How Maker's Mark produces 34 million bottles of bourbon a year
A bottle of Maker's Mark being dipped into red wax
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00:00For over six decades, a coating of red wax has been the signature look for one
00:05of America's best-selling bourbons, Makers Mark. It takes at least six years
00:10to age one bottle, and the company's distillery in a tiny Kentucky town pumps
00:15out nearly a hundred and fifty thousand of them in one day. To call it bourbon,
00:20the gold liquid has to be aged in oak barrels that are charred on the inside.
00:25Today, Makers Mark has over a million of them on site. The company can only use
00:31each barrel once, but the white oak trees behind these barrels could be a risk.
00:36They're tough to grow, and the next generation isn't doing so well. It takes
00:41approximately 90 years to grow the next batch of barrels. So why are white oaks
00:46so important to produce Makers Mark bourbon, and how is the company fighting
00:50to protect its red-tipped spirit as demand soars?
00:58Kentucky Cooperage has been making bourbon barrels from white oaks since
01:021960, and now supplies spirit distilleries all over the world. Some of
01:07the barrels that we load here go all the way over to Scotland. Sometimes we'll
01:10load and we'll send them right down the street to Makers Mark. White oak trees
01:14are cut into narrow strips of wood called staves. They age for a year, losing
01:19moisture and unwanted flavors. Workers loosely fit the staves together using a
01:24hammer and a temporary hoop. They call this raising. They only work with white
01:29oak, which is stronger and more durable than other woods. We've experimented with
01:34probably 45 different types of woods that are not oak. The bad news there is
01:39that most of those woods, if you try to make them into a barrel, they're not
01:43gonna bend or they're gonna leak. The barrels go through a steam tunnel to
01:47make the wood more pliable. You have to steam it, otherwise when you try to bend
01:50it, all the staves right, they'll just crack right around the middle. A hydraulic press
01:55squeezes the staves firmly together, as seen in this promotional video filmed at
01:59another Cooperage. Workers place the barrels over a small fire pit for 45
02:04minutes to begin bringing out natural flavors and aromas in the wood. It's
02:08called toasting. But the most important step is charring. They can't make bourbon
02:13without it. Employees roll the barrels into a machine where an open flame
02:19burns a layer of charcoal on the inside. As soon as that barrel catches fire,
02:23we're gonna start a timer. It's up to the customer to decide how long that timer
02:27goes. For Maker's Mark, the timer is set to 35 seconds to give the bourbon inside a
02:32golden brown color and smoky flavor. It's the coolest thing to see. Nine years
02:37later, I still get a little bit of enamored at the charred fire. It's still a
02:40cool process. Historians believe early American spirit distillers started
02:45charring the barrels to sanitize them. In the early 18th century, whiskey was aged
02:50in barrels previously used to store things like seafood. Setting them on fire
02:54would get rid of any residue. It turned out that the burnt wood also gave the
02:58liquor distinct flavors. In 1938, it became law that to be called bourbon, a
03:03drink must be aged in a brand new charred barrel to guarantee the flavor
03:08and aroma. The last step, they slide the permanent hoops over the barrels to keep
03:14everything in place. The Cooperage drops off the finished barrels at a Maker's
03:19Mark factory at the road. Workers inspect each one. Defects or holes in the wood
03:26could mean losing valuable liquid. Back here you can see five to ten leaks per
03:32day that are repairable prior to entry. Employees have to be careful moving the
03:37barrels, which can weigh over a hundred pounds. That's why they rely on a
03:43combination of tracks, trailers and hoists. But bourbon making begins days
03:50before any alcohol reaches these barrels in the wheat and corn fields nearby.
03:57The distillery gets up to six truckloads of corn every day. That's the most
04:01important ingredient in Maker's Mark. Whiskey is made from a mixture of
04:06fermented grains, but for whiskey to be considered bourbon, more than half of its
04:10grain needs to be corn. Maker's Mark is 70% corn. To make sure that we're getting
04:16that starch that we're needing to get the alcohol that produced. Before any
04:21truck can unload, the distillery takes samples for quality control. We want to
04:27check, make sure if there's any broken grain or foreign material in that grain.
04:31That could contaminate the drink.
04:37Once he pulls that out, he's going to smell it to make sure there's no mold, no
04:41mildew, anything that smells off. While most distilleries crush the grain into a
04:47fine powder, Maker's Mark leaves some chunks. We want a good consistent mixture
04:52of our seed so that we're getting all the flavor and starch from our grain.
