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Chicago & Bourbon Trail Trip Advice

WakeGal

WakeGal

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We have 4 full days in Chicago in August (Wednesday through Saturday). It has been nearly 5 years since my husband has lived there, so some of his things may be dated. We are looking for things to do and places to eat. We are trying to keep all costs to a minimum as we still have more big trips planned for this year. We have dinner a few nights with friends already planned at their homes and then planning on a Cubs game one evening. Other than that, we are wide open for suggestions.

Also, on our why back we are spending 1-2 days on the Bourbon trail. Any thought on what distilleries we need to visit?

Thanks to all for the great advice! I know where to come to for advice and this board never fails.
 
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Bourbon trail, I really liked Makers, Woodford, and Four Roses. The tours themselves are all pretty much the same, but architecturally those three are pretty interesting.
 
I thought woodford's facilities and tour were much better than buffalo trace or four roses. If you can only do a couple do makers and woodford
 
BeachBumDeac said:
I thought woodford's facilities and tour were much better than buffalo trace or four roses. If you can only do a couple do makers and woodford
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Agree with this. I was a fan of the Spanish Architecture of Four Roses though. Unfortunately, Woodford and Makers arent very close to each other.
 
Hit up the Lagunita's Brew House in Chicago. This is not your average brewery because for one the place is huge. Is looks like a crap hole and its not in the best part of town but man oh man do they have it rocking inside. Good tours and good bars inside, also great beer.
 
Buffalo Trace is a free tour. Four Roses only cost $5, but you get to keep your tasting glass at the end. I went to Maker's, but didn't do the tour, same for Woodford and Willett. Toured Heaven Hill, I think it was $10 and the tasting had a lot of good info, I thought. As someone mentioned, they are all about the same, information wise. BT and FR are definitely the better bargain.
 
DeacWatcher said:
Hit up the Lagunita's Brew House in Chicago. This is not your average brewery because for one the place is huge. Is looks like a crap hole and its not in the best part of town but man oh man do they have it rocking inside. Good tours and good bars inside, also great beer.
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Pretty trippy intro, huh?
 
tsywake said:
Bourbon trail, I really liked Makers, Woodford, and Four Roses. The tours themselves are all pretty much the same, but architecturally those three are pretty interesting.
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I'm still pissed I missed this trip.
 
If you're trying to keep costs down just eat at Portillos every meal
 
Buffalo Trace, Makers, Willett, Heaven Hill premium tasting, Bulleit were all awesome. Heard good things about Woodford. Four Roses was terrible, Jim Beam was disney land of bourbon, worthless.
 
Woodford is supposed to be one of the prettiest...I haven't done that one yet.

Four Roses is good if only for the gift shop selection (if they have one available right now).

Buffalo Trace is very good if you can get a "hard hat" tour - really goes behind the scenes rather than just going through the standard tour that everyone gives.

Makers is good, but off by itself.

Heaven Hill is meh.

KBD/Willett isn't much of a tour but, if you hit it at the right time, they might have some good bottles to buy.
 
RubbinsRacin said:
woodford bourbon sucks though so keep that in mind
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Yes it does, which is a shame. However, if you ever come across a very early batch of Woodford, buy all you can (or at least tell me where it is). They picked honey barrels from Old Forester when they started Woodford and it was outstanding. Old Forester is another brand that has gone downhill though.
 
dubs21 said:
Buffalo Trace, Makers, Willett, Heaven Hill premium tasting, Bulleit were all awesome. Heard good things about Woodford. Four Roses was terrible, Jim Beam was disney land of bourbon, worthless.
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Bears and Deacs said:
Woodford is supposed to be one of the prettiest...I haven't done that one yet.

Four Roses is good if only for the gift shop selection (if they have one available right now).

Buffalo Trace is very good if you can get a "hard hat" tour - really goes behind the scenes rather than just going through the standard tour that everyone gives.

Makers is good, but off by itself.

Heaven Hill is meh.

KBD/Willett isn't much of a tour but, if you hit it at the right time, they might have some good bottles to buy.
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I really liked Four Roses. It was more extensive than the BT tour or the Heaven Hill tour. I didn't get to take the BT "hard hat" tour, but plan to when I go back in September. I agree that the Heaven Hill tour is kinda meh, but I like Larceny, Elijah Craig and Bernheim Wheat. I thought the tasting part of the tour was just as good as the others.
 
I really liked the Makers tour and the tasting was well done. Don't waste your time at Beam - like someone earlier said, it's really corporate and cheesy. There's a Heaven Hill run place called the Bourbon Heritage Center (I think that's the name). The "tour" is absolutely worthless but they offer a tasting for $20 where you get to sample some of their priciest offerings (two of the bottles we sampled retail for over $130 a bottle and one was like $240). We had an older lady that had been with the company forever lead us through the tasting and she was a hoot. We didn't have time to do Bulleit, which is right in the middle of Louisville, but it *looked* like it would be a good one. Four Roses stops their bottling production mid-afternoon, so you have to get their earlier in the day to get the whole experience - we missed it, but it looked like it might be worthwhile.
 
TripleDeacon said:
I really liked the Makers tour and the tasting was well done. Don't waste your time at Beam - like someone earlier said, it's really corporate and cheesy. There's a Heaven Hill run place called the Bourbon Heritage Center (I think that's the name). The "tour" is absolutely worthless but they offer a tasting for $20 where you get to sample some of their priciest offerings (two of the bottles we sampled retail for over $130 a bottle and one was like $240). We had an older lady that had been with the company forever lead us through the tasting and she was a hoot. We didn't have time to do Bulleit, which is right in the middle of Louisville, but it *looked* like it would be a good one. Four Roses stops their bottling production mid-afternoon, so you have to get their earlier in the day to get the whole experience - we missed it, but it looked like it might be worthwhile.
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The Bourbon Heritage Center tasting is what I was referring to in regard to Heaven Hill. We must have had the same old lady she was awesome. Had her shpiel memorized. I kept asking questions to try and rattle her. Very pricey bourbon in that tasting.

When i mentioned Buffalo Trace, i was referencing the Hard Hat tour. Very detailed. We even got a couple tastes of the white dog coming off the experimental still. Potent.

I hated Four Roses, cause we just did a tasting and the guy doing it had only been there a couple months and didn't know what he was doing. Kept having to reference his power point print out to know what all the bourbons were. I guess the glass we got to keep was worth the $5 or $10. Wasn't really crazy about any of the merchandise either.

Makers had the best tour and tasting combo. And you can dip your own bottle if you buy one. Pretty cool.

Edit to add:

When i go back sometime, and i hope to, I really want to do a tour of Independent Stave, where all the barrels are made. Our tour guide from Mint Julip tours said it was pretty awesome.
 
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JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Re: Chicago, what are you guys into, wakegal?
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Just about anything. So far we know we are are doing navy pier, Cubs game, seeing the sailboats come in on Wednesday morning and that's all right now.

A lot of the stuff that we would typically do on weekends and vacation we can't do. Those tend to be outdoor stuff such as hiking, fishing, etc. I know it's on Lake Michigan but according to my husband it is nasty and not fishing appropriate.
 
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