JIM BEAN AMERICAN STILLHOUSE

Since I have posted a few photos from Wild Turkey Distillery, it is only fair that I should also post photos taken at Jim Bean.  The street address for Jim Bean Visitor Center was 149 Happy Hallow Road in Clermont, KY.  I thought the name Happy Barrels would have been more fitting considering all the barrels in the warehouses.  As of February 2012, there were about 4.7 million barrels of bourbon aging in Kentucky warehouses.

 Here are a few things I learned from our visit to the Bourbon Country.  All bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.  Corn whiskey produced in Kentucky was called bourbon because of its origin from Bourbon County in central Kentucky.  By law, bourbon must be  produced in the United States (if it is not, it must be called whiskey, got it?); made of a grain mix at least 50 percent corn; distilled at less than 160 proof; free of additives except water to cut the proof; age in new, charred, white oak barrels; aged for a minimum of 2 years in order to be call "straight" bourbon.