04:58Workers prepare a mix of ground grains, corn, malted barley, and something that
05:02sets Maker's Mark apart, wheat instead of rye. So that soft red winter wheat is
05:07going to bring out more of a sweet smoothness to the bourbon, whereas rye
05:13is going to give you more of a spicy, a little bit more of a bitey note.
05:18They'll mix it all in water to make what's known as a mash. So it's almost
05:22like you're making porridge or oatmeal. They follow a strict recipe with very
05:27specific timing and temperatures for each ingredient. You just took ground
05:31corn and put it in water, heat it up, you're going to make a cornbread muffin.
05:36What will finally turn it into alcohol is the founders original yeast recipe.
05:43Workers jumpstart a small amount in a stainless steel tank. They feed it a mix
05:48of grains, hops, and water until it's big enough that I can handle eating the mash.
05:54The yeast and mash are combined in a 9,600 gallon wooden vat. The mix sits at
06:03room temperature for a few days as the yeast turns the sugars into alcohol and
06:07carbon dioxide. That's why you see these bubbles. You get that aroma, you've gotten
06:13more from that sweet grain. Now you're just getting a lot of acid and acidic.
06:19After two days, each one of these fermenters are going to start getting a
06:23little less active. The bubbles have started to flatten out.
06:28By day three, it smells fruity and is about 10% alcohol. A pump carries the
06:34liquid to the distillery's copper stills. Here, heat evaporates the alcohol, leaving
06:39behind the solid mash. The alcohol cools and condenses into a clear liquid.
06:44Everything's going to come off clear because it hasn't been in the barrel yet
06:48to pick up any of its color. It'll go through two rounds of distillation,
06:52making it 65% alcohol. This is known as high wine. Before it heads to the barrel
06:59warehouse, workers do one last test. Fortunately, I get the job of getting the
07:04taste test to make sure that we're producing a quality product. It's going
07:08to give you that sweet, smooth note that's going to kind of hit in the
07:12middle, but it draws towards the tip of your tongue.
07:19So I can attest, this is some good distillery right here.
07:25The distillery pipes clear bourbon over to the barrel warehouse. There, it's
07:31diluted with the nearby lake's water to 55% alcohol. The quality of water is
07:36crucial, but luckily the region has pure spring water naturally filtered by the
07:41limestone rock. Then, workers pump those barrels full of the new bourbon. They
07:46hammer them closed with a walnut cork. We'll receive, on average, about four to
07:53five loads of barrels per day, and we're going to fill anywhere from eight to
07:57nine hundred barrels per day over two shifts. This obsession with near-perfect
08:03barrels is crucial to the final product and standard in the production of high
08:08quality alcoholic drinks across the world. In France, luxury wine producers
08:14will pay up to $50,000 for one of these barrels made with French oak. These can
08:20be up to 1,300 gallons, so the wine touches the surface area less often,
08:25keeping the oak flavors more subtle. This also minimizes oxygen levels to avoid
08:31souring the wine. Such large barrels need to be moved with forklifts and accessed
08:36using ladders and scaffolding. They're monitored closely while toasting because
08:41the barrels could blister or blacken, meaning all that work to build them
08:45could go to waste. But bourbon aging is the complete opposite. The charred
08:53surface is essential for the final product. So the barrel is going to add a
08:57hundred percent of the color, and depending on who you ask, sixty to seventy
09:01percent of the flavor. Barrels age in the warehouses, where they're exposed to
09:05temperatures between zero and a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. And as the
09:09seasons change, the charred wood expands and contracts, allowing the bourbon to
09:14extract its caramelized sugars and golden brown color. Oxygen entering the
09:18barrels adds to the liquor's acidity. To balance the temperature exposure, barrels
09:24start at the top floor, where it's hot and dry. They're eventually moved to the
09:28bottom floor, where it's cooler and humid. A lot of places will just kind of store
09:32the barrels, let them age for six, seven years, and never check on them. We're
09:35gonna go in once to twice per year to take an additional check. Most barrels
09:40will be ready after six years, but sometimes it can take eight. Maker's Mark
09:45ages a select few for ten or more years to market as special editions. It sells
09:50the used barrels to distilleries in Scotland, which don't require new ones
09:53for aging. The finished bourbon is piped straight to the bottling plant. One
10:00barrel is enough to fill about 250 to 325 bottles. Each one is sanitized with
10:06a shot of the company's own bourbon, and the factory pumps them out constantly.
