Last Updated: August 6, 2026
Lexington, Kentucky is known as the “Horse Capital of the World”. It’s also the second largest city in the bluegrass state and known for Keeneland, one of the most picturesque race parks in the country. Unfortunately the track wasn’t open yet — Keeneland only races two short meets a year, fifteen days in April and seventeen in October, and we were a few days early. We finished our bourbon trail in Lexington.
Whispering Hills RV Park, Georgetown, Kentucky
Whispering Hills has a lot of full-time residents. It’s located about 30 minutes north of Lexington. Our site was next to a small lake that had quite a few noisy Canada geese.
It was only a one-hour drive from Louisville to Georgetown. We had full service and good enough WiFi to stream. Our weather wasn’t the best. Nighttime temperatures were below freezing and winds over 25 mph. The rain and cold definitely limited our activities, but we still made the most of it. The waterfowl and a muskrat kept Jake entertained.
Muskrats get mistaken for small beavers all the time and are not related to them at all — they are large voles, closer to a field mouse than to a beaver. The giveaway is the tail: a beaver’s is the flat paddle everyone knows, while a muskrat’s is a thin rope flattened side to side, and it sculls with it. They cut cattails and build low domed lodges out of the stems, and in doing so they open up channels and clearings in a marsh that a great many other species depend on.
Georgetown and the Bourbon Origin Story
There is a nice accident in having parked a bourbon trip in Georgetown, because this is where the founding myth of bourbon comes from.
Elijah Craig was a Baptist preacher from Virginia who had been jailed more than once for preaching without an Anglican licence. In 1782 he led his congregation west into Kentucky, bought a thousand acres and founded the town that was renamed Georgetown in 1790 for George Washington. He was a serious industrialist for the frontier: Kentucky’s first fulling mill, its first paper mill, a ropewalk, a gristmill — and, around 1789, a distillery at Royal Spring, which still runs in the middle of town.
The story you will hear is that Craig invented bourbon, or at least invented the charred oak barrel, supposedly after a fire scorched some of his staves. Historians do not accept it. Whiskey historian Henry Crowgey called it a charming legend, and Charles Cowdery’s verdict is that Craig made exactly the same whiskey as everyone else around him. By the 1780s a great many farmer-distillers west of the Alleghenies were making corn whiskey, and the charring of barrels came from several directions at once. The preacher gets the credit because it is a better story than “it happened gradually, in a lot of places”. His name is still on a bottle, which tells you how well a good story travels.
Ark Encounter
The Ark Encounter is north of Lexington in Williamstown, Kentucky. It is a life-size reproduction of what Noah’s Ark could have looked like. It was built by Answers in Genesis, the ministry founded by Ken Ham that also runs the Creation Museum about 45 miles away, and it opened on July 7, 2016 — a date picked to echo Genesis 7:7. The exhibits present a young-earth creationist account throughout, which is worth knowing before you buy a ticket; what follows is a description of what is there.
Its dimensions are 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high. Those numbers are not arbitrary. Genesis gives the ark as 300 by 50 by 30 cubits, and a cubit is roughly a forearm — so the length of the cubit you choose decides how big the building is. Answers in Genesis settled on a long cubit of about 20.4 inches, and the result is a structure they describe as the largest timber-frame building in the United States, put up with about 3.3 million board feet of wood by crews that included Amish timber framers, for something north of $100 million.
They offer their explanation of how the Ark was built, what life was like aboard it, how the animals were cared for, and what the world was like before and after the great flood.
There were examples of how amphibians could have been transported and how water and grain were stored.
It was nice to see the detail put into how the animal cages, water, food and waste could have been managed. The engineering of it all was impressive.
It was amazing to see the construction and design involved in such a massive all-wooden ship. Whatever you make of the premise, the timber framing is the real thing — mortise-and-tenon joinery at a scale almost nobody attempts any more, and worth the visit on carpentry alone.
James E. Pepper Distillery, Lexington
James E. Pepper has the fifth distillery licence in Kentucky — DSP-KY-5, a registration number the site has carried since the nineteenth century — and at one time it was one of the largest distilleries in the country.
