What exactly is bourbon? Being a beer guy, I don’t know much about liquors. But on a Tuesday night, I was going to get a lesson in bourbon at a local distillery in downtown Fort Worth! Joining Chris, Ray and some other friends for a tour of Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company, I was ready to learn and in this amazing environment, I picked up a basic education in bourbon.

Column Distiller

Column Distiller

Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company is housed in a renovated 1920s prohibition-era warehouse just south of downtown. This convenient location comes complete with plenty of street parking, making for easy logistics. The tour begins in the warehouse area, which is full of bourbon barrels, stacked neatly along the walls. The atmosphere is stellar!

It amazes me how distilleries operate. For at least 2 years, they don’t sell their product. After 2 years of aging, the product can be sold as bourbon. However, to be considered straight bourbon, the liquid must age at least 4 years. Firestone & Robertson (F&R) wants to bottle straight bourbon, so they must wait. FOUR long years.

The distillery opened its doors in 2012, and has since barreled their Texan take on bourbon. Outside of the staff, no one has tasted their aged bourbon since.

Before you can begin aging, you must first make the bourbon base. So, what makes bourbon, bourbon?

Fermentation Tanks

Fermentation Tanks

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