FROM MY PERSONAL JOURNAL

Explanation of the Journal

When I was young, my family was fortunate to have my grandfather Spady live with us for a few years. After his death I became aware, from an aunt, of some of his history, which was most fascinating. I’ve always longed to know more about his early life.

In order that my progeny should not be saying the same thing about me someday, I started keeping a journal. By this time I was in my early fifties. This journal details what I was doing with my life and remembrances of my childhood. Also worked into these pages are my observations about what is going on in the world and my reactions.

The childhood remembrances will be part of an upcoming book that should be available this Fall.

So some of what I’ve done and am doing, and my observations and reactions to what has been, and is currently going on around me, will be inserted into this blog from time to time.

KENTUCKY BOURBON

November, 2004

     In the State of Kentucky the distilling of whiskey is a big deal. It seems that some time in the dim past some guy in Kentucky was distilling whiskey, putting it in barrels and shipping it down the waterways to New Orleans and beyond. Because of the time involved in shipping, the whiskey had a chance to age more than some others and so it’s reputation grew. Because this particular distiller was in Bourbon County in Kentucky, the stuff became known as Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey, or just plain Bourbon.

So one weekend, Lorraine and I went out to a local distillery. (We had a choice of several within an hour or so of Lexington.) It’s a very nice facility that has been there for over one hundred and fifty years. They have a very well done and informative visitor center. We took a tour where the guide explained each step of the process. How they add some rye grain to make the bourbon sweet. How they only do about 100 barrels per week compared to Jack Daniels, which does about 1,800 barrels per day. How they cook the three grains with the limestone-filtered water and then run it through three distilling processes in huge solid copper pots. How they toast the inside of the barrel to caramelize something in the wood and then how they char the inside of the barrel so that the whiskey can travel into the wood and back out again depending on the temperature and the expansion factor of the whiskey. How they age it for from six to ten years. How considerate they are to filter out the charcoal before bottling the stuff. Then we went back to the visitor center where they made available to each of us a ½-once sample. These sample glasses were small and had the name of the distillery engraved on the side. Lorraine wanted a set of these glasses. After all the talk about how delicious this stuff was and how it was the best in the world, we thought we should try it. With each small glass, they gave out a “Tasting Notes” card to help us appreciate what we were about to receive. The card touched on three different areas:

 

LOOK

Medium amber with a tawny copper hue

NOSE

Vanilla, caramel and toffee with a hint of citrus

TASTE

Toffee, roasted nuts, delicate butterscotch, vanilla, peach and aromatic spices

FINISH

Long, sweet, and dry 

After reading this we thought it just might taste okay. After the first sip we couldn’t believe our senses. After the second sip we came up with our own twist on the Tasting Notes. The LOOK was right on. The NOSE was more like kerosene with a hint of chicken manure. The TASTE was more like jalapeno gasoline with more than a hint of dead donkey. We were amazed at just how vile this stuff tasted. Maybe the taste gets better after the first pint or so.

There are only five things in this whiskey: three grains, water, and yeast. They throw in some sour mash, which is leftover fermented grain from a previous batch, that is used to kick-start the new batch. They take fermented grain (spelled rotten), distill out the alcohol, put it into a partially burnt barrel, ignore it for 10 years, take it out and bottle it, and then they have the b______s to tell us that it tastes like toffee, roasted nuts, delicate butterscotch, vanilla, and peaches. Now where in the world is this stuff going to pick up those flavors? They have a product that the master distiller can’t swallow without its inhibiting his ability to know what he’s doing.

They pay federal taxes (by now it’s probably more) of $13.40 per gallon, so it’s no wonder there is very little government interest in seeing the consumption of alcohol decline.

As you can probably tell, we are not whiskey drinkers.