Home : Book details : Book description

Description of  Bourbon's Backroads : A Journey through Kentucky's Distilling Landscape

This history of bourbon explores how the shift from home distillers to commercial producers changed the culture and landscape of nineteenth-century Kentucky. As one of the commonwealth's signature industries, bourbon distilling has influenced the landscape and heritage of the region for more than two centuries. Blending several topicstax revenue, railroads, the mechanics of brewing, geography, landscapes, and architecturethis primer and geographical guide presents a detailed history of Kentucky's distilling industry. Nineteenth-century distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry that practiced increasingly refined production techniques. Distillers often operated at comparatively remote sites - the "backroads" - to take advantage of water sources or transport access. Some distillers adopted mechanization and the steam engine, forgoing water power - a change that permitted geographical relocation of distilleries away from traditional sites along creeks or at large springs to urban or rural rail-side sites. Based on extensive archival research that includes private paper collections, newspapers, and period documents, this work places the distilling process in its environmental, geographical, and historical context. Bourbon's Backroads reveals the places where bourbon's heritage was madefrom old and new distilleries, storage warehouses, railroad yards, and factories where copper fermenting vessels are madeand why the industry continues to thrive. If you want to support my blog, then you can buy a premium account through any of my files (i.e. on the download page of my book). In this case, I get a percent of sale and can continue to delight you with new books!