What makes it unusual is the gap in the middle. The distillery stopped making whiskey in 1967 and the buildings sat empty for half a century. The brand was revived first, then in 2017 distillation restarted on the original Lexington site — fifty-nine years after the stills went cold. The surrounding blocks on Manchester Street, which were derelict industrial buildings, are now Lexington’s Distillery District.
Colonel James E. Pepper
Colonel Pepper was born in 1850 and was considered a flamboyant ambassador of whiskey; he enjoyed his trips to Manhattan to promote his lifestyle. He was the third generation of the family in the business, after his grandfather Elijah and his father Oscar. He was also a horseman — his horses competed across America and in Europe, and ran in the Kentucky Derby. His private rail car was called “Old Pepper”, painted with his own labels, which tells you most of what you need to know about the man.
The photograph in the third frame is worth pausing on. Mrs. Ella O. Pepper established a racing stable and repaired her husband’s failing fortunes — a line the distillery displays without much fuss, and the sort of sentence that usually turns out to be carrying a great deal of weight.
The Old Fashioned
Colonel Pepper enjoyed staying at the Waldorf Astoria. He introduced them to his drink, the “Old Fashioned”. It was developed for him at the famed Pendennis Club in Louisville by the bartender.
The name is the joke. By the 1880s bartenders had started dressing cocktails up with liqueurs and fruit, and a customer who wanted the original — spirit, sugar, bitters, water — had to ask for it the old-fashioned way. So the drink is not really an invention at all; it is a complaint that became a menu item. Louisville named it the city’s official cocktail in 2015. Pepper’s contribution was taking it to New York and putting it in front of the right bar.
He unfortunately at age 56 slipped on ice, sustained a fracture, had a pulmonary embolus and died.
That sequence is worth spelling out, because in 1906 it was close to routine. A significant fracture meant weeks flat in bed. Blood pools in the deep veins of an immobilised leg, a clot forms, a piece of it breaks loose, travels back to the heart and lodges in the pulmonary arteries — and the lung it was supplying stops working. A large one kills in minutes. There was no imaging to find it, no anticoagulant to prevent it, and no expectation that you should get a patient up and moving. Today the same injury comes with compression, early mobilisation and prophylactic anticoagulation, all of it aimed squarely at the thing that killed Colonel Pepper. It is a small reminder of how much of modern medicine is not dramatic rescue but quiet prevention.
The ABCs of Bourbon
Our tour took us through all stages of their production. We watched them bottle, saw huge vats ferment, and tasted directly off the still — clear, hot and grainy, which is what everything in those barrels started as.
We really enjoyed the tour and learned the ABCs of bourbon. A means it is American made, B means it is aged in a new charred oak barrel, and C means it must be 51% corn or greater. That is the heart of it, and the federal rules fill in the rest: distilled at no more than 160 proof, put into the barrel at no more than 125, bottled at no less than 80, and nothing added but water. No colouring, no flavouring, no blending agents. There is no minimum age for plain bourbon — but call it straight bourbon and you owe it two years, and Kentucky straight means it was both distilled and aged in this state. Bottled in bond, from the 1897 act, is the strictest of the lot: four years, exactly 100 proof, one distillery, one distilling season, under federal supervision. Pepper’s own habit of stamping his bottles to prove what was inside them fed into that law.
One more term you will hear on every tour is sour mash, and it is not a flavour. It means a portion of the spent mash from the last distillation is set back into the new one. That drops the pH, which discourages the wrong bacteria from taking hold, and it carries a little of each batch into the next so the fermentation stays consistent. Essentially all Kentucky bourbon is made this way. It is the sourdough starter of whiskey.
James E. Pepper has downsized over the years, but still produces very good whiskeys and bourbons. The bottles in the first photograph are their 1776 Rye — and rye is the same set of rules with the grain swapped, 51% rye instead of 51% corn. It is drier and peppery where bourbon is sweet, it was the dominant American whiskey before Prohibition, and it very nearly disappeared afterwards. If you have only ever drunk bourbon, a rye is the most interesting thing on the tasting mat.
Visitor Information
James E. Pepper Distillery. 1228 Manchester Street, Lexington, in the Distillery District. Tours and tastings on the original site; check current days and times and book ahead at weekends. The surrounding block has restaurants, bars and live music, so it works as an evening rather than just a stop.