10:10We're running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In another room, workers cut the
10:15labels using a 1935 printing press. The labels and machine haven't changed since
10:21the company began over 70 years ago. There are certain things that are
10:25inherent and part of the maker's DNA. Things like that will never change, but
10:32we work very hard to make our processes more efficient. The adhesives are fixed
10:40to each glass container right before the finishing touch. Employees dip each
10:44bottle in this iconic red wax. The company engineered the wax to melt at
10:49extremely high heat, 350 degrees, so there's no risk of melting once it's
10:54dry. Because this job is so tough, workers will only stay at the station
10:59for 30 minutes. This actually slows down the production line. Maker's Mark can
11:05fill up to 125 bottles a minute, while some other distillers can do 400. But the
11:11company says it's worth it because it sets the bottles apart on the shelf. So
11:15we constantly rotate. A positive to that is that every one of our team members
11:21know how to do every job in the bottling department, whether it's dipping, working
11:27filler, capper, labeler, or driving a forklift. This look was designed by one of
11:34the founders, Margie Samuels. She and her husband, Bill Samuels Sr., started the
11:40company in 1953. Margie came up with the red seal five years later to help
11:45advertise Maker's Mark as a luxury item. She prepared the first wax recipe in a
11:50deep fryer in her kitchen. But for much of the 20th century, bourbon was still
11:55seen as a cheaper liquor for the working class who couldn't afford scotch. And in
11:59the 70s, Americans started to favor spirits like vodka and gin. Whiskey got a
12:04reputation as an old man's drink. In the 1980s, Kentucky distillers like Jim Beam
12:09and Buffalo Trace started releasing small batches of special edition bourbons,
12:13hoping to turn the tide. The strategy paid off in the 1990s. There was a
12:18renaissance of cocktail culture, and whiskey drinks like Manhattan's,
12:22Old-Fashioned's, and Mint Julep's came back into style. In the following two
12:26decades, bourbon's popularity pushed up production in Kentucky by nearly 500
12:31percent. In 2022, distillers in the state hit a record 2.7 million barrels of
12:37bourbon. Today, Maker's Mark sells about 36 million bottles a year, making it one
12:43of the most popular bourbon brands in the world. But there's one problem on
12:48the horizon. The white oak trees that are essential for barrel-making can
12:53take nearly a century to mature. Other species, like red maples, can grow nearly
12:58five times as fast. These other trees can quickly cover the forest canopy,
13:03blocking the sunlight white oaks need to grow.
13:05It's not deforestation that's driving white oak loss in the U.S. It's a shift
13:09in forest cover, which is driven by, you know, invasive species. And climate
13:13change isn't helping either. And so when we look at that next set of oaks
13:19that are going to mature into, you know, barrels in 60, 100 years, they're not
13:24there. They're at a much lower level.
13:27Some experts estimate that if nothing is done, the entire white oak population
13:31could decline by 80 percent in the next few decades.
13:35Better forest management would help.
13:37That means things like controlled burnings of decaying or undesired trees.
13:42If I were dependent on the cream of the crop out of these forests, I would be
13:45very concerned about what's going to happen in 20 years.
13:50One oak tree can make about two barrels, but it needs to be perfect and
13:53straight, like this one on Maker's Mark property.
13:57What you're looking for for a barrel tree is that beautiful, straight part
14:00just in the middle, just above, just below all the branches.
14:04No knots, no blemishes, because they're going to cause leakages in barrels.
14:07They call this one the mother tree.
14:10She's never going to make a barrel tree, by the way.
14:12Like, we're never felling her.
14:14It's older than any typical white oak, and the company mapped its genetics.
14:19So we think our mother tree is anywhere from three to 500 years old.
14:23What we did is we shot down buds from the top of her with a BB gun, and we
14:26broke them down into over 540 million pairs of DNA that we can take learnings
14:31from in sequence.
14:33Why she stood the test of time, why she'd done so well in this climate.
14:37Maker's Mark has a breeding program, and it's planted 10,000 new seedlings here.
14:42What we hope to do is be able to help improve the species so that all future
14:47seedlings will grow straighter, that'll grow faster.
14:49They're studying 500 variation of white oaks from across the eastern U.S.
14:53to see which can best tolerate pests, diseases, and a changing climate.
14:58If we aren't good stewards of our land, maintaining these healthy ecosystems,
15:02then we're not going to be down here in 200 years time making whiskey.