Alex the Photo Blog

As expected, I didn’t live blog well enough in KY.  I tried, but just didn’t get enough sleep to warrant staying up even later to write.  We did have a really amazing time and it opened my eyes to the experience of RVing.  I always thought it would be fun, but never occurred to me that having a house on wheels means you’re always at home… even when the A/C goes out at 4am.

First on the schedule Saturday was burger king… please note that not only do they NOT serve breakfast after 10:30, they also do NOT serve breakfast at 10:29 apparently.  Who eats lunch at 10:29!!!  Idiots and Burger King employees- that’s who (really, all major fast food chains too).  After breakfast (Whopper JR and fries), we headed out to Woodford Reserve which turned out to be one of the favorites on the trip.  Good tour, good bourbon.  Here is the cooker that mixes and cooks the first step to make the “distiller’s beer.”

And here’s a fermenter where it gets pumped into, followed by a photo of the guys smelling it.  Smelled more like beer than anything else.

One of the big differences between Bourbon and other types of whiskey is that they are distilled twice in copper stills before aging (3 times at Woodford Reserve as shown here).

All Kentucky bourbon must be aged in new (not used) american oak barrels.  They are also required by law that the ingredients must have at least 51% corn.  They are all charred on the inside to help mellow the flavor.   When they are aged, they are placed in “rick houses” that are always open to the elements.  In the summer, the bourbon expands while the oak pores open up.  The bourbon soaks into the wood extracting flavors.  In the winter, the pores close and squeeze the bourbon back out.  This process goes on until the distillers decide when to bottle.  Once in bottles, the bourbon doesn’t age any further- so if today you you sip on a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2000 versus a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2010, the two will have very minor flavor differences.  All bourbons are whiskey, but not all whiskeys are bourbon.

One of the other interesting items found on all of these tours is something called Torula.  It is a creeping fungus commonly found at whiskey distilleries and it eventually coats all of the trees and rick houses.

To be honest, I’m not used to all these “words” on my blog, so I’m just gonna finish up with some pix for the rest of the post- these two of “whiskey creek” at Maker’s Mark.

Though this blog is mostly about my photographic endeavors, I like throwing in a little color from my life.  Really, it’s moreso that since I have few organic blog readers, I like to update my friends and family on what I’m doing (other than facebook).

My good friend Curt put together a “Mancation” with some friends through the great states of Tennessee and Kentucky touring as many distilleries as we can in 3 days.  Though whiskey and bourbon are not my drink of choice I figure that, similar to a trip to Napa Valley, it would bring to light a better appreciation of the art that lay behind the drink.   Plus, I’ve never travelled anywhere in an RV and I was really excited about a road trip not trapped in the back seat of a car.  So far, so good.

The epic began at Curt’s place in Marietta (yes we hung out in the RV in the driveway for a good bit of time before we actually left in the morning).  Trevor cooked up his family chili recipie the night before so we’d have a hearty meal when we arrived at our campground in KY the next day.

In the morning, we woke up late (we had a little tasting session of our own the night before) and hit the road around 10.  We made it to Lynchburg, TN around lunch time and signed up for the tour.

We learned about the mashing process and how the first few stages of making whiskey are very similar it is to beer brewing (a hobby of mine).  From there comes the distilling, and then- to make Tennessee Whiskey specifically- it goes through the “mellowing” process.  This is the distinguishing factor between TN Whiskey and all other types. Mellowing, as Jack Daniels calls it, is charcoal filtering.  JD has a specific method in which they take Sugar Maple…

And burn it to make charcoal for the filtering:

From there, it is aged in oak barrels for years – they didn’t say how long, but according to the George Dickel distillery folks, it’s four years…. and that’s where most of my pictures of the production sadly end.  Photos weren’t allowed inside anywhere, but I did grab this one *illegal* shot of the barrels (from the hip, while walking next to the tour guide)

Other than that, we learned how Jack Daniels died.  Apparently he had a bit of a temper, and one day he couldn’t get his safe open, so he got ticked and kicked it…. breaking a toe.  The toe became infected and turned to gangrene which eventually killed him over the course of a few years.  Here is the fabled safe:

After JD, we attempted to make a tour at the George Dickel distillery 20 minutes away, but missed the last tour by 45 minutes.  However, we did get some really awesome commentary on the distillery by a seasoned veteran at the company.  The man spoke with so much depth and heart that it reminded me a lot of this scene from Wayne’s World.   To me, it made missing the tour worth it.

Since we have 4 distilleries on the docket tomorrow, don’t expect a live update…. but I’ll post more pics at some point.

A couple of weeks ago, Keri and I enjoyed a nice vacation at the lake with my parents.   These were really the only pictures I took, but I think the two came out okay.  One exposure was 20 seconds, the other 20 minutes…  I’m sure you can guess which is which.  Maybe one night I’ll have the patience to do a few hours. 

Now that I’ve gone through the music, I figured I’d share the people, food, and city.   Though the next couple of pictures are really from a music group, I included them in “people” because they are a people.  Last year I saw the Mardis Gras Indians perform and really just thought they were a fun family band.  However, I was missing a lot of the story.  Apparently the Mardis Gras Indians are real tribes of African Americans spread throughout New Orleans.  They originiated in the mid 19th century circumventing some of the worst racial segregation laws by representing themselves as Indians.  It’s really interesting and you can read more here.

Click the link below for more photos! 

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Alright, I usually try not to use too many exclamation marks unless I’m really excited (or emailing a potential bridezilla).  However, I really do love Jazzfest in New Orleans.   It’s the perfect mix of my favorite things in life- music, food, friends, and late nights of fun in the Big Easy.   In fact, they say that the best thing about Jazzfest is that when you leave Jazzfest, you’re still in New Orleans.  Keri and I went last year and had an amazing time.  This time more of our friends were able to make it and all fit into a 2 bedroom shotgun house Uptown on Magazine street hosted by an amazing newly engaged couple (soon to be the Stedmans). 

Click the link below for more!

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Yes, sadly it says “2009″ above.  I made the dumb mistake of passing up 2010 Masters practice round tickets because I couldn’t find anyone to drive out there with.  In retrospect, I should have made the drive by myself and met up with my parents who were livin’ it up in the IBM cottage with free food and drinks…  I know.  Dumb.

However, I do have some photos to show you.  Because I didn’t have the blog up and running this time last year, I figure I can share some of the photos I took from the 2009 Masters’ practice round.  As you may know, the practice rounds are the only days where they let anyone in with a camera (but still no cell phones).  There’s no real competition that happens other than a few side bets I’m sure, but all the players have a good time hanging out with each other and generally interact more with the crowd.

I guess the Masters crew is also a little more relaxed during the practice rounds as well… and as always- click on the pictures to expand them.

As part of the “crowd interaction” players often attempy to skip the ball across the water on #16.

“Do we really need to keep score during practice rounds?” 

I couldn’t tell if the make on this lawnmower said Gillette or Norelco:

Last weekend my friend Trevor and I headed down south to Savannah to visit David.  After a Friday night out until 5:30am (including late night sushi at 4am), we decided to spend all day Saturday hanging out at his house cooking, eating, and drinking.  I originally brought my camera for historic downtown Savannah shots, but it was much easier to just be lazy and take pictures around his place instead.  I intentionally brought only my 50mm f/1.4 and left my 15mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200 at home.  I figured it would force me to use my new fixed 50mm lens.  Photographers (myself included) get caught in the lazy trap of only shooting with zooms because they’re so convenient, even when prime lenses can capture some great shots (especially in low light).