How the Kentucky Derby Serves 120,000 Mint Juleps

The Kentucky Derby’s well-known Mint Julep has 4 elements. Arguably the largest star doesn’t even present up within the signature cocktail’s identify. The native Kentucky mint is a requirement together with crushed ice, but it surely’s the Woodford Reserve bourbon that provides this drink its punch.

With roughly 120,000 Mint Juleps served throughout Kentucky Derby week, Levy (the Kentucky Derby culinary workforce) govt chef Robbie Walters reminds us, “that’s a whole lot of mint.” It’s additionally a whole lot of bourbon.

Churchill Downs sources 50,000 liters from Woodford Reserve annually. The distillery — situated 60 miles east of the racetrack in Versailles, Kentucky — has solely supplied the spirit for the Kentucky Derby since 1999. The Pepper household selected the distillery web site in 1812 for its pure limestone, used within the distillation course of so as to add magnesium and calcium for higher yeast progress and to filter out iron, which might discolor the ultimate product. Brown-Forman bought the classic stone distillery that is nestled in a hole amid horse farms in 1993, reviving bourbon manufacturing. The Woodford Reserve whiskey proved so in style it turned the identify of the complete model.

How the bourbon is made

For whiskey to be labeled as bourbon it should include at the very least 51% corn and be aged in a brand new oak barrel, amongst different necessities. Woodford Reserve’s signature bourbon options that filtered water, 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley, explains grasp distiller Elizabeth McCall.

This mash invoice combines with a proprietary yeast pressure, fermenting in one in every of eight 7,500-gallon barrels for as much as seven days. That course of helps produce fruit notes whereas the yeast consumes the sugar and creates alcohol. At this stage the combination tastes much like a fruit-based beer or gum, a signature of the Woodford Reserve yeast.

The fermented combine strikes to a three-step distillation course of. It spends at the very least three hours in a 2,500-gallon copper beer nonetheless with a temperature between 173°F and 210°F. Then the thick and oily 40-proof alcohol combination is transferred to a stainless-steel tank earlier than hitting the second pot, a 1,650-gallon excessive wine nonetheless meant to chop the tail flavors whereas rising the alcohol to about 125-proof. After three-plus hours there, it takes one other journey to a stainless-steel tank after which spends at the very least 5 hours within the low wine nonetheless, meant to maintain solely the very best flavors by reducing off the “head and tail,” says McCall. With distilation full, the whiskey is poured into new 53-gallon barrels.

What took about 10 days within the distillery now wants 5 to seven years in a heat-cycled warehouse. Stone warehouses want just a little assist to maintain the whiskey hotter than 53°F, the minimal temperature for the drink to mature. Woodford Reserve lets nature do the heating in the summertime, however within the winter the distillery makes use of probes to verify inside barrel temperatures to make sure the whiskey is studying 80°F for at the very least every week earlier than cooling it again down and beginning all of it up once more. 

Throughout this course of, water evaporates, together with among the whiskey, pushing in opposition to the staves of the barrel and producing the “angel’s share” that evaporates out. However the house freed up within the barrel permits for oxidation. Mingling oxygen with the whiskey causes the fruit esters to develop and pushes the alcoholic proof up increased.

The precise oak barrels play a key position within the course of. Woodford’s 32-piece barrels have been processed by Brown-Forman’s cooperage in Louisville (a web site that can shut in 2025) utilizing as many as 30-plus species of oak from across the nation. McCall says the combination of oak selection in every barrel is essential in holding taste profiles constant throughout a number of batches, because the oak imparts the signature coloration and taste profile of bourbon. Earlier than having whiskey added, barrels bear a 10-minute toasting tunnel and a 25-second char.

McCall says tasting samples of batches six months previous to their youngest dump date helps decide how for much longer the whiskey must mature.

Since legal guidelines don’t permit full barrels to go away the distillery property, all bourbon is packaged into the signature-shaped Woodford Reserve bottle on-site. Kentucky Derby bottles are wrapped with annually’s special-edition label. 

How the mint is harvested

When the truck loaded with over 28,000 bunches of spearmint arrives at Churchill Downs from Nelson Household Agriculture — primarily based lower than an hour from Louisville in New Hope, Kentucky — it brings with it the scent of the Derby.

Nick Nelson grew up engaged on the farm that has provided mint to the Derby since 1980. He purchased in as an proprietor in 2018 earlier than taking it over absolutely in 2020, persevering with the mint custom. Nelson cultivates quite a lot of produce, however the mint is the well-known crop. The perfect time to plant mint, a perennial crop that lasts 4 to 5 years, is within the fall, so mint sourced for the Derby was planted a few year-and-a-half previous to harvesting, permitting sufficient time for the root-based plant to unfold and fill within the farm’s quarter-acre and half-acre plots.

Harvesting mint is a laborious course of, with selecting finished by hand beginning as much as two weeks earlier than the Derby and operating till the occasion’s last days. Nelson tells us he desires the mint 12 to 16 inches excessive earlier than harvest.

After selecting, he bundles the mint, wraps it in newspaper — a course of his grandmother as soon as helped with on the household farm — and dunks all of it in water, an added step to maintain it contemporary because it makes its solution to Louisville and into the commemorative Derby glasses.

In whole, 28,730 bunches of mint get delivered to Churchill Downs. “Each single bit is completed by hand, begin to end,” Nelson says. “I really feel very lucky [to work with the Derby] and have the connection we now have. It has grown four-fold in comparison with what we used to do.” 

Crafting a Mint Julep

Chris Morris, grasp distiller emeritus for Woodford Reserve, tells us that the right solution to put together a Mint Julep is to begin with mint leaves within the backside of the glass, dropping a spoonful of easy syrup on prime. Muddle them collectively, when you like, and fill the glass three-quarters full with crushed ice (the crushed ice machine at Churchill Downs is a workhorse). Crushed ice is a requirement, Morris says, to assist the drink final. Pour the bourbon, which drops the ice stage, add a straw for simple sipping, garnish with further mint, and fill to the highest with crushed ice.

“Sure, it seems good,” Morris says about including the garnish, “however the fragrant character can also be good.” It’s the scent of the Kentucky Derby.