Sealed with Wax: all about Maker’s Mark distillery

Maker’s Mark Distillery, located in Loretto, KY was started by Bill Samuels, who is fourth generation in the distillery business. In 1940s he became a banker, but soon returned to continue the family business.

In 1953, Samuels purchased land close to his hometown of Bardstown. He purchased 187 acres for 35,000 dollars. 11 miles over is a limestone lake, the very lake water that is used in Maker’s Mark bourbon. Making Maker’s Mark the only distillery with it’s own water source and water shed.

Truck loads of grain everyday to create their mash bill of 70 corn 16 wheat 14 barley. Maker’s Mark only accepts 12 percent moisture or less. Anything more is not accepted.

First, the grains are added with lake water to create a hot cereal consistency exposes the starch in the grain. It takes three hours to cook.

Here you can see the difference between day 1 vs day 3

These yeast fermentation tanks, made of cypress, date back to 1800. Maker’s Mark mostly uses steel now due to being able to clean. It does not affect the taste.

Bill’s wife Margie was a huge part of Maker’s Mark’s success. She designed the campus. On the window panes, you can see the representation of the bottle. Brown is the Bourbon, red is the wax. Bottle cut out.

S IV represents: Samuels 4th generation. The Samuels family is from Scotland. They spell whiskey without an e and brought that along with them. Samuels family still oversees operation, but they are owned by Beam

Each warehouse holds 50,000 barrels. Barrrels are pre-aged outdoors for 9 months to gets rid of the tannins in the wood. Maker’s Mark uses a White American oak, level 3 char. Maker’s Mark still practices in hand rotating their barrels, in fact, they even have competitions among employees. Barrels spend a minimum of 3 summers on the top shelves of the warehouse, enough time for the wood expand in the summer and contract in the winter for the whisky to gain in color and flavor.

Maker’s Mark endeavors to age for taste, not time. They quality taste the liquid in the barrels a min of 6 times. Barrels finish 110-114 proof. 5 1/2 years for a barrels to mature. An average of 80,000 bottles are filled a day for 5 days a week. Bottling 23-28 bottles a minute. Their signature wax cap is still done by hand today. If you purchase a bottle is their gift shop, you can dip your own bottle in wax.

Until 2010, they only made their classic makers mark. Then, came Oaks recipe 46. Oaks 46 was previously only able to make 46 during the winter, the summer heat released too many tannins and made the Bourbon bitter. Currently Oaks 46 is aged in a temperature controlled cellar at 50 degrees.

Maker’s Mark uses stave enhances flavor in their Bourbon, including their private selections. We were able to purchase their red velvet and green apple private selection bourbons.

They incorporate 5 flavor camps.