Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire My wife and I visited the Jack Daniels Distillery.....pics added

What a place.

550, 000 bottles per day

That had the factory on tv, explained the whole process. It was very interesting, the difference between plain whiskey and bourbon is charing the inside of the barrels. If I’m wrong, someone will correct me.

I doubt if they're still doing it, but Austin Nichols (Wild Turkey) in Lawrenceburg, KY used to conduct tours. During the tour they would allow people to sample their bourbon from every year from when it was green until it had aged 8 years in order to taste how the aging process mellowed it. 8 little shots of Bourbon in a one hour tour.

A friend took the tour and showed up at my place afterwards with a significance buzz.

The DUI laws are a lot stricter now than they were then. So I doubt if they include that element in their current tours.

Well ok

Thanks the pics

I will upload some pics this evening but there were several places that pictures were not allowed to protect proprietary secrets and customer safety

The difference was that it is charcoal mellowed by dripping through a vat of sugar maple charcoal.

The vats are ten feet tall and it takes 4 days for the whiskey to go through it.

Jack tastes exactly like charcoal. No thanks.

Bourbon is so much better.

Strange.....Bourbon is aged no differently then Jack Daniels

I’d like to check it out sometime, as well as bourbon county

According to the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau), these are the only requirements for the production of “authentic” bourbon: that it’s produced in the United States, made with a minimum 51% corn content, distilled to no higher than 160 proof, and barreled at no higher than 62.5% ABV in charred, new oak containers.

Jack Daniels is Tennessee Whiskey which by law has to be made in Tennessee and has to be filtered by the Lincoln County Process (the charcoal vats). Most Tennessee Whiskey meets the requirements to be called Bourbon also, but they're usually not labeled as Bourbon.

Did the tour guide explain that the ATF said the distillery can't make charcoal by burning maple trees, but the distillery just keeps on making charcoal this way.

It has worked for a long time and they aren't about change a thing.

The distillery is in a "dry" county. The guide told us that the workers got a pint (maybe it was a 1/2 pint) with their paycheck on Friday. You only missed payday if you were on vacation, or deathly sick.

They get a fifth the first Friday of the month and an additional 5th on Good Friday.

The charcoal has to be burned under a catalytic scrubber.....its now in use.

Our tour guide mentioned that they pay $13 per gallon in tax and pay just over $500,000,000 in tax per year

That’s fugking depressing.

I've been a Tennessee Squire since early 1982, when my FIL nominated me for it. I've been to the 'hollow' a couple of times and even asked to see my 'plot' of land. (As a Squire you are deeded an undivided 1" square plot of land on a hill in the hollow so that you are a true landed Squire.) If you're a Squire you can ask for a special tour given by a historian when you visit.

As part of the 'Shtick', they'd send out letters supposedly written by Squires about their experiences in the Hollow. In the mid 80's I wrote and asked if they'd mind if I started a Christmas Tree grove on my land to raise money for the local charities (just in fun). Next thing I know they had a whole thing going about the tree farm in a couple of letter mailings saying that some other Squires had shown interest in expanding the tree farm past just my 'plot'.

They'd also send out calendars every year with nice pictures of the people who live and work there. They use to send out some nice things from time to time like a set of 6 whiskey glasses I got back then with Tennessee Squire and a Jack Daniels logo on one side and one of 3 different Tennessee Toasts on the back:

"May you ride an easy-walking horse,
Sleep 'neath a rain-tight roof,
And eat high on the hog,
Every day of the year."

"May you always have,
Red-eye gravy with your ham,
Hushpuppies with your catfish,
And the good sense not,
To argue with your wife."

"May your sons be brave,
Your daughters marriageable,
Your wire loving,
And your kinfolks rich."

It was fun contributing to their news letter and writing letters to them back then, especially as my roots are in the South; my mother was from Ellisville, Ms and my uncle lives in Trenton, Tn.

All in all it's a fun way to keep in touch.

We drink a lot of Jack, I never thought it tastes like charcoal. I like it with water, wifey likes it with Coke.

Don’t they sell the used barrels to people that make Scotch, no trees to make barrels in the old country I think???

They sell 100% of the used barrels to other whiskey, bourbon and scotch distillers or anyone who wants to buy one for that matter.

Jack Daniels make their own barrels and only uses brand new barrels to age their whisky.

You try Jack, you never go back!!

Awesome!

Stacks of Sugar Maple ready to burn into char coal....
This is done three days a week



This is the EPA contraption they burn under