back in time.  I loved it!  The friendly staff told us that the kitchen would close in ten minutes so we needed to order soon!  We did!  The food was fine and we each had a nice, frosty ale.  We are finding the people here in Kentucky to be so friendly and welcoming.  We might just stay a little longer than planned.

I took this out the window of the truck as we passed by.  Those are actually murals on the side of the overpass.  Incredible artist!

Everything here is either bourbon or horses!

Cheapside - our lunch spot.