How it is made:

Springfield Lake: Their pretty easygoing about things down there at Maker's Mark. But when it comes to their recipe, that's one thing you'll see them get passionate about. Sorry for the harsh language there. They sometimes get a little excited when talking about the many steps in their 'gloriously inefficient process'.

Maker's Mark® Bourbon is one of the few brands to credit Mother Nature for such a unique bourbon taste. That's because they use pure, iron-free limestone spring water exclusively. Not city, well or river water. Their source is a 10-acre limestone spring-fed lake at the distillery.

Grains: Go ahead, call them picky. But when you're searching for that unique bourbon flavour you have to choose your grains wisely. First, they use yellow corn and red winter wheat from specially selected small-farm cooperatives, all of which are located within the limestone geology near the distillery. This wheat gives their whisky its soft, mellow taste. And they only use naturally malted barley, because it has no enzyme-enhancing gibberellic acid, of course. (Whatever that means.)

The Rollermill: Old-fashioned and proud. Their dated rollermill is the key to preparing their grain for cooking. While some distillers think this method is too slow and produces a lower yield, it's just fine for them. The slow process does not scorch the grain like a hammermill can. What can they say? That's just how they roll.

Cooking: Actually, they could call it baking. Because when they chose not to pressure cook their grain, they were speaking from their baker's side. Any good distiller/baker can tell you that pressure cookers and high-quality soft winter wheat do not mix.
By using an open cooker and a slower process that involves a lot of hands-on attention, they extend the subtle grain flavours into thei whisky.

The Yeast: They are among the few remaining bourbon distillers that propagate their own yeast for fermentation with cultures that they can trace back to the pre-Prohibition era. They also use the traditional sour mash method, similar to making sourdough bread, where they always leave over some culture from one batch to start another. Guess you could say their yeast roots run deep.

Fermentation: Their rare cypress fermentation tanks are historically irreplaceable. Some of the planks are more than 100 years old.

Cypress was chosen for fermentation before modern stainless steel was available, because it didn't contribute iron or taste to the final product. While they don't believe that cypress affects the process in any way, they continue to use some of these fermenters to give their visitors a sense of how the process used to look. That, and they’ve never believed in a sweet metal aftertaste.

White Dog: Maker's Mark double-distills its whisky once in an all-copper column still to produce what they call low wine, and again in a copper pot still to produce high wine. This added step removes impurities and produces a more refined sipping whisky. Their low wine is distilled off at 120 proof, while their high wine is 130 proof.

They believe that this is the lowest distillation proof in the industry. They continue this more expensive practice because it preserves their mellow grain characteristics.

Batch Size: Since they’ve never been in a rush to do anything, especially when crafting their bourbon, only 19 barrels go into each of their batches. Not only does this allow them to maintain high consistency from bottle to bottle, it also keeps them from being in too big of a hurry.

Ageing Process: Most distillers choose not to rotate their barrels. Not them. They like theirs to get out and move around. And by move around, they mean rotate. It ensures every barrel experiences the same aging process. And you know what they say: a moving barrel gathers no moss.

Tasting Panel: To make sure they always put the same great tasting bourbon out there, they created a tasting panel. It's made up of 16 men and woman, and it includes the Master Distiller. Each barrel is sampled 5 times during the maturation process. Maybe a couple other times, as well. You know, just to be sure.