The Whiskey Rebellion

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Jack Daniels Distillery, Lynchburg, Tn

Joan doesn't mind my National Parks Bucket List. But sometimes she gets a little annoyed by everything on the itinerary being a National Park. She loves the rangers but wants to see more of what the local folk are like. (We've found that as often as not, rangers come from other parts of the country, just like their visitors do). So on this trip she staged a bit of a rebellion and insists that we include some non-park places on our tour. It extends the number of days. But I've learned the truth of the old adage, 'Happy Wife, Happy Life'.

So yesterday, we drove back north up I24 thirty miles and then took a beautiful green dot road West to Lynchburg, Tn. The sun was out and we finally got to see those mountain road cuts as well as the rolling towns, farms, and plantations of southern Tennessee. The town of Lynchburg is a small quaint mid-western town, with the county courthouse right in the middle of the town square. Just at the edge of town is the one and only distillery for Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. And that was our stop today on Joan's Whiskey Rebellion.

I am now almost exclusively a wine drinker. As a college student it was mostly beer I could afford, with an occasional bottle of bourbon. Even today I sometimes order a bourbon Manhattan. But I've never been much of a connoisseur or whiskey. I used to believe that a good bourbon was much mellower than whiskey, but when I asked Ben, our tour guide, he replied that what makes Jack Daniels distinctive is its mellowing process. So, on that issue, at least, I am still as confused as ever.

At the end of our 90 minute tour, we were allowed to sample a flight of Jack Daniels whiskey products - who knew that they made more than one?! The last two on the flight were flavored whiskeys, one with honey and the other with cinnamon. They were tasty, but as Ben said, their best use might be as topping for vanilla ice cream.

Tasting the first three, though, was an enlightening experience. They gave us three different whiskey products and instructed us to taste them much like we might have done with a wine tasting. (They even provided a glass of water to 'cleanse the palate' between tastes.). The first was a whiskey they called Gentleman's Jack which, they touted, went through a second mellowing process, beyond what they do with their regular whiskey. The second was their regular black-label, square bottle, whiskey. And the third was something they called 'single barrel select'. Apparently there is so much variation in barrels of whiskey, that their normal whiskey is blended, just like batches of wine are blended. But in this case, they bottle the whiskey from a single barrel. This means there can be a great deal of variation between bottles of the stuff, but that is what a whiskey connoisseur enjoys. And, because they can, they charge a hefty premium for this version.

It was fun to compare the tastes of the three whiskey versions, especially after seeing the manufacturing process. Since two of the three tastes were the results of variations in the process, it was helpful having seen what the process involves, rather than just being told. In any case, both Joan and I enjoyed the Gentleman's Jack the most and so we bought a bottle from the sales store.

The process of making whiskey is sort of complicated, but straight-forward. First a batch of barley malt, corn, and rye is ground up, mixed with spring water from a limestone cave at the rear of the complex, and cooked for a while. They don't tell you what the proportions are - that's part of their secret recipe. But they do tout the water, saying, like Coors does with their beer, that it is the pure spring water that makes their whiskey distinctive. They say that they only make it here because they can't find water of equal quality anywhere else. (Can we say 'Marketing'?).

After it cooks, it is allowed to ferment for four to six days in huge metal vats. The fermentation is, of course, what produces the alcohol. The duration of fermentation varies because it is the master distiller's decision when a batch is ready, not some arbitrary number of hours.

Then it is piped over to the distillery where, essentially, it is boiled, with the alcohol, flavors, and aromas all evaporating first, rising through the still to be condensed back down to raw whiskey. (Moonshine, actually). All of that goes on in a continuous process controlled by a bank of computer screens that would make NASA proud. (You are also not allowed to take any pictures inside the building - corporate secrets might be exposed I guess.)

The distillate then goes through the mellowing process, which is, according to Ben, what makes Jack Daniels distinctive. It slowly drips through ten feet of charcoal, which pulls all the impurities and bad stuff out of the whiskey to produce the, almost, final product. But they don't use just any charcoal - they make their own. They harvest wood from the abundant sugar maples of the region, saw them into 2x2 slats, arrange them in tall stacks (called 'ricks'), like a Jenga puzzle, and then burn them in an open-air process. They have two or three full-time employees whose job is just to make the charcoal. It is then scooped up by bulldozers and ready for use in the vats. Although the choice of wood sounds like it would impart flavor to the product, they actually insist that, after turned into charcoal, the sole function of the wood is to extract stuff, not add stuff.

Anyway, it can take days to drip through the ten feet of charcoal, but when it does, it is ready for barreling. They don't make their own barrels, but they are all pretty much hand made out of American oak wood and, significantly, they only use a barrel once. (They are passed on to other distillers and landscapers for reuse or repurpose. The oak definitely does add flavor and color to the whiskey and is considered part of the process.

Another variable in the process is where the barrels are stored. The barrels in the lower part of the building produce the lower grades of whiskey, whereas those stored at the top of the building, tend to produce the select grades. The difference appears to do with temperatures and temperature changes - the warmer and more variable the temperature is, the more it works in and out of the oak wood, picking up additional flavors.

The storage process is called aging in wine production, whereas in whiskey, it is called maturation. And, again, Jack Daniels does not like to talk about specific durations, relying instead on testing the product and deciding when it is ready based on taste. On average, though, it stays in the barrels between four and six years.

And there you have it. A nice little controlled process on a beautiful patch of land. Worth a visit if you are in the area.

And so the Whiskey Rebellion ended well. (17.1.8)

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Photos

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Jack Daniels Campus

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Main Visitor Center (and Sales Office)

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Exhibits

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Joan and Jack were the Same Size

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'Ricks'

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Charcoal for Mellowing

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Part of the Process

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Harrell House in theDistance, Distillery in Foreground

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'Cool Spring Water'

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The Safe Jack Kicked That Eventually Killed Him

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Original Jack Daniels Business Office

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The Fermentation, Distillery,and Mellowing Building

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A Tree Covered in Alcohol-loving Fungus

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The Tasting Room

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Back at the Campsite - Much Prettier Now

Comments

[Mickey]

Fermented
Now I'm not drinking at all due to the high sugar content. But I am "fermenting" your comments.