See How Maker's Mark Crafts Its Beloved Bourbon [PHOTOS]

Disclosure: Maker's Mark paid for our travel and expenses to visit the distillery outside of Louisville, Ky.

The Kentucky Derby is right around the corner, and people everywhere will be celebrating Derby Day with a glass of bourbon or a bourbon-based cocktail.

Last year, we visited the Maker's Mark distillery outside Louisville, Ky., to find out how bourbon is made.

The distillery uses a lot of the same machinery from when it sold its first bottle back in 1956. The recipe is also the same — customers revolted when the company said it would lower the amount of alcohol in its liquor earlier this year, and it reversed course.

Greg Davis, the master distiller who oversees everything related to the production of whisky, gave us the complete rundown on how Maker's Mark is produced, from the locally sourced corn and soft red winter wheat to the charring of the white oak barrels where the whisky ages.