Keeneland. 4201 Versailles Road, Lexington. Racing: two meets only — about fifteen days in April and seventeen in October. Outside those dates the track is quiet, which is what caught us out. Free year-round: morning workouts from the trackside rail, usually from around 6 a.m. through mid-morning, and the Track Kitchen serves breakfast to anyone who walks in. Keeneland is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1986, and it is the largest thoroughbred auction house in the world. It was also the last major track in North America to call races over a public address system, holding out until 1997.
Ark Encounter. 1 Ark Encounter Drive, Williamstown, KY, about 50 minutes north of Lexington and 45 from the Creation Museum. Ticketed, with parking charged separately, and combination tickets with the Creation Museum available. Allow at least half a day. There is a zoo, zip lines and a restaurant on site.
Royal Spring Park, Georgetown. Free, in the middle of town — the spring Elijah Craig built his industries around, and still the source of Georgetown’s water. There is a small museum and a reconstructed cabin beside it.
Whispering Hills RV Park. Georgetown, KY, about 30 minutes north of Lexington and a straightforward base for Keeneland, the Distillery District and the horse farms. Full hookups, workable WiFi, a lot of long-term residents, and a small lake with waterfowl on it.
Tips
Check the Keeneland calendar before you plan Lexington. Two meets a year, April and October, and nothing in between. If your dates miss them, go anyway for the morning workouts — they are free, they start at dawn, and the Track Kitchen is one of the best breakfasts in Kentucky.
Taste the white dog if they offer it. Unaged spirit straight off the still tells you exactly how much of what you like about bourbon comes from the barrel rather than the grain. The answer is: most of it.
Put a rye on the mat. After a week of bourbon it resets your palate, and it is the older American style. Pepper’s 1776 is a good place to start.
Lexington’s Distillery District beats a rural distillery run if the weather turns. Everything is walkable from one car park, which mattered to us in freezing rain and 25 mph winds.
Base in Georgetown rather than Lexington if you are towing. Half an hour out, cheaper, quieter, and you avoid taking a rig into the city.
The horse farms need booking. Most working thoroughbred farms around Lexington take visitors by reservation only, through Horse Country. Do not turn up at a gate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a whiskey a bourbon?
Made in the United States, from a mash of at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak, distilled at no more than 160 proof, barrelled at no more than 125, bottled at no less than 80, with nothing added but water. “Straight” adds a two-year minimum. “Kentucky straight” means distilled and aged in Kentucky.
What is sour mash?
Setting back a portion of spent mash from the previous distillation into the next fermentation. It lowers the pH, keeps unwanted bacteria out, and keeps batches consistent — the same principle as a sourdough starter. Nearly all Kentucky bourbon is sour mash, so it is not a mark of distinction.
What is the difference between bourbon and rye?
The grain. Bourbon needs at least 51% corn; rye whiskey needs at least 51% rye. Everything else — new charred oak, the proof limits — is the same. Rye tastes drier and spicier, and it was the dominant American whiskey until Prohibition nearly wiped it out.
Did Elijah Craig invent bourbon?
Almost certainly not. Craig was a real person — a Baptist preacher who founded Georgetown, Kentucky and ran a distillery there from around 1789 — but whiskey historians reject the claim that he invented bourbon or the charred barrel. Corn whiskey was already widespread west of the Alleghenies, and charring came from several directions at once.
Why is the Old Fashioned called that?
Because by the 1880s cocktails had become elaborate, and drinkers who wanted the original formula — spirit, sugar, bitters, water — asked for it made the old-fashioned way. It was made for Colonel James E. Pepper at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, and he carried it to the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Louisville made it the city’s official cocktail in 2015.
Can you visit Keeneland when there is no racing?
Yes. The grounds are open year round and morning workouts can be watched free from the rail, most mornings from about 6 a.m. The Track Kitchen serves breakfast to the public. Live racing is confined to April and October.
How big is the Ark Encounter?
510 feet long, 85 wide and 51 high — the Genesis measurements of 300 by 50 by 30 cubits, using a long cubit of about 20.4 inches. Answers in Genesis describes it as the largest timber-frame building in the United States, built with roughly 3.3 million board feet of wood.
Next stop: Red River Gorge, Kentucky.
