Tourist in my own town

62012 so i think maybe, now that im not doing anything with my life, ill try and keep up the blog whenever i do something interesting. yesterday arthur and i went on a tour of the Great Lakes distillery newer distillery facilities. http://greatlakesdistillery.com/ these are the notes as we went, the facility was very small, with only one still, there wasnt much to see, but it was exciting none the less Great Lakes distillery, first in Wisconsin since prohibition Walgreens built their empire by selling medicinal whiskey during prohibition, as it was the 1920s, and liquor could cure most ailments, (laudanum anyone?). on December 5 1933 prohibition was repealed, Wisconsin was the second state to ratify, and a Wisconsin legislator wrote the 21st amendment, it was passed in less than a year. most of the spirit market was dominated by a handful of giants in the US, until the Late 90s when craft spirits took off. the guy that began the business first made a Vodka, using Soft Red Winter Wheat which is a local Wisconsin ingredient, it was the first craft spirit outta WI. Vodka doesnt require any specific sugar input, unlike rum, tequila, brandy, whiskeys etc, only a high enough alcohol content during the still process. The "tail" is where all the flavor comes from, but its also where all the bad stuff is that gives you sad hangover. while the tail isnt good for you, its not real bad like the "head" where all the other alcohols are, the ones that make you go blind n fun stuff like that. after the presentation bit on the still, we wandered over to the wall of barrels. The charred barrel that bourbon goes into is a result of some cheap asshole in Kentucky, he bought pickle barrels, for cheap, and then to get the pickle flavor out, he charred the barrels. after bottling, the bourbon never leaves a barrel, and can therefore not be reused for further bourbon production, so they are sold to other distilleries and breweries because the bourbon flavor adds to the beers and liquors. This distillery produces about 60,000 bottles a year. for a bit of Great Lakes history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Seavey the Distillery has produced a Rum, named Roarin' Dan Maple Rum. Being that he was a pirate, and you know, pirates love their rum, and the northern Wisco maple farms, fusion, blah, the spirit was good thats all that really matters. Kinnickinnic means what is blended in ojibwa, hence the name of their blended whiskey (which was also good), they cannot put out a real whiskey, cause it takes forever to make it, this is a blended whiskey with some of their white whiskey and another US produced aged Whiskey. its a small batch distillery, so there is all kinds of love that goes into the spirits, and you can really taste it in them. by the end of the tour we had tried 6 of their different products; straight Vodka, Citrus and Honey Vodka, Gin, Blended Whiskey, Maple Rum, Absinthe, and Rouge Absinthe. it was a good time, got a lil drunk, and then me and arthur went to some kitch bar and had appetizers before going to Dicks for milkshakes and pizza, and a movie. i dunno when the next milwaukee post will pop up, but check back periodically, maybe youll read something interesting