Shot of Trivia

Bourbon Festival: From small dinner to big deal

The Kentucky Bourbon Festival, which runs today through Sunday in Bardstown, began in 1992 as a small bourbon tasting and dinner. Last year, approximately 52,000 people from 46 states and 15 countries gathered in “the Bourbon Capital of the World”…

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History of the cocktail shaker

The three-part metal cocktail shaker with a built-in strainer and cap that we use today was patented in 1884 by one Edward Hauck of Brooklyn. It came to be known as “the cobbler shaker” after the sherry cobbler, a popular…

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Old Jake Beam

Jim Beam traces its history to Jacob Beam, who sold his first barrels of corn whiskey around 1795. The whiskey was first called Old Jake Beam, and the distillery was known as Old Tub. Eventually the whiskey also took the…

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Tuesday’s Shot of Bourbon Trivia

While bourbon barrels are made of white oak, the bung, or stopper, is typically made of poplar. That’s because poplar is a soft wood that swells when it gets wet, which makes for a nice tight seal.  

Tuesday’s Shot of Bourbon Trivia

Atherton High School in Louisville is the only high school in Kentucky to be named for a distiller: John McDougal Atherton (1841-1932), whose distillery in his native LaRue County led to the creation of Athertonville, Ky. In Louisville, where he…

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