The Home of Bourbonism

Our second trip to Louisville… the home

of bourbonism.  To Benita, my hairdresser, I swear my hair looked awesome before walking downtown and being wind blown!  I bet she cringes seeing our selfies!  

The downtown district is really beautiful and the city has done a wonderful job maintaining the historic buildings most built in the late 1800’s. 

We visited two distilleries today. First was Old Foresters. This is our third trip to visit Kentucky distilleries and we put this one at the bottom of our list and I have no idea why!  The best bourbon tour we have ever taken and really good bourbon! 

They have a cooperage on site and make and char the barrels for all their product lines. 

The founder, George Garvin Brown, was born September 2, 1846 in Munfordville, KY. In 1863 he moved to Louisville to attend high school, and eventually became a pharmaceutical salesman. It was that particular line of work that led him to create the First Bottled Bourbon™, Old Forester, used for medicinal purposes in 1870.  He wanted purchasers to see the color and clarity of his bourbon because people often bought a barrel of clear alcohol and colored it with everything from rusty nails to red clay dirt. Old Forester was named after a doctor that was a neighbor. 

The smell of the fermentation process is luscious…

The Brown Family still owns and operates Old Forester, along with Woodford Reserve and several other brands. It remains the only bourbon continually sold by the same company before, during and after prohibition. 

Our second stop was Kentucky Peerless. Originally operating as Worsham Distilling Company, Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company began in Henderson, Kentucky in the early 1880s. In 1889, Peerless Whiskey production began to flourish under the leadership of Henry Kraver. 

Through the early 1920s, the Peerless federally-bonded warehouses were used for whiskey storage under the armed protection of the U.S. Government. During Prohibition, Peerless product was one of the few available by prescription for medicinal use. The original Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. was Distilled Spirits Plant number 50. 

Pricey bourbon and for me it was ok, but their rye was very nice. 

We are staying at a very nice campground just over the Kentucky border in Indiana called Charlestown State Park. It is about 25 minutes from downtown Louisville.