In need of recommendations of bourbon distillery tours

I like 4 Roses.

May want to take a look at this, though I'm sure there are other smaller bourbon companies that make world class stuff (I'm just not educated enough to tell you which ones are worth visiting.)

LINK

We did Jim Beam, Makers and two others in the area. The chocolate pecan bourbon balls at Makers Mark we the best things I had that whole trip! The tour was good also.

We also went to Mamouth Cave on the way back.

That is a good resource. Buffalo Trace isn't on the official trail though, so you'll need to go direct to their site to book one of the tours. A lot of them were already booked when we went, but they were letting people hop on that didn't have reservations when we were there.

Also, don't plan on the Heaven Hill one near Bardstown. Complete waste of time. Unless they've changed to tour since we were there, we basically just were walked around a parking lot, then into a rickhouse.

If you end up in Bardstown area, the 1792 Distillery tour is pretty good. It's not on the official trail either, but is right in downtown Bardstown.

We didn't make it to the Four Roses bottling facility, just the distillery.

Is it reasonable to plan to do more than one in a day? I assume these tours end at some kind of bar?

For sure. We did 3 per day pretty easily. Could have easily done 4 had we not spent so much time at some of the gift shops.

They all end in tasting rooms. Each one does it a little differently, but you basically get about a 1/2 shot of 3-4 of their offerings. No bars there due to state laws. They can only serve the sample pours. Not really enough to get drunk on. We carried a cooler of beer in the back of the truck to drink between stops.

Each one has a gift shop you can buy bottles of their bourbon and all kinds of other swag. The Maker's Mark and Buffalo Trace shops were the best. Tip though, the bourbon is cheaper at the local Kroger's than at the distilleries.

I'm on a work trip, but when I get home this weekend I can pull my travel journal out on more specifics. Places we ate, bars we found, best tours, etc.

Louisville is actually probably a better idea for a bachelor party. This house was out there. Closest town with a bar/restaurant was a good 15-20 minute drive.

Here's the house though...

VRBO

cool... sadly I think most of the guys will confined to a FR-Sun stay... am I gonna be able to do a good but if touring then. I'm not expecting to do the whole trail.

Buffalo trace is my everyday stuff so that one is a must see for me... other than that up for whatever

You can easily hit the 4 around Buffalo Trace in one day if you plan it right. That would be Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, 4 Roses, and Woodford Reserve. That was our plan, but we got to Woodford a few minutes after the last tour of the day left. We took a longer lunch than planned though, and wandered around the Buffalo Trace gift shop a while, so it was our fault. We got to Wild Turkey 10-15 minutes before they opened to get on the first tour.

We did that on a Friday, and they do get a little more crowded on Saturdays so keep that in mind. All 4 of those are within about a 30 minute drive from each other, if I remember right. Each tour takes about an hour.

Something to consider...Louisville and Lexington are perfectly nice cities, but if it's me, I'm finding a cabin somewhere in the middle and doing it up there. Get away from it all, have an entire house, woods to do manly shite in, a place for bonfires, deck for grilling and drinking beer and bourbon. Of course you'd need a DD to get to the establishments.

I found this place on a really quick search.

LINK

More expensive but probably negotiable.

LINK

Dee an option. The main thing I'm into is the bourbon so I wouldn't mind that all. Don't know about the